AHS Class of 1962 graduate David Macaray is a playwright and author who recently published a new novel about his time spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in India in 1967-68
Titled “How to Win Friends and Avoid Sacred Cows: Adventures in India: Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims When the Peace Corps was New,” the memoir describes his youthful time in India with disarming honesty.
Each chapter is a vignette of the real life experiences of a young American man who signed up “..to do something different..” and ultimately achieved that goal honorably.
Along the way, Macaray establishes deep relationships with a variety of local residents. By telling their stories, he takes the reader into a ’60s world so far removed from everyday life it’s hard to believe North Americans shared the same planet with rural India, which at the time was one of the poorest places on earth.
A ninth-generation Californian and son of Larry Macaray, an AUHS 1936 graduate who is also an author, David has also written for, among others, the LA Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Huffington Post.
As a playwright, he has had more than a dozen stage plays produced. Most of these were modest productions done at small theaters in and around Los Angeles.
David has published two previous books on organized labor: “It’s Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor” and his new “Night Shift: 270 Factory Stories.” More about David and his work can be read at http://www.commondreams.org/author/david-macaray.
