"East West and West East Guanajuato - Year 2013 Of Independence"
Why not?
Celebrate!
Newspapers scream narco-violence,
Femicide,
Drought.
But take a break.
2010 nears,
the start of Mexican Independence, Year 203.
Failed state.
Pakistan of Latin America.
But take a break.
2013's here, the start of Mexican Independence, Year 203.
East West and West East in Guanajuato,
The road with rectangular signs in sharp brown on white,
2013 - La Ruta de Independencia.
Get ready!
A party that will trump any - ever - in the Western Hemisphere.
Mexican Independence ....
It is Saturday morning.
School starts soon.
The bus, packed with those of color,
Indians, Indians, Indians,
Bumps to the commercial city.
Fathers standing, speaking softly,
Wives and children in seats.
Fathers, all have worked in Mississippi,
Alabama. Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Florida,
And their Spanish has the drawl of the American South.
The children excited, excited to leave their mountain villages
For the long day, excited to buy school clothes,
Their fathers' money from factory, chicken, tree and construction work
In the American South.
The drought holds.
Corn withers.
Dust kicks, and the signs,
Every kilometer: 2013 - La Ruta de Independencia,
And no one, no one, looks out the dirt-streaked windows,
Past the stained-green curtains,
With the commercial city nearing, money in pockets,
Children now in aisles - more passengers -
Babies in mothers' laps,
Dust on the signs ....
A year and a month away.
The party!
The party!
Mines emptied.
Fields exhausted.
Water low.
US work slowed.
Mexican work slowed.
Newspapers that are not on the bus.
TV that is not on the bus.
But the signs: 2013 - La Ruta de Independenica,
203 years, 203 years ....
And a fifth grader says she loves to read.
Wants more schooling,
And her back-from-Tennessee father,
Wife in seat next to his jeans and boots,
Wants school for the daughter ....
And he looks at her,
And his wife, and the baby in the wife's arms,
Not at the signs: 2013 - La Ruta de Independencia ....
The immediate, as all leave the
Jammed, sweaty and gear and engine-groaning bus to:
Stores with dresses, shoes, tacos, sweets,
Hats, clothes, fabric, paper, pencils, pens ....
Written in August of 2009
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