"Hey, Chica!"

So I'm down in Los Gatos for my 40th high school reunion.  I walking across the big North Santa Cruz, Hiway 9 intersection.  There's a heavyset woman with long black hair walking in front of me.  Because of her hair style, clothing, and the way she walked, I figured she was younger than myself.  (She wore blue jeans and dark t-shirt and her hair didn't look "done.")  As we are crossing, a red Cadillac convertible with some youngish men rolled by and one of the guys hollers, "Hey, Chica!"  I say "youngish" because the late afternoon sun was glaring against my dark glasses and I couldn't see them all that well.

So, what does it mean?

First, because there was a group of young men in the car, I assume that the targets for this shout were not only the long-haired woman and myself (wearing black t-shirt and black pedal-pushers) but also the other men and anyone else in a car with a window down.  Therefore, this shout could have meant any or all of the following:

1.  I am a rich young man who has the power and right to make noise in this rich town.
 2.  You are a Hispanic woman and therefore of lower class than I so I have the right to shout at you.
3.  I am really a cool guy because I'm riding in this red Caddy and I want you all to see me.
4.  Look, I have the power to intimidate women from a moving vehicle.
5.  I must have a lot of testosterone because I'm so hot for anything that moves that I have to shout from a moving vehicle.
6.  I am actually from a poorer section of the Valley and this behavior is part of my cultural heritage.
7.  I'm petite bourgeois but I want you to think that I'm poor because poor people have street cred and god knows I need some.
8.  I'm a gay boy and I'm behaving ironically.

It's impossible, of course, to know how the shot was intended.  And, of course, communication is a transaction.  I found the shout annoying and disconcerting and perhaps that was it's message.  "Hey, middle aged woman!  Men in red Caddy convertibles are annoying and disconcerting and I just wanted you to know that!" (9)