Jose woke up on a Sunday morning and trudged over to the kitchen to percolate a cup of java.
Saturday night had been rough, not because he drank too much, but because he had to attend a birthday pinata with the wife and all his in laws. All afternoon he sat obediently next to the wife and smiled understandingly at the small talk directed his way.
He had complied with the tedious chore and could not wait to get back home to his couch and watch TV in relative quiet. Ah, but that was not to be.
He had to join the adults at a sister-in-law's house where he had to dutifully endure a night of karaoke from in laws who thought they sang like Chente Fernandez, Jennie Rivera, Lalo Mora, and (gasp) Beto Quintanilla. They sucked.
He had mentioned something to the effect to his wife, who took umbrage at his criticism and glared at him for the rest of the evening, keeping him in her sights.
Fue horrible, he shuddered as he sat alone at the dining table with the steaming cup of fresh coffee.
Then something caught his eye. Through the steam, he thought he detected a slight ripple on the surface. He looked at the clear flower vase and saw that the water there was rippling also.
His mind raced back to when he first saw the movie Jurassic Park and it came to him in a flash: His wife was awake, and approaching!
He detected a sound coming from the hallway leading to their bedroom and his mind raced . What to do. He felt helpless at the approaching confrontation. But then he remembered that in the movie the archeologist (Alan Grant) tells the kids being attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex not to move because the beast can only detect movement.
So Jose kept his hand on the handle of his cup and looked away from the approaching shadow in the hallway and stared ahead.
She emerged from the hallway and looked around. Horrified, Jose realized that she could smell the fresh coffee and that the steam from his cup had caught her eye. He sat frozen and blew slowly to blow the steam away.
Then she attacked!
"Que chingaos tienes? Ya sabes que estoy aqui. No te hagas pendejo!
(What's wrong with you? You know I'm here. Don't act stupid!)
Poor Jose. Lo hicieron garras!
6 comments:
Mexicans at play.
Hey Montoya, you're in good company. Scared shitless of his ole lady, the Greek philosopher Socrates laughed heartily when his abusive wife Xanthippe once drenched him with foul water. A biographer of Greek philosophers wrote that when Xanthippe first scolded Socrates and then drenched him with water, his rejoinder was, “Did I not say that Xanthippe’s thunder would end in rain?”
The caveman-club-‘er-over-the-head-and-drag-her-by-the-hair narrative is pure mythology. The mythology, nonetheless, affirms the idea that men are naturally coercive and violent by suggesting that our most natural and socially-uncorrupted male selves will engage in this sort of behavior. Rape, that is.
The idea also affirms the teleological idea that society is constantly improving and, therefore, getting closer and closer to ideals like gender equality. If it’s true that “we’re getting better all the time,” then we assume that, whatever things are like now, they must have been worse before. And however things were then, they must have been even worse before that. And so on and so forth until we get all the way back to the clubbing caveman.
But wait, Montoya here seems to say we as males are regressing into wimps and therefore the female gender has taken over the "teleological idea that NOW is the time to treat ALL males (payback time) with the cavewoman-club-‘im-over-the-head-and-drag-him-by-the-hair!!!
Thanks Montoya we need that...
At the heart of the Christmas story is a family — Joseph, Mary and Jesus — who cannot find shelter. They are forced to rest in a stable, where Mary gives birth to her son. Later, the family is said to have fled to Egypt to escape violence, refugees in every sense of the word.
Yet today we see families similarly seeking shelter being rounded up at the border. They might be given a place to sleep after being arrested, but certainly their treatment lacks kindness and compassion. Not enough care is being taken for their physical well-being, either, as numerous reports have revealed.
Last week, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal, who walked with her father from Guatemala, died in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol. We cannot say whether her health had deteriorated so much at the time of her arrest that death was inevitable or whether a lack of medical and other care contributed to her loss of life. Before speculating, we should wait for autopsy results.
What we can say, however, is that the current immigration policy from the Trump administration is both cruel and unreasonable. It flies in the face of Christian teaching by those who proclaim themselves to be Christian. More than any religious doctrine, though, this policy toward immigrants — whether those attempting to come here or those already here — goes against what it means to be human. It is beyond a disgrace.
As we have stated before, all nations need to be able to control who crosses their borders. Security does matter. Open-border enthusiasts in the United States are few and far between.
But having a secure border does not require a $5 billion border wall — or a government shutdown over funding that wall, as appears possible this week. Nor does it require the presence of National Guard troops for months at a time. It does not require separating children from parents. It does not require keeping people in detention who have family members who will sponsor them. It does not require an agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, that operates with a lack of care for the humanity of the people it meets along the way.
Security on the border does not equal cruelty. Or it should not.
The United States does need Border Patrol agents who operate with efficiency and compassion. It does need a foreign policy that recognizes how our actions created pockets of chaos and violence in Central America, the very reason refugees are walking through Mexico in hopes of reaching safety here. The U.S. does need to reform its immigration system so that people who want to move here have a path that is fair, reasonable and accessible.
Even if migrants are to be arrested, they can be greeted with water, blankets and interpreters. Many of the Central American migrants speak indigenous languages — they might be able to communicate in Spanish, but it is not their first tongue. To make decisions in the desert based on English forms, translated by interpreters into Spanish, signed off by people whose first language is not Spanish, makes little sense. What’s more, the Trump administration has closed ports of entries off and on, making it difficult for the refugees to ask for asylum — which is legally their right.
The late 7-year-old and her father were part of a group of 163 migrants who turned themselves into the Border Patrol south of Lordsburg — that’s right, Jakelin was taken into custody in New Mexico. It is our tragedy, too. More than eight hours later, Jakelin began having seizures and later died at an El Paso hospital. Her temperature was recorded at 105.7 degrees.
Whether she died because of the journey, lack of care in custody or other reason, we don’t yet know. However, we do know that conditions for the refugees in detention are bleak. That can change, and it must. To accept the current situation betrays this nation’s values and beliefs. Perhaps this holiday season, President Donald Trump should take time away from his resorts and visit a detention center.
Shame on the Trump administration. And shame on us, if we citizens allow it to continue.
I whole heatedly agree with 7:17 we are ALL immigrants with the exception of trump his family and ALL republicans.
And of course his wife she's not an immigrant
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