The wonder years
By Juan Villaseñor, July 06, 2007


“When I got my library card, that is when my life began.”
Rita Mae Brown

Adolescence, the wonder years, when one can go from feeling like a man, strong, capable and in control, only to be brought down by a catch in the voice—from man to boy in one failed sentence. Man or boy? Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Certain that no one else could possibly understand, counting the hours in each interminable day, lying awake at night, wondering what do to, why to even bother, since one day is just like the next. A disordered mind, a torrent of hormones, enchanted by all things female; not your sisters or those you grew up with; the older girls, the sophisticated 17-year-olds who don’t even give you a second look. After all, you’re just a boy.

You tell yourself it will pass, but it seems an eternity already—caught in between and with nowhere to turn. The small joys of childhood, a favorite television program, it all seems too childish and so pointless. Tears well up for no reason at all.

I was fortunate in my group of friends, we wasted hours and hours together dreaming of the day we would become men, free to rule, free of all authority—no one would be able to tell us what to do. That, it seemed, was the answer to everything.

And then, on one of those endless days of summer vacation—is it really possible that vacations ever seemed endless?!—when even school started to sound good, anything to break the monotony, a boredom worse even than morning mass. School at least allows us to be bored together.

In desperation I dropped in to visit my neighbor; he was older which automatically made him more interesting, and he didn’t get out much so I thought I’d do him the favour of dropping by. After all, no one should be indoors on such a beautiful day.

I found him sitting at his desk reading a book so my first thought of course was that he’d flunked a grade. He was so engrossed he ignored me completely. I cleared my throat. “What’s up?” he asked. “Nuthin’, I just came to see if you wanted to do something.”

“I’m really into this book, I just can’t put it down.” He pointed to a stack of books. “Help yourself.” I was frankly shocked. “But it’s summer vacation,” I said, with that talent for certainty only the foolish possess. “I only read what I have to in school.”

He pointed to his bookshelf and said, “There are so many interesting stories, histories you can’t begin to imagine.”

I don’t remember which book I picked up, but what I do remember is that from that day on books have been my greatest friends. They’ll go anywhere with you, and they never gripe. So for those of you in ‘the wonder years’ I recommend Jules Verne, Herman Hesse and Emilio Salgari. Pick up a book, it’s through reading that we understand ourselves and others.

New Fiction at the Biblioteca
By Gerry Camp

What I look for in fiction is a beautifully written book that takes me inside lives vastly different from my own. These five new novels, each the first book published by its author, are among the most fun I have read in recent years.





Finn by Jon Clinch
In this superb novel we follow the life of Huckleberry Finn’s father, known only as “Finn,” who emerges as a vicious, drunken monster. We also meet Huck’s mother, a former slave. Yes, Huck is a mulatto, though his father persuades Huck that his “real” mother was white. Finn, despite his racism, prefers black women, it seems. We also get glimpses of the boy, described as, “The children’s secret untouchable prince, their authority on all things mysterious and forbidden, the raiser of their antes and the taker of their dares.” The book is worthy of a place on the shelf next to Twain’s classic.



In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
When we think about life in a totalitarian country, we seldom think of the ordinary children playing in the streets with their friends. Nine-year-old Suleiman, living in Qadaffi’s Libya in 1979, sees his best friend’s father executed on live television, his own father tortured until he betrays his fellow dissidents, and endures his mother’s “sickness” which only gets worse as she takes the “medicine” she buys under the counter from the baker. This beautifully written autobiographical novel will be hard to shake from your memory.




Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
In what seems to be a coming-of-age novel but becomes much more, we follow the senior year of student Blue van Meer, who, following the death of her mother, has been traveling with her father from one small college to another where he takes up short-term residence as a visiting professor. She enrolls in an exclusive prep school for her senior year, a temporary stability her father believes will allow Blue to become valedictorian and enhance her chances of being accepted at Harvard. Blue befriends film teacher Hannah Schneider. Halfway through the book, Hannah is found dead by Blue while on a camping trip with fellow students. The police declare Hannah’s death a suicide, but Blue knows it was not, and in the final 200 pages, she uses her formidable research skills to uncover the true story behind Hannah’s murder.


Finally, two amnesia novels that begin the same and go off in unimaginably different directions.

Remainder by Tom McCarthy

The unnamed protagonist awakens to discover something has fallen on him, mangling his body and taking away his memory. He is awarded 8.5 million pounds by whoever is responsible, but takes months to learn to walk, speak and think again. His principal problem after recovery is that he does not feel “real,” and, using his unlimited wealth, he finds he must script every action, building sets and hiring people to act to enable himself to feel “authentic.” 



