I Was Just, Like, Not At All

Many European Countries Are Fascinated With Minorities From The United States. They Still See This Country As A World Power And They Covet That Power...i Was Approached By A Professor Once At The Sorbonne In Paris And Asked About Racism In This Country, And When I Reflected On Racism On The Streets Of Paris - You Know, I'd Be Considered An Arab There -well, She Didn't Want To Address That...it Just Goes To Show It Was Easier For Europeans To Study Racism In The United States Than It Is From Within The Belly Of The Beast.

I Had Serious Reservations About Putting My Son In The Public Schools In My Area. I Have A Tremendous Amount Of Fear For The Future Of My Boy. He's Nine-and- A-half And Dark-skinned. By The Time He's 12 Or 13, Who Knows Who He's Going To Be Identifying With In These Days When You Get Shot Down For Wearing Expensive Nikes To School...i've Heard That If A Latino Makes It To 19 Years Of Age, He Has A Good Chance Of Surviving Into Adulthood. Up Until Then, You Don't Know.

I Feel That It's Very Important For Young People To Have A Sense Of History And Do Research And Don't Re-invent The Wheel And Don't Think That You're The First Martyr To Discover Social Injustice But To Take Advantage Of Previous Generations Of Activists And Find Out What They Did And How They Resolved Things.

The Language In New Mexico Is Very Different. At First When You Hear The Speech Here, You Don't Really Know What To Do With It, But Then I Just Went With It, Because As A Writer As Well As A Translator I Do Believe That Translated Words Are Not Different Names For The Same Thing. They're Different Names For Different Things. I Tried To Stay As True As I Could, So I Used Ruben Cobos' Dictionary Of Southwestern Spanish, And When I Went Into Spanish I Never Assumed The Word I Would Use Would Be The Word A Nuevomexicano Would Use.

You Know You Have That Zealousness Of The Young Person That Feels Like You Can Go Out And Do It All. You Know You Save The World, Save Your Gente, Save Women And Before You Know It If You Try To Do That You Will Burn Out Very Quickly. My Feeling Is That I Always Think That And My Advice To Young People Regardless Of What Times In These Decades We've Been Living In There's Always Work To Be Done. The Point Is What Can You Do Personally That You Can Live With So That You Can Get Up The Next Morning And Have The Strength To Start It All Over Again.