I found this book at a Half Price Books store here in Austin- incidentally it is my absolute favorite place to go on a date when someone has the kids.

Ted Conover did an amazing job of putting me in the middle of his stories just as he had. He is the kind of journalist I admire; someone who actually lives the life he is trying to learn about. In this book, that life is the life of a Mexican migrant worker. These men risk everything just making it across the border and then work their fingers to the bone for barely enough money to send home while they constantly worry about when Immigration is going to show up and deport them. We already know this happens, right? We’ve heard countless stories in the news and television shows telling us about all these people trying to cross the border. We have the convenience as Americans of tuning it out when we want to. Ted changes that. He goes beyond common knowledge and humanizes it. I feel now that I know these men personally and I wish I could meet each one of them. I feel like they are my friends too- we’ve been through so much!

What Ted Conover did was immerse himself in the culture. He did his best to blend to the point where he was sneaking across the border to his own country illegally. He paid coyotes and got cheated out of money. He ate or didn’t eat with everyone. Not only did he live among the men he was trying to understand, but he had the keen sense to figure out the effect his presence had on every situation. He knew that a group of Mexicans would not immediately trust a blond white guy to cross the border with them. He must be working for “La Migra” (immigration). How he was able to convince them he could be trusted is beyond me.

If any of you get a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it.

I just decided the above review of the book was terrible. It sounded sterile and boring and I’m not exactly sure how to fix that. (I’m taking Coursera classes to help fix that issue). I will, instead, tell you what this book made me think about and how it made me feel.

I am a Montana girl, born and raised. I fell in love with my Texan husband and I married into a Mexican family. I will admit, at first my understanding of what that meant was shallow. I wasn’t around any traditions and aside from overhearing one side of my husband’s telephone conversations, I really didn’t see that understanding deepening any time soon. Then we had a baby. I grew up proud of my roots (German, Irish, English, Spanish-Basque…ok so I’m a mutt). Now I had to understand my child’s roots. Don’t get me wrong, however shallow my understanding of the Mexican culture was, I was in love with it. I found myself asking more and more questions.

When the opportunity presented itself for us to relocate, I was pumped. Here was my chance to immerse myself in the culture even more. I would spend more time with my family and I’d be speaking Spanish better than in my four years of high school in no time right? Wrong. Life got busy again down in Texas and we were too far away in city life to be around the family and culture long enough for it to stick.

When I read Ted’s book (in my head we’re on a first-name basis- that’s how his writing makes me feel) I felt ashamed that he was able to accomplish in a month or two what I’ve been trying to do for 7 years. I felt a renewed sense of urgency to jump into everything that I love about the family I married (because I married all of them when I chose my man) and really try to be one of them- just a pastier more sun burnt version with a little less desire for menudo (*groan). I’ll try and actually speak instead of just listening and understanding 50-70% of what I hear. I’ll do it even though I have found that school book Spanish and daily use Tex-Mex Spanish aren’t the same thing. Telling my husband I had to go “duchar” brought many a laugh- I was just trying to say “shower”! Ted inspired me-I can make more of an effort to jump into this family even further Irish wit and wisdom AKA sarcasm seems akin to Mexican attitude and outlook in many ways.

A plan is currently in the works for a more full immersion into the culture- but that will be a blog unto itself. Look for that one coming Summer 2017.

I’ll leave you with this bit of Irish wisdom translated poorly (by myself):

Una mujer, un cerdo y una mula son las cosas más difícil a enseñar.

A woman, a pig and a mule are the hardest things to teach.

…let’s hope it’s just some Irish asshole’s saying and it isn’t true of this woman.

Cheers! Salud! Slainte!

 

Have you seen the movie Good Will Hunting? My guess is most of you have seen it by now. The reason I ask is because I started taking courses on the website Coursera. How are these related? Read further to find out.

Now listen, I am fully aware that Coursera has great information but may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you aren’t familiar with it, go check it out. For me, being at home all day with a toddler, having limited funds and working at night are not conducive to attending actual college. Coursera is kind of like going to a university and sitting in on random classes around campus. It’s education dabbling, if you will. Sure, you can pay the money to receive “Specialization” certificates, but where are those useful? It’s not a degree and I haven’t seen a single job posting that required a bachelor’s degree or equivalent certificates. I browse the classes and find the free ones loosely related to what interests me. I’m cheap like that- see the above “limited funds” statement. $49 buys groceries for a week, people…*grumble

For months now, I have been coming around to my renewed desire to finish a degree. Thousands (millions?) of “non-traditional” past/future students such as myself face the idea of going back to school with a long list of doubts:

-Will my decade-old credits transfer?
-Do I remember how to do basic math?
-Should I be parenting young children if I can’t do basic math? (oops-different list of doubts!)
-Can I afford to take time away from “normal life” for this?
-Will my husband secretly regret telling me he would work while I go to school?
-Is it worth it for a piece of paper? (I know it’s more than that-relax!)
-What the hell am I getting myself into?

Ok, so everyone’s lists may not be exactly like mine but still- close enough, eh? So, back to Coursera. A few people suggested it as a way to kind of try out a bunch of different that I have thought at some point would interest me. I looked at it and decided to give it a go. I started in what I thought would be a good jumping off point- a class called Learning How to Learn. I loved it! I passed it with a 99% and enjoyed every minute of it. I could totally learn this way- by being interested in a topic and taking a class to learn more about it.

Here is my dilema: Would you hire someone with the knowledge needed to do the job but no degree? Why or why not? College is so very expensive. Would a person who (paid the damn $49 and) received a Coursera “specialization” in a field after taking classes from professors at Duke, UC San Diego and other amazing schools be someone you would hire? Or would you rather have someone who did things the traditional way? What about someone WITH a bachelor’s degree but from an online school? I’m really asking this. I would love a few comments on this post- pros and cons of each. Doesn’t (shouldn’t) it all boil down to retained knowledge and ability?

This post is incredibly scattered which is an accurate representation of my brain at the moment. Austin Annie is reading books and taking free online classes to wake up her dormant brain. What should my next step be? Help!

In the meantime, I am going to be taking these classes because the brain is a muscle…and my other muscles will have a post of their own coming soon.

Thanks for reading!