Hard Tortillas: Too Broke for Beans

ISBN-13: 9781537559797 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 150 str.

Enrique Romero Moreno

Opis

Tortillas Duras: Ni Para Frijoles Alcanza. While the story takes place in Los Angeles, far from the tomato and strawberry fields in Florida, the characters are the same. The struggles and dreams of the men are the same. And now there is an abridged translation for those of us who read English much better than we do Spanish. And even though time has passed from the first printing of Tortillas Duras, the immigration situation has not improved. As a matter of fact, in my opinion, it has worsened. Along with the constant struggle to make enough money to take care of their families, the immigrants now fear the political ugliness that too often results in families being broken apart, with the deportation of a parent. Most often their crime is driving without a license. Even though in most states they are no longer allowed to get one I encourage readers to sit down with this book and take a journey. Imagine yourself in a foreign country where you know no one, do not speak the language and have no currency, save the desire to make a better living than you did in your home country. Then think of the city of Los Angeles - huge, divided, busy and unfriendly. That is the beginning of a new life for Tururu, Yes-Yes, Coras and so many other Mexicans that we come to know in Too broke for Beans. From the illiterate father hoping to be able to send money home to his struggling family on the rancho to the newly degreed sociologist with his diploma now living in a truck on blocks - they all seek day work, a place to be able to sleep and eat, no more. Better things will come after that, they believe. Too much pain was part of getting here, to return is to admit defeat and question your manhood. Cry at the beauty of small gestures of brotherhood that the poorest give to each other. To quote the book: -The poor have no choice; they pay in prayers, and they never forget a single person who helped them out when they were in need. They pray for them every single day, to a multitude of different saints so as not to overwhelm any one saint with too many prayers; because the poor pray to so many people that one saint could not possibly help them all. So they pray to many saints, more and more as time goes by; and if they run out, why, they just invent new ones. After all, a saint is a saint.- Read, suffer and understand more than you did. To quote again: -In this country, they think anybody with dark skin is a slacker, a drunk, a criminal, and an opportunist. Yeah, that's what they call us: in other words, a threat, and a burden to society. Everything that goes wrong gets blamed on us. Our own children are too ashamed to speak Spanish, as if that was a crime, let alone to be called -Mexican-...- But mostly, learn what hope means and why they keep crossing the border. America. The beautiful. Really?