My mother explained to me how beautiful it is over there in North
Carolina, how the land looks so fertile, so rich, so full of green spaces
emough to be able to craddle and support a good size family garden.
She told me that she asked my papa that she wanted to move to North
Carolina... for good.
"Nunca, en ninguna manera!" He said as he sits
in a rocking chair flipping thru the pages of La Opinion.
in a rocking chair flipping thru the pages of La Opinion.
So I asked her "why do you think he said not a chance?
"Pues, esque no quiere dejar el pantano atras."
El Pantano? I tough. Whats the pantano mum?
*As the story goes, me and my family have lived for the past 20 years
two blocks away from a house where they sell cocaine, speed and Meth,
a drug house. People go to this house day and night 24/7. Walk thru
the gate, hand some money to the local junky that gets paid with drugs
to run the place in the order for the muxer that runs the drug
house tp stay smoothly behind the scenes, and walk away with your choice of uppers to fulfill your fix on forgetting how bad this system is crashing down on you.*
two blocks away from a house where they sell cocaine, speed and Meth,
a drug house. People go to this house day and night 24/7. Walk thru
the gate, hand some money to the local junky that gets paid with drugs
to run the place in the order for the muxer that runs the drug
house tp stay smoothly behind the scenes, and walk away with your choice of uppers to fulfill your fix on forgetting how bad this system is crashing down on you.*
Ever since i can remember that house has been slanging.
The "pantano" is this space were all the local alcoholics and drug addicts
come to kick it and hang out, this "pantano" gives birth to a community a
community of depressed, frustrated and afraid men and muxeres of Latin@/Mexican@
decent. The reason these muxeres and hombres call this place "El pantano" is because
(according to one of the men que le dicen el Cuñado) that this place
they hang out in is like quicksand or atleast that's what they
translate it to Spanish el panteon. This place of quick sand is what allows these men to stay here a home base, a place where they can forget about they're oppression and exploitations of all flavors for as long as the alcohol, meths and other drugs thin out in their blood streams. My Papas fear of being afraid
stops him from giving his family a chance to move out of the ghetto.
community of depressed, frustrated and afraid men and muxeres of Latin@/Mexican@
decent. The reason these muxeres and hombres call this place "El pantano" is because
(according to one of the men que le dicen el Cuñado) that this place
they hang out in is like quicksand or atleast that's what they
translate it to Spanish el panteon. This place of quick sand is what allows these men to stay here a home base, a place where they can forget about they're oppression and exploitations of all flavors for as long as the alcohol, meths and other drugs thin out in their blood streams. My Papas fear of being afraid
stops him from giving his family a chance to move out of the ghetto.
*Dont get me wrong I think moving out of your community that's plagged by
drugs and poor schools is one othe most wrong things you can do.
Because you are running away from the problem. But to put it into
perspective my parents are and have always been in movement Ollin.
Because they are and have always been economic refugees of their
ancestral home land.
The fear that is imposed to the down trotted hombres in my community
is something that is deeply rooted in machismo. Having said this, this
place is also a black hole that cradles the fears and machismo into the
hearts and minds of the next generation of kids that play soccer, play
football, fix they're bikes, play tag and sell candy in the front of this house on a daily cycle. The solution?
You can't call the police because the police needs these drug houses like
these in order to have a choke on ghetto community. A choke that justifies
illegal police searches, intimidation tactics of the pigs that patrol
these streets, ghetto birds flying over head at all times of the night and justifies the bare essence of the pigs existence in our communities.
