Loyal Scaiaholics know I enjoy telling everyone I don’t blog about politics right before I blog about politics.
But seriously, this is not a blog about politics. It’s a blog about tortillas.
A lot of us feel ways about the Southern border. Both sides are understandable. I have my own rich history along the Rio Grande.
Back In The Day, I took a vacation [a vacation!] to Juarez with a couple fellow reporters to chronicle the spike in border violence. I talked to a minister from the El Paso area who was building an orphanage for kids whose parents were killed.
We toured his facility, then went to lunch in Juarez. I was fairly new to Texas at the time. I may never have mentioned this, but I grew up in Ohio, where Taco Bell and Chi Chi’s are the most authentic restaurants [The Chi Chi’s near the Ball State campus also featured authentic karaoke on Tuesdays].
It wasn’t until I arrived in Texas that I learned “Tex-Mex” and “Mexican” are two different types of cuisine. And Taco Bell isn’t either of them.
The minister explained these wouldn’t be the finest tacos because that part of Juarez had been struggling and most people here were destitute.
“What is the deal with these tortillas?!” I replied.
It’s possible the minister was not talking about the tortillas. He asked what was wrong and had to explain that actual tortillas are made of corn, not flour.
“I don’t care for these corn tortillas,” I continued, causing the restaurant to fall silent [except for exasperated gasps]. “Has Taco Bell been lying to me!?”
I would return when Donald Trump made his first trip to the border during his campaign. That was the origin story of the Make America Great Again hat. I have no idea why I didn’t tweet this picture of the hat. I took a picture of the hat; I saved the picture of the hat; I figured out how to search old tweets to find me talking about the hat. I didn’t tweet the picture of the hat.
That does harken back to my days when I thought Twitter was for kids with nothing better to do, as opposed to now… when I think Twitter is for kids with nothing better to do. Hashtag: Not an Old Man
When Pope Francis went to Mexico, I talked to folks in Juarez and then came back back across because people had filled the Sun Bowl to watch his blessing.
The pope walked up to the Rio Grande and thanked everyone watching the service at the Sun Bowl because it made us all feel like one family even though we were stretched across a border.
“Wait, did I just get blessed by the pope?!” I started asking people sitting around me.
“Yes, now quit talking over the doggone pope,” they replied.
I was in Big Bend with associates last spring. That gave me a chance to take a fantasy baseball trophy across an international border for some reason.
In conclusion, my time at the border has taught me about corn tortillas and led to a papal blessing. There’s a chance, a small chance, that won’t affect the discussion of immigration in any way.
It was a good time, though. I even took the trophy to see the Marfa Lights.