The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Eric Sanderson awakens to discover he remembers nothing of who his is. He finds a note from himself that leads him to a psychiatrist, who tells him this is the eleventh time he has totally lost his memory. He learns from letters he has written to himself that each time his memory has been “eaten” by a “conceptual shark” that feeds on memories. With the clues in his letters he meets a beautiful girl and a mad scientist who try to help him destroy the shark before it gets to him again. A totally unique book that I found hard to put down.

Give till it hurts
By Juan Villaseñor, July 06, 2007



I confess I’m chicken-hearted. Handing out scholarship money to eager students during the Biblioteca’s summer program should have been a great pleasure, pure joy. Instead it left me reeling and utterly numb. Interviewing potential recipients, talking to hopeful students, it should have exhilarating. Free money, terrific! Giving to those in need is such fun; it makes us feel so good about ourselves. I say us because the scholarship program wouldn’t exist without the committed help of everyone who in one way or another supports the library—being a member, a volunteer, going to the Santa Ana theater, lunching at the café, recommending the House & Garden tour, a purchase at the Tienda, buying the Atención, donating books, funds—all generate the insufficient funds that allow the library to support some of the hundreds of needy students in the San Miguel area.

So what should have been a wonderful experience instead brought me face to face with some painful realities. They come, these hopefuls, scrubbed and pressed, some confident, some timid; and there we sit, holding their futures in our hands, their success or failure. In this country that lacks educational opportunities, we at the interview table decide. To continue their studies, or not—how is it possible that this is not their decision to make? It’s ours and it isn’t the kind of choice many of us want to make.

Children and teenagers who might have 10 brothers and sisters, most of whom left school before turning 16 because the money ran out or because they don’t see the point in continuing; after all, there aren’t any jobs to be had. Kids who walk 45 minutes and then take a bus to get to the school. Damn! We don’t make it easy for them.

Where’s the justice in this? Our government pats itself on the back, announcing scholarship programs, but they never say how many, much less how many are needed. One young girl told me she wanted to keep studying to become a human rights attorney.

What rights, I asked her. “There are many things to change in our country,” she answered. “There is a lot of corruption. I want to work to change that and not change myself by becoming as corrupt as they are.”

How am I to deny this young girl her dream of helping others? How to tell her there isn’t enough money, that she will have to stay in her place, like her parents and grandparents who also had little or no opportunity, except perhaps to make their way north.

In short, it wasn’t a good experience, I wouldn’t recommend it. It tore me apart. But, as I said, I’m chicken–hearted. Perhaps it’s best not to get involved, to pretend the poor do not exist, after all, things are going fine for me. I invite everyone to ponder this and if you have anything extra, please donate to the scholarship fund. Some of these children are sure to make it, they will get ahead. 





Is the United States responsible for Mexico’s problems?
By Jorge Juárez Peñaflor

“If the Americans build a wall, it will be a monument to the irresponsibility and ineptitude of the Mexican government.”

Negrus

Neighboring countries can get along, as long as there aren’t profound ideological, economic or political differences. What choice do they really have: either get along or fight like cats and dogs. Naturally I don’t believe it serves any country to have bad relations with its neighbors, but it must be admitted things have not always gone well between Mexico and the US.

There is a lot of resentment which Mexican politicians have exploited to justify their own errors. If they don’t blame the Americans, then who will be the scapegoat? They blame the US for the lack of industrial development, the loss of family values—Mexican women, no longer content to be enslaved by men, are going to work—fast food, television, music, movies, American pop culture are all said to be destroying the tradition and culture of Mexico. How convenient to blame the US for the egregious and utterly selfish mistakes of the Mexican government and society.

History clearly shows this pattern; decaying countries must blame others for their shame and failure. Mexico has always had a million excuses for her poor and unemployed, but this anti-American rhetoric won’t serve them forever. Mexicans won’t swallow these stupid and childish lies indefinitely, especially since so many live in the US and they see what it is like to live in a country that offers the opportunity to get ahead, to live better. 

Mexican economic policy, along with endemic corruption has impoverished 80 million Mexicans. What choice do they have but to emigrate, to flee from the corruption, the poverty and the injustice of Mexico. Past and present administrations have relied on this flood of emigration and natural petroleum resources instead of working to promote agriculture, industry, art, science and technology—all that brings forward the creative qualities of a people and a better quality of life.

I hope we run out of oil soon so the government will be forced to allow the growth of a competitive and progressive country.

How is it possible that now in the 21st century the US feels the need to build a wall to protect itself from the invasion of Mexican workers who simply want to prosper and live a decent life? Whose fault is this? From my point of view, it is very much the fault of the Mexican government, but we need each other. Our strength will be theirs. The United States has done much to fight communism and terrorism, but perhaps not done enough to help their neighbor to the south who is certainly of great importance to their safety and stability. In my opinion, in the long run Latin America will be a greater threat than Islamic terrorists, as little by little and quite unnoticed they can destroy the colossus of the North.

