Thursday, December 29, 2005

Red Chinese Get Pasted on Own Territory by Former UTEP Student!

"Air Force Maj. Kenneth H. Bell, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss B. Bell, 1137 Baltimore Drive, graduated from El Paso High School, and attended the University of Texas at El Paso."

This we read on page 178 of the fascinating book, 100 Missions North, by Kenneth H. Bell, New York: Brassey's(US), 1993.

Pages 145, 146: Day after Christmas, 1966.

"Our first mission after the [holiday] pause was directed against targets in Route Package Five northwest of Hanoi.

"Our flight was assigned to bomb a railroad bridge over the headwaters of the Red River just south of Lao Cai on the Chinese border. The target was close enough to Red China to warrant extraordinary care to avoid navigation errors. A dispute with Hanoi was one thing, but incurring the wrath of Peking was quite another -- the analysts in Washington would be livid.

"We intercepted the Red River north of Yen Bai and turned northwest toward Lao Cai.

"I glanced down at my Doppler. Damn! We were only 10 miles short of the 23d parallel and [already] across the Chinese border. I started to say something [to his flight leader] but didn't, hoping that my Doppler was in error.

"We rolled in on a short railroad bridge spanning the narrow gorge below us. Ours bombs hit their mark, the bridge dropped, and we left quietly and unceremoniously. We didn't encounter any defenses but I felt like Chairman Mao was looking over my shoulder.

"We held our breath for a couple of days, waiting for the big Red shoe to drop. But apparently the Chinese government just chose to not make an issue of it. In any case, the bridge in China was my last mission flown in 1966 -- the next day was New Year's Eve."

Wednesday, December 28, 2005


Sample UTEP Campus FM Public Service Radio Add:

FIRST COMES THE HARSH, MUMBLING VOICE OF YOUR DUTY ANNOUNCER, PLUS THE LATEST TECHNO MUSIC DRIVEL BLARING IN THE BACKGROUND

Speaker One:

Great news for all you UT El Paso Students enrolled in English 3305, Childrens' Literature, sections 25217 through sections 25222, Spring 2006, Professors Schneider, Armendariz and Gmuca, from your friendly neighborhood University of Texas at El Paso student and staff-oriented ANOTP News Service!

Speaker Two, a.k.a. Your Main Man Willie, chimes in:

"That's right!"

Here Your Main Man Willie lays aside his latest bag of weed and frowning in concentration tries "to do the right thing" in his part of this critical senior-level homework assignment by dutifully repeating the phrase he knows best. [Actually more like the only one!]

Speaker One, by now on a roll:

Just by calling the UTEP bookstore at (915) 747-5594 anytime between today and Tuesday, January 17th, 2006, you qualify for the ANOTP discount service!

Speaker Two:

"That's right!"

Speaker One:

This is a limited one-time offer, according to protocol, in which lucky students of Childrens' Literature 3305 can request (ANOTP) both sensational textbooks:

Speaker One pauses to catch his breah, then continues:

This means a really good deal, fellow students and UTEP staff! Yes, indeed:

"Heather Has Two Mommies" with the equally sensational (ANOTP) follow-up block buster, "But with Little Jive'in Willie, It's More Like He be Have'in Three Daddies."

Speaker Two:

"That's right! "

Speaker One:

Both literary (ANOTP) masterpieces for the one-time price of $67.33!

Speaker Two:

"That's right!"

Speaker One:

But this offer is limited to the first 50 callers, so get your credit card handy, and start those book store phones ringing, (ANOTP)!

Speaker Two, suddenly starting to lose it, as Speaker One now shoves a script his way, one, moreover, with more than two(2) words in it, in direct violation of UTEP Communications Department protocol for senior-level Mass Media homework projects:

"That's right! Duh ... ummm... oh, yeah!" Then, with a pathetic look of desperation. "So what's with this ANOTP stuff?," he asks with a worried frown.

Speaker One, quickly picking up the slack and putting Speaker Two's quandary to good use:

ANOTP is: "Albiet Not On This Planet!" OK? OK!

Speaker Two, hands trembling in an accute attack of stress, nevertheless returns to the stuggle, now braver than ever:

"That's right! Now, uh, like, uh -- in my own words, mumble..."

Here, since your Main Man Willie is somewhat challenged in his reading aloud skills, "That's right!" being one of the few things he has mastered in five (5) consecutive years as a UTEP Freshman Communications & Mass Media Major, he has to carefully pause to stretch out things at first. Thus, he fumbles just a little bit at the beginning: "In---myy---a---own--uh--words-- ." But! At last! The light bulb flickers, however dimly, and away your Main Man Willie goes! And we can SEE it here below, while off to one side the ghostly presence of that legendary (male) Professor of Mass Communications, called by his admiring coed palace guard, "Don Tomasito, " gives your Main Man Willie his most gracious smile in encouragement:

Speaker Two, now bravely marches on:

"With my credit card in hand I'm going to drop everything I'm doing right now and call the UT Bookstore at (915) 747-5594 (ANOTP) and get both my little 'ole required multicultural masterpieces for the same low price!"

