A Fantastical Interview

“If you really want something, & work really hard, & take advantage of opportunities, & never give up, you will find the way.” -Jane Goodall

Introduction:

To delve into the world of perhaps, and to attempt to hone the imagination like famous writers has me at edge. This is an assignment I have been both excited for, yet slightly dreading. As a fantasy writer, I am exuberant. As a political human and student, I am nervous to see the extent of my knowledge and aptitude at combining the many areas needed to complete this assignment with savve and professionalism.

All that being said, and without further distraction, I would like to introduce my interviewee. Tacho. He is a man of many names. One of which being “The Fallen Hand’s Taco Master” (Urrea, 10). This is one of his greatest names. Another, labeled to him by others, is “Queer”. A word which I myself love, but was used against him, and has been used against me in a very upsetting, disgusting and negative way.

Tacho is the proud owner of the Fallen Hand Taco Shop. Where he works with the main protagonist of the novel Nayeli! Her friendship, as well as her realizing that most of the men from their village had disappeared, set them and a few of their other friends on the quest of a lifetime. The main goal of the quest...Rounding up seven men to be the protectors and warriors of their little village of Tres Camarones (Three Shrimp). So they set off to find their own Magnificent Seven, to take the place of the disappeared men who had gone north, and to protect their town from the many bandidos!

Unlike his impressive friend Nayeli, Tacho doesn’t have martial arts experience to protect them on their journey. His additions included cooking, leadership, ingenuity and knowing when to pick a fight and when to relinquish his pride to sacrifice for the greater good of the group. His bravery, love for his friends, and sheepish innocence makes him a heroic character to remember.

Interview Q & A:

1. What made you decide to accompany Nayeli on this dangerous quest?
   1. “Well, let’s be honest, there wasn’t a lot going on back home. All the men were gone! But mostly, I just knew I wanted to do something dangerous and fulfilling. So what better way to do that than to go with my closest friend? Besides, with the bandidos crawling all over my town, going with Nayeli to find some men to come back and help me defend my town was, I think, the noble choice. And to top it off I was a bit sick of asking the girls daily, “Do you think I pay you to play on the computer?”. Got to find something to get them to want to help with the customers.
2. If I can ask, what was going through your head during your run in with the officers at Aduana Station? (Pg 78)
   1. Wow, I hoped you wouldn’t ask that. It’s not a moment I love thinking about. It was a very intense situation, and a humiliating one. I know I made the right decision by staying fairly quiet.
   2. Would you mind kind of explaining what happens briefly?
   3. Sure! So I wasn’t worried at first, I even told my friends so. But when one of the officers started staring at me, and then accused me of being a drug addict, I really started to worry. Like, why would they want to mess with me? I immediately told them I wasn’t and they accused me of being on cocaine! Things escalated and the officer started touching me weirdly. Then the moment I dread thinking of the most happened. He accused me of being a prostitute, and when I said no, he said, “But you are a faggot” (Urrea 81). Normally, I would lose it. You can call me many things, but a faggot is not one of them! But for the sake of my friends I closed my mouth, stayed respectful and went through the rest of the tortuous “search” without causing any issue. I wanted to cry, scream and take a pan to his head… as well as his puny “packet”.
3. Do you regret going into the U.S. illegally? Seeing how you got beat up by the border patrol? (Pg 199)
   1. It was definitely not the grandest time I’d ever had! Things would have went much more smoothly if I hadn’t shouted out, “Mierda!”(Urrea 199). It was mostly a large misunderstanding, a painful misunderstanding though. But I think some good came of it! I knew I wanted to enter the U.S. again. They made me want to resist even more! They even asked me, “Are you going to cross again?”(Urrea 200). And I told them yes! It also put me in the mindset to get myself to a gay bar, which ended up being a fantastic decision. Which led me to meeting Rigo, a man who truly did change my perspective, and as you know, helped me into the U.S.
4. What struck you most about the interaction crossing the border “legally”. (Pg 233)
   1. “I once had a conversation with Nayeli about a man who constantly wore sunglasses. Another friend had chimed in that he “must have 69 eyes” (Urrea 23). I thought he sounded dead. So sitting there, waiting to see if we were going to get caught I felt almost as if I was dead. All my hidden, anxious eyeballs under the sunglasses, an attractive man at my side, and a mission to enter the U.S. made that moment unforgettable to me. “
   2. “The lady who talked to us also struck me. It made me realize how much seeming like you have money, or even just how far confidence will take you. Especially if someone is profiling you in that way. I know for a fact that if I had been looking scrounged up, I never would have been let through. It also felt strange to be the less discriminated against to the border people. They were much more worried about Iranians than us.”
5. When you told Nayeli you wanted “to go home”, what were you feeling at that moment? ( pg 315)
   1. A deep sickness in my stomach for my store, my home, and my true destiny. My quest was at an end. And I was ready to return happily with my friends.

Concluding the Quest:

Tacho, an unlikely hero. A person with whom many can relate. Struggling to be himself and feel belonging in a place where he is considered a “faggot” by many, instead of a beautiful human. I believe the writer could have made him a little less… stereotypical, but honestly, I’m just glad he included such a character.

I find “The American Color Line” to be an interesting topic to apply to all of this. When Tacho interacted with White Americans, he was treated a certain way right off the bat. It seemed like they only saw him by the color of his skin. He could have been from any number of countries South of the Mexican border. I find this to be extremely interesting that White people in the U.S. discriminate so quickly. I have a Spanish friend who’s mother is from Spain. Once, when we were together, he got called a “dirty Mexican”. His mother heard this and immediately went off about how she was most definitely not Mexican, and how dare they be called that and be racially profiled based on the color of their skin. Binary color lines should be changing, and I would hope they wouldn’t be recognized in that way, but alas, they still are.

Another topic I found to be interesting is from the article “The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science”. On page 14, in figure 1 they show the differing paths of mobility across the generations. In the book Tacho was treated one way, (badly and like he had no rights) when he looked like a dirty, poor scoundrel. And he was treated another way when he was in a BMW, with glasses and nice clothes. What this tells me is that many white Americans equate money with rights. And lack of money with being an “illegal”. And I’ve seen this in my everyday life as well, between my latino/a friends and white individuals we come across.

One last thing I’d like to mention briefly before wrapping up, is how minorities are treated, wherever that might be. Tacho was treated, by many, horribly in his own town and in other places south of the border, very negatively for being gay. And he was treated badly by border patrol as well, whereas, if he was white, it would have been a totally different interaction. Basically, humans are awful. We live in a hard world, where discrimination and abuse happen regularly, and I hope we all are doing our part to rid the world of those horrors. I know I’ve run out of space in this paper, so I will wrap up immediately. Thank you for reading my fantastical account based on Luis Alberto Urrea’s writings. “Death will be a great relief. No more interviews.” -Jack Handy. Signed, Dawson Whitaker.