AN EXTRA GEM:
“‘Luke’s right,’ said [a cowboy named] Jake. ‘People dream of una familia like yours. Big, old, long dinner table with plenty of homemade cheese, carne asada, salsa, and fresh lemonade. Son, you got the whole world here….’
I stood shoulder to shoulder on horseback with my father and brother…. Maybe Mexicans [like us] weren’t bad people, after all. So, then, maybe it was all right for me to love mi familia. I had tears in my eyes watching those two old guys ride off, herding their stock….”
I really don’t remember too much more about the rest of my year in kindergarten. All I know was that, looking back, I could now see that those two old cowboys from Arizona were like a Godsend to me. After all the negative crap that had been pounded into my brain at school about Mexicans, no one in my family could have ever turned me around to believe that Mexicans were maybe okay people. But these cowboys had been able to do this. One, because they weren’t Mexicans and were Anglos; and two because they spoke Spanish as well as anyone in my family…. I’d also seen how much they’d admired, respected, and looked up to my dad and mom.”
Victor Villasenor, Burro Genius