In conclusion, I don’t believe the United States is to blame for the problems of Mexico. The blame belongs to our politicians who benefit the few at the expense of the many. If we are poor and under-developed, it is due to the corruption of our institutions and our own ignorance. Mexico’s politicians call the wall offensive, humiliating and xenophobic, and they condemn it. It is all of those things, but the fault is theirs. Apparently there are two infallible ways to alleviate our shames and failures: one is to pretend ignorance, and the other is to blame the United States.

Letters to the Editor, July 06, 2007



Editor,

I read the article on the new collage preparatory school with interest but I do have to wonder how this school will contribute to secondary education in San Miguel. No mention is made of Victoria’s which has been around for as long as I’ve lived here, nearly 20 years. She has graduated hundreds if not thousands of youngsters who have gone on to university both here and in the US.

Then there is the matter of cost. Private recognized prep schools in Mexico generally cost close to what the same US schools cost which is between US$10 to 15,000 per year. (About 90 percent of this money goes to teachers’ salaries). These schools are often generously endowed as well and do active professional fundraising on an ongoing basis.

The average teacher’s salary in San Miguel is US$600 a month with the consequence that while the teachers do have college degrees, they are inexperienced and unlicensed. The teacher turnover is high because you can’t long survive on that salary. That means there is little staff continuity so you have a crop of new teachers every year which is not conducive to forming important student/teacher relationships.


At US$300 per month tuition, no endowment and in a start-up situation, the school as a business enterprise is seriously undercapitalized. The educational results of this are significant. The school has to ignore important extra-curricular programs such as sports, a school newspaper, theater, music, etc. Students with these interests will have to go elsewhere. Students with learning problems like dyslexia or “attention deficit disorder” require specialists and their needs cannot be addressed because there will be no budget for this assistance. Students who are presently under their grade level or need temporary help while attending your school will not receive that remedial help for the same reason.

Next I have a question about this student who is going to do the high school program in both English and Spanish. Why? If future career plans demand that level of proficiency in speaking, reading and writing in two languages—(M)okay. But that is an extraordinary academic burden to put on a youngster who may have other interests besides schoolwork. (I speak here as one who studied Spanish for eight years in school) You are talking about a 12-hour day for four years. There are other interests in life besides school, especially for an adolescent. These interests can lead to a future vocation and also help to motivate a child to perform better in school. 

Then there is the issue of accreditation. The really great private prep schools in the US like Andover are not accredited. The story is told that when a parent asked a math teacher whether her prep school was accredited, she replied, “they don’t accredit us, we accredit them.” The US secondary school curriculum has not been revised for more than half a century. The math curriculum, for example, has a heavy bias toward civil engineering, not computer software design (binary math, the basis of all computer programming, is not in the curriculum, but solid geometry is). If the school developed its own program based on its idiosyncratic vision, it might contribute far more to education. Simply adopting what’s already there sharply diminishes the professional challenge for many teachers—the kind of teachers the Sierra Madre Bilingual Preparatory School should want. 

Finally, if we applied the nine questions the article says parents should ask about evaluating a high school they would have to remove Sierra Madre from the list of possibilities.

James T. Olsen





Dear Editor,

Computadores Pro Jovenes wishes to publically thank Brigham Golden for his gift of a working Toshiba laptop computer.

The computer will be cleaned out and Windows 95 in Spanish installed. It will be donated to a school, or more likely a child who cannot attend school due to disabilities.

For readers, the United States Computadores Pro Jovenes now has an address in Dallas TX to which they can send used computers. They will be forwarded without cost, thanks to Transportes San Miguel, to San Miguel for refurbishing and placement to a needy child. The address is CPJ/SMA Coordinator, Transportes Sam Miguel, 200N. Marsalis,Dallas TX 75203.

For more information or to arrange pick up of a computer please call me at 152-2621.

Gordon Jett





Dear Editor,

I recently accompanied my housekeeper to the emergency room at the beautiful new general hospital. While I waited, I could not avoid overhearing the talk of the other people in the waiting area. It seems the crux of the conversation revolved about the need of an area in the hospital for the people to meditate or pray for their loved ones when in crisis. I think this is a good idea. However, careful consideration should be given in creating such space as non-denominational or secular. It should be a place that can be used by people of all faiths. I am aware that the predominant religion in Mexico is Catholicism, but I also know that there are several other faiths as well as agnostics represented in the community. It would be wrong to impose a belief on the latter groups at a time of crisis, but most importantly the hospital is a public building paid and supported by public funds. As a public building it should maintain its secularity. I understand that under the Mexican constitution there is a separation betwe
en church and state. I hope that the authorities take the above into consideration and design a “meditation chapel.”

Elinor Sharpp