An excerpt:
Not everyone shares in the new abundance. On the west and south of the city (where the poor always seem to find themselves) live the original inhabitants of this City Different, the native Mexican-Americans, that mestizo mixture of Indian and Spanish who never quite succeed in adapting, who never quite catch up. They brood among their flat-roof slums and junked automobiles, surviving on part-time employment and full-time welfare, breeding too many babies, training too many criminals, dreaming too many bitter dreams.
Indifference on the white people’s side, envy and hate on the other. Someday soon the lovely old town of Holy Faith will explode in class warfare, a warfare made even uglier by cultural incompatibility and the racial divide.
Polite people do not talk about such matters. Strolling about the icy streets last November, I too preferred to think of sweeter things. The volcano will erupt soon enough; why spoil the present? Enjoy, enjoy, they cried in Pompeii, unto and into the Latter Days.
To read more of Ed Abbey’s last article, click the image below:
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.