Tijuana Gringo |
Michael Thomas |
Martes/Tuesday, 26 Diciembre 2000. |
Siete de la tarde. That magic seven days between Christmas and New Years. One, two moments on the bench on Revolución before the Hotel Arreola. Our bench; but I'm here alone, now. She is far from me. In Texas, or in Tamaulipas, I forget which day she's to drive with her brother from Nuevo Laredo to San Antonio to their sister's house. Ay mi potosina. Te quiero.
I spent the eve and the day with my parents. All the family showed up, my brother and his wife, and my stepsisters and stepbrothers and their kids. Then the cousins and aunts and uncles all dropped by through the afternoon and many many friends -- my stepdad has a tradition. I wonder what tradition my father would have had if he'd survived. Yeah, of course Daniel was there, too, later in the afternoon, with his mom and dad and sister Maggie. Late, late in the evening I found my way home to Tijuana. That's right. It is my home now, after two years. It better be. I came home because I had to get up at the crack of dawn and go record a radio program.
You know something? I haven't told you, have I. Damn. Could've worked up an audience, too. Well, better late than.
Okay, here's the scoop: Nina Moreno (artist, gallery, broadcaster) asked me to be a guest on her radio program, Facetas de la Cultura. Because I/we won the poetry prize, yes. You know what I mean. Today she and I did it, live. Live radio! And a couple people called in! One invited us down to coffee, a friend of Nina's. He showed me some of his writing. Excellent piece about the old casino hotel at Agua Caliente. Come to think of it, I also write one of my poems in the winning manuscript about it. There you go again, Jimmy Carter. *grin raygun*
Michael, you babel.
The new president Vicente Fox Quejeda invited five cultural leaders from every state in the union to meet with him in Oaxaca. I know two of the people invited from Baja California. You guessed it, Nina, and also Carmelita, director of the Centro de Humanidades (where I met Maria, remember, earlier this year?). Lord help me but I am becomming a little culture vulture. Squawk squawkkkk.
*efg*