lots of dentistas in mexican cities/towns close to the u.s. border. even with u.s. dental insurance, the costs in the u.s. are often quite $$$$.

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while not a perfect film, Sicko calls much-needed attention to the u.s. healthcare system. i hope a lot of people see the film, recognize its flaws, and become interested in finding out more about our healthcare fiasco.

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comfort is an illusion for most middle class folks living in the u.s.

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last time i was in big bend national park, maybe it was summer 2001, i crossed the shallow river in a small boat to boquillas, mexico. could have waded across, but it was only a few dollars, quick, and dry. the bean and cabbage tacos in boquillas were delicious, i must say. i was at big bend last week and a park ranger said how after 9/11, the border crossings closed down in the big bend area. you can go across the river, he said, but you can't come back unless you go to the international bridges that are quite far away (i think he said the closest ones are in cuidad acuña/del rio and ojinaga/presidio)... (this is now preventing the residents on the mexican side of this border area from buying groceries or anything in the big bend area because you now have to cross at those far away border patrol checkpoints. their livelihood was tourism and their location remote from supply areas in mexico.)

(the implication was that now, if you, as a tourist, go over the 50% "line" in the river, even if you don't step foot onto dry mexican land, you'd have to return via those far way checkpoints).

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the people in boquillas must be hurting financially from this... they were still trying to sell things (walking sticks, hand-sized scorpion and dragonfly sculptures made from wire, and the like for under five dollars) from their side of the river. was told it was illegal to buy anything from them because we'd be encouraging illegal crossings with all the consequences.

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terrorism as reason for this sudden panic to "secure" the u.s-mexican border?

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in talking to someone i know from upstate new york recently, i found it interesting how he seems suddenly so concerned about the "immigration problem" and brought it up as a conversation piece in the context of my living near the u.s.-mexican border. i find it interesting how he was not at all concerned or aware that i might perceive his all-too common arguments as anti-mexican or anti-latin@. that is how accepted the talk has become---many have convinced themselves that it's a straightforward issue that is only about tax dollars and "national security." and if i as a chicana (or a 'hispanic') think there is more to this talk than those two issues, then i am reading too much into it, according to people like him who so easily fall in step with the rhetoric.

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i think that the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are outdated. it's "liberal," "radical" to go to war. war and violence are radical forms of solving problems or perceived problems. similarly, it's "radical" to support a wall on the u.s. border. we live in radical times under the "guise" of conservative leadership throwing around the rhetoric of scare tactics. because these scare tactics work. the upstate new yorker i mention above is a proud 'conservative' who supports both the war and the border wall.

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ginsberg's "america"

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the price of lettuce, the price of gasoline, the price of medication, the price of lobbyists.

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the price of education. of getting it done, rather than getting it.

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the problem with the word "getting"

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art at the getty

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the 'gettin' place'

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is "getting" passive and/or active? implies a material possession attained passively. someone says, "i got this four hundred dollar cell phone," like he got a cold sleeping in air conditioning all night.

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i am trying to understand the relationship between power, corruption, ethnocentrism, and the almighty $$$$$$$.

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a poet-friend recently asked me if i was going to be through with the u.s.-mexican border at some point so that my poetry would become more "universal." although she truly believes she meant no harm by that question/comment, it makes me chuckle, her belief in the harmlessness of her "concern." perhaps she thought i'd find her comment helpful, a comment that comes with the assumption that someone who writes about border issues (revised: u.s.-mexico border issues) is automatically not going to be a universal writer. these types of comments are dangerous to young, impressionable writers and i can imagine they are made every day in classrooms everywhere. it's been a long time since i was one of those writers just starting out, but i can imagine that many young writers have been told to "get over it" and start writing about "important" subjects like forsythia.

i don't think i've ever seen forsythia beyond pictures before, at least to my knowledge (i'm no expert), and i couldn't pronounce it until i looked it up just now, but i recognize that it is still a plant/word/subject "worthy" of poetry, worthy of universality. okay, so this is not about the worth of forsythia, but it is about assumptions, my own included. let's write a collaborative poem to kiss and make up. feel free to add more to the title in the spirit of collaboration, but my half's working title is called "bougainvillea and forsythia get arrested returning to the u.s. after eating bean and cabbage tacos in boquillas." kiss, kiss.

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Photomontage of ginsberg's "america" with music by tom waits