Edition: August 2021
By: Ruben Barrera
I live between two worlds; Travis County, where Austin, a sanctuary city, is located, and Bastrop County, where it’s dangerous to be Mexican American.
On June 23, 2018, twenty-four people were arrested in the quiet community of Stony Point, a Bastrop County neighborhood that borders Travis County, where Austin is located. Twenty three of the twenty-four people arrested were of Mexican-origin.[1] Mexican-origin people were being targeted by local law enforcement.
Stoney Point is a neighborhood where neighbors speak Spanish. Homes are brightly painted, and many of the men work in construction. Nestled in the neighborhood is a tiny Catholic church, Iglesia San Juan Diego. Leaders of the church stood outside the church complaining that the Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook, a Republican and former head of the Texas Rangers, was targeting Mexican-origin people.
By: Chuy Ramirez
Susan Law did not look well as she stood in line along with my wife, Aida, and others waiting for the clinic to open its doors. “I’m in severe pain,” she said. “I hope the doctor can do surgery on my gall bladder. I take Ibuprofen every night.” Ibuprofen is one of the many pain killers that those of us getting up in age rely on. Pain killers are often the difference between a miserable night and some semblance of sleep.
I had known Susan just as long as I have known my wife – in excess of 50 years. Susan was genuinely concerned.
By: Chuy Ramirez
Chuy Ramirez sits down to talk extensively with Leo Montavo, first Mexican American Mayor of
the City of McAllen, Texas.
By: Chuy Ramirez
As Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez finishes his first term in office, he shares what appear to be some of the most pressing concerns to the County of Hidalgo. Close to two years of his administration have been beset by the effects of the Corona-19 virus. It appears that the effects of the pandemic may be equaled or surpassed by the effects the Delta variant. It is especially the very young who are at risk now. During the week of his interview, County statistics showed more than 100,000 residents infected with the virus, and deaths to date exceed 3,000.
Alamo, Tex. March 14, 1941. The worst train-truck crash in the history of the United States occurred in the City of Alamo, Texas on March 14, 1940. Of the 42 people on the truck, 25 died and the rest were severely injured. Espirion Vela, 21 at the time, walked away from crash with only minor injuries. One family lost 5 of its members. Many were teenagers.
The late 1930s model truck was the pride of Don Jose Ramon of Weslaco, accordng to surving son, Joe Ramon of Edinburg. The truck and the Missouri Pacific train collided at the railroad intersection at Tower Road
By: Chuy Ramirez
On her sixty-ninth birthday, Nina recounted to Joaquin how Manda and Benancio had met, on a particularly humid, sweaty Saturday in south Texas. As Manda tended store at the corn mill and kept an eye out for young Nina, the lyrics of a tune gravitated to her, playing in her brain, and she unconsciously, quietly hummed its poetry: “Pasastes a mi lado (You passed right by me)…con gran indiferencia (with such indifference)…Tus hojos ni siquiera (Your eyes hardly)…voltearon asi a mi (noticed me)… Te vi sin que ve vieras (From a distance, I observed you, but you never turned to me)… Te hable sin que me oyeras (My heart spoke to you, but you never heard me)…y toda mi existencia se ahogo dentro de mi (and all that I am died within)…”
Newsletter Signup
Want to receive our monthly newsletter and be alerted to new articles and interviews? Click the Subscribe button below signup.
Featured Interview
Video: Leo Montalvo
Edition Archive
By: Chuy Ramirez
PRESS RELEASE: Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press is proud to announce the release of its latest book, Our Grandfathers Were Braceros and We Too, by Abel Astorga Morales and Rosa Martha Zárate Macías, translated by Madeline Newman Rios.
By: Chuy Ramirez
A former nun disenchanted with her superiors pursues a path aimed at improving the lives of others less fortunate. In part, that break with a strong tradition arises from a faith that liberation theology may provide answers that tradition may not.
In the movie, El Bracero del Año, released in 1964, the final year of the bracero program in the United States, the famous Mexican actor known as “Piporro” enters the United States in violation of the U.S. immigration laws.
