Border Slices in Engish
Or
“Fumando” in Tex-Mex
Or “Hirviendo” en Espanol
…and the high school cellist in Matamoros buys tacos when school is out. His cello is next to him in a dark case. A classmate is between the cello and the boy. I tell him a famous cellist, Carlos Prieto, is coming to the Fine Arts Center in Brownsville Sunday night. “I can’t come. I’d like to, but I don’t have a crossing card.”
I fume. By all means keep the boy and maybe his classmate from crossing, and, yes, we’ll all be safer. Sure!
…several students missed my classes this week, involved they are in looking at the dead – seeing if relatives could be among them – near San Fernando. Meanwhile, the cellist will play, and the new arts center in Reynosa has opened.
…at a soccer game, the National Anthem is played. I quietly stand, my cap over my heart. A group of teenage fans talk during the anthem; they are restless and also laughing.
I fume. I know if I did that in Mexico I would be pummeled.
…and as the game starts, the same fans, all boys, chant “nina” at an opponent when he falls and is hurt.
I fume. I wonder if there is one boy among them who would say that is sexist!
…and the next day, when I relate the anthem and chant stories, a student tells me, “That is nothing. I’ve heard fans chant female body parts at fallen players.”
I fume. Was there one boy, or man, during the chants who would urge silence?
…the stores are full of empty egg shells, “cascarones” for Easter. I ask if all the yolks are used after being drained, or are they discarded as garbage. Some say they are used in baking.
I hope so.
…and with temperatures 100-degrees F or better, and winds above 40 miles per hour, and gas nearing four dollars a gallon – in Texas and Tamaulipas – the chocolaty Rio Grande/Rio Bravo flows to the gulf, Easter and Passover and deeper Spring, even early Summer near, and a new drought has been established, dust, cracked and dry earth, and bluebonnets and sunflowers glow, soon, though to seed ….
Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky
Inspired by Gene Novogrodsky
