Our home

I remember when I was younger, I couldn't wait to get out of here.

There were several reasons why I wanted to leave.

For one, I was embarrassed of my home town.  I felt I was better than the people who lived here and to me, there was not much to really brag about.

We had no mountains, no beaches, no clubs, and in short, no life.

Yet, when I got to college, I was amazed at how other people were amazed about where I came from.

Some people thought I came from Mexico because I spoke Spanish.

Other just wanted to hear me describe where I was from, and when they would hear about how close we lived to the border, they just found that fascinating.

"It must be awesome to be the link to two worlds!"  One guy exclaimed.  "Imagine that!  I bet you never saw it that way, but, you are the glue that holds these two countries (Mexico and the USA) together!"

He was right.  I never saw it like that.

As time went on, I would hear other people talk about where they came from.  They made their home towns sound like paradise, and a small part of me was jealous.  I wish I could describe my home town like they did, but I just didn't see how.

But there's a saying that says that you don't know what you have until you lose it.

Something similar to that happened to me, except, I didn't lose it.

What happened was that I didn't know what I had until I had to defend it.

It was when I learned the meaning of "coming in touch with your roots".

So maybe we didn't have mountains and beaches and clubs, but we had culture and pride and history.

We had, and continue to have, like Hannah Montana likes to sing, the best of both worlds.

Not only was there the rich American culture of English speaking residents, who loved their American football and pizza and patriotic holidays, but we also had the Spanish speaking residents, who loved their futbol (soccer), Mexican food, and Mexican holidays.

On top of that, we have our own language - Spanglish!

I remember this one guy from Jamaica who got up from his table of friends and came and sat down at our table of friends and just stared at my group of friends, as we talked amongst each other, in awe.  When we asked him what he found so interesting, he would just start laughing in amazement claiming that he had never heard someone who could switch so easily between languages like they were one and the same!

So in time, I learned to be proud of where I came from, and my eyes were opened to just how lucky I am to have come from where I do - the Texas/Mexico border!

Here, my friend, romo0012, highlights just some of the beautiful history we have here on the Texas/Mexico border:



La Lomita, a few years back, was experiencing some major controversy when they wanted to build a wall that would have locked these historic building behind border walls and on the Mexico side.

People who lived here, who would also have been locked behind these border walls, decided to protest, and I had the honor of actually participating in this protest, and I say honor, even though it was unfortunate, but honor because I have never seen our communities so united to defend what we saw as an atrocities.


Here is a video and map to the rally against the border wall that took place in La Lomita Park in Mission, Texas back in 2007:




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Now, look at how close those houses are, and to think that these are the people on the front line fighting a border wall.

Don't you think they'd be in support of one if they were really scared for their lives?

Alas, that is all I have for today.  I haven't really done much but laze around the house.

The most interesting that has happened is that I've been seeing many baby snakes out lately.  That's about as scary as it gets, as I have to walk these roads to get to my mothers house, and sometimes you just can't see these snakes in the dark!

But, until next time...