Speaker One whistles in surprise, and Speaker Two is practically in tears as he can't help smiling in triumph!

And then?

There's a thunderous round of applause from assembled faculty, staff and fellow students plus a ringing declaration shouted out by all present in the studio of:

That's right!!!

And now some space with which we would like to tell all our Filipino friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

And what better way then giving their rendition of the recent big liturgical bash followed by the mother of all holiday parties recently at St. Patrick's Cathedral in El Paso, Texas?

Simbag Gabi
ng
Pagdadamayan

Ang Lubhang Kagalanggang
Obispo Armando X. Ochoa, DD

At

Ang Sambayanang Filipino
Sa El Paso
Ika 17 ng Disyembre, 2005

Sa Katedral ni San Patricio

You can well believe that no matter how you translate this, it was indeed an impressive and inspiring ceremony, followed by traditional ankle-cracking log-dancing and good food and fellowship!

Unhappily, yours truly was still kinda burned out from the Posadas the night before, so I couldn't make it. But! I did make it in 2004, so I pretty well know the drill.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Feliz Navidad, and A Merry Christmas to you, whether singular, or plural!

Damn! What a holiday season this one of 2005 was: matechines, posadas, tamaladas, you name it.

One of the neatest things, on a purely personal level, were the thoughts written out in unpeccable long hand, by our good friend "Marshall." In these lines Marshall gives us some insight into his views of the real reason for the season. He also gave us permission to share them with anyone interested. So here they are:

"Some kids think Wow! He pulled a rabbit out of his hat! Or, Gee-whiz! He sawed that lady right in half!

"When we grow up, we learn that magic teaches us that just because it seems or looks so, does not mean it really is so. I try to apply this to everyday life & people as well. (I Corinthians 13:11)

"An innocent man was condemned to death, rose back to life on the 3rd day! Now THAT'S a wow! (And it was PREDICTED!)

"Oh, my goodness!"

Good point, Marshall. In fact today's gospel (December 27th, 2005) gives St. John's views on this as well. Too bad that as someone said the other day in Spanish:

"For those who believe no proof is necessary; for those who don't no proof is suffcient."

Friday, December 16, 2005

Rafael Loret de Mola. Radiografía de un presidente. México, D.F.: Editorial Grijalbo, S.A., 1988.

"El primero de diciembre de 1988 Miguel de la Madrid transfiere la titularidad del poder ejecutivo a su discípulo bienamado, Carlos Salinas de Gortari y le entrega una nación empobrecida y dependiente. El Nivel de vida de los mexicanos que dependen de su trabajo habrá descendido en forma significativa por el cotidiano abatimiento del poder adquisitivo y el auge de la especulación, favorecida en las esferas oficiales como un recurso destinado a la captación de divisas foráneas cuyos rendimientos se alargan gracias a la constante devaluación de la moneda y al abatimiento de la mano de obra." (página 13)

Adelante un poco...

"A La Quina lo combatí con dureza, como director del Diario de Irapuato, en los días en que buscaba imponer a uno de los suyos en la sección salmantina del sindicato petrolero. La campaña periodística contra el cacicazgo constituyó un serio dolor de cabezxa par ael poderoso dirigente. Y así me lo recriminó:

[La Quina] Yo le tenía a usted en un mal concepto, le soy franco. Me atacó muy duro sin conocerme. Ahora estoy convencido de que es muy hombre por la dimensión de la lucha que ha emprendido de defensa de la honra de su padre.

"Luego, ambos, hicimos una radiografía de los males del presente. Y la conclusión fue la misma: gobernar no es únicamente un problema de capacidad sino, fundamentalmente, sensibilidad. Y para captar el sentir popular es necesario pensar como el pueblo, admirarlo, comprenderlo y estimularlo.

"Para nuestra escasa fortuna, el señor De la Madrid se situó muy lejos de la realidad." (página 28)


Más tarde...

"Tras una gira por Yucatán, en febrero de 1973, el presidente Echevvería dejó olvidada, sobre el escritorio del gobernador del estado, una carpeta que contenía el proyecto para hacer frente al enorme gasto público, y se disponía la ilumitada impresión de billetes sin respaldo en las reservas nacionales. El mandatario yucateco, quien nunca dejó de ser periodista, consultó con su director de Hacienda, Efraín Ceballos Gutiérrez, las dispociones ya tomadas por la voluntad superior:

Mira: nos viene una inflación pavorosa. El gobierno