J.E. #10

Characters at the Border Summit:
1. Mama Chona
2. Ivon Villa
3. Lauren Adrian
4. Rudy Robles
5. Felix Angel

Host: Speedy Gonzalez

SG: "Bienvenid@s a the First Annual Border Summit in Denver, Colorado (?). As yall already know, this weekend will consist of various different workshops, lecture/presentations, seminars and caucuses all organized to fit the border dwellers' interests and needs. Being as this is the first seminar del fin de semana, I will be facilitating a dialogue about borders. Ahora, para empezar, los dejo con una pregunta, seemingly facil de responder, pero ahi veremos....: Where are you from? Let's go around in a circle and say where we're from."

MC: "I am from Mexico. I am American."

IV: "I.... am conflicted with this question. I am originally from El Paso, the border town that is situated on the U.S. side of the El Paso-Juarez border so... I am kind of from both places. At the same time though, I currently reside in Los Angeles with my wife, Brigit. Los Angeles is also my home. I am from all of these places..."

LA: "Umm... I write for the Chicago Sentinel and I live there but originally ,I am from El Paso."

RR: "I was born in East L.A."

FA: " I am from the Texas-Mexico border. Not too far from El Paso."

SG: "Bueno pues, that was simple. Pero now think, where are you REALLY from? De adonde vienen? Adonde van? Que se llevan con ustedes?"

MC: "Porque nos haces tantas preguntas estupidas? No entiendo porque todo esto me deberia importar. Es mas, yo no conozco a esta gente, ni las quiero conocer. Par de pochos maleducados."

RR: "Hey man, I'm not a pocho. I don't even speak Spanish. I'm all American ese."

IV: "Disculpe Doña, no cree que deberíamos respetar los esfuerzos de nuestro compañero Speedy. En realidad, estas son conversaciones que tenemos que tener en nuestras casas con nuestras familias y nuestros amigos. Solo así nos podremos liberar de las fronteras que nos han oprimido por tanto tiempo."

MC: "Y tu que, marimacha? Tu no sabes lo que es la verdadera familia. Tu nunca tendras una. Eres una desgracia ante Dios y tu familia. Ni el Espiritu Santo te puede ayudar ya que te crees bien hombre."

FA: "Mama, dejala en paz. Ella solo quiere que todos nos llevemos bien. We're going to be conviviendo con one another the whole weekend. Es una oportunidad para aprender de nuestros y nuestras compañeras/os."

MC: "Y tu Felix. Te he criado bien. O hablas Español i hablas Ingles. No quiero que te comportes como estos pochos desgraciados. Tu eres de la familia Angel. Respeta a tu familia."


LA: "To be honest, I didn't catch much of what was just said but I do believe that there are a lot of things we don't talk about that we should. Like the murders in Juarez. I'm a reporter. I'm Mexican and I feel that because this is affecting women from my homeland, I should know. I feel the responsibility to bring this issue to the public eye, but it's not talked about. Juts like border issues are not talked about. It took my involvement with one of the survivors of these attempted murders to face what I has long been running from-- my Mexican heritage. If we're talking about internal borders, I know I have crossed one for sure."

RR: "Man these borders are dumb. They held me up in Tijuana not long ago for over a week because I looked 'illegal'. What is that about? I told them where I'm from, I told them I went to Roosevelt high school and they still didn't believe me. Some bullshit man."

SG: "And how did that make you feel Rudy? What if you all had had to go through situations like that where you were racially profiled and treated less than as a result?"

MC: "Ay no. Yo por eso no me junto con la gente que no sabe valorar el nombre respetable de mi familia."

IV: "I go through that every day. Not just because I am a woman of color, on top of that, I'm a lesbian. I have a wife and we are planning on adopting a baby from Juarez. That's how I ended up researching on the femicides as well. Surprised I didn't see you out there Lauren."

LA: "Yeah, it to me a while to really get as invested as I wanted to. Unfortunately, but I guess fortunately as well, after my co-worker Diaz's death, I took over his newspaper and I haven't stepped back from the issue since."

FA: "Que bueno. I congratulate the both of you. Keep doing the good work."


RR: "To be real, that whole experience of being deported and put on that bus with those mojados was embarrassing. None of them spoke good English and I don't speak Spanish. It was hard. Eventually I made it back to my barrio and now that I think about it.... I guess it was still a good experience. I mean, I made some homies and I got to know a little more about what my family had to go through to get here in the first place. Born in East L.A. or not, I have roots that stretch beyond the border. Orale..."

MC: "Ay Felix. No se porque me arrastras contigo a estas cosas. Solo los imbeciles vienen a estas cosas. Nada mas me quitan el tiempo. Seguro que hasta me quieren sacar dinero esta gente mugrosa. Sabes que, ya me voy. Si eres buen hijo y respetas a tu madre, me llevaras a la casa ahora mismo."

FA: "Si madre, como usted diga. I'm sorry yall, mi mama manda. It was such a pleasure to get to know all of you even if it only was for a short while. Hasta la proxima."

and so... felix and mama chona walk out. felix never makes it to the next border summit.
with mama chona out of the picture, the rest of the border dwerllers' continue carrying out a fruitful conversation about the internal and external borders they face on a daily basis.


THE END.

...maybe this will be a youtube series one day...