What La Migra does not know-- what it perhaps cannot afford to know--is the more human side of the men and women it arrests, the drama of their lives

How to know them? It seemed important to move beyon newspaper coverage. The truly meaningful things about a people are not learned by conducting an interview, gathering statistics, or watching them on the news, but by going out and living with them. To get to know Mexicans you need to speak their language, be willing to put up with living conditions less comfortable than our own, especially if you look and were raised as differently from them as I was, you need to believe in the subversive idea that a human is a human, and human beings everywhere, with a little effort, can come to understand and even like each other.

-Ted Conover, "Coyotes".

Mikhail pointed to a young woman of Arab appearance. She turned to a man on his own, on the other side of the room.

"Have you ever failed to get an erection when you've been to bed with a woman?"

Everyone laughed. The man, however, avoided giving a direct answer.

"Are you asking that because your boyfriend is impotent?"

..."No, no he's not," said the girl firmly. "But it has occassionally happened to him. And I know that if you have taken my question seriously, your answer would have been 'Yes, I have.' All men, in all cultures and countries, independent of any feelings of love or sexual attraction, have all experienced impotence at one time or another, often when they're with the person they most desire. It's normal."

..."But the story we're told is that all men can always get an erection. When he can't, the man feels useless, and the woman is convinced she's isn't attractive enough to arouse him. Since its a taboo subject, he can't talk to his friends about it. He tells the woman the old lie, 'It's never happened to me before.' He feels ashamed of himself and often runs away from someone wth whom he could have had a really good relationship, if only he allowed himself a second, third, or fourth chance. If he had trusted more in the love of his friends, if he had told the truth, he would have found out that he wasn't the only one. If he had trusted more in the love of the woman, he would not have felt humiliated."


ZAHIR
Paulo Coelho

some of my books for next quarter!!!

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America
Majority-Minority Relations
The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women
Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites?: The Asian Ethnic Experience Today
Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970
The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century


awesome.

friends only, pendejos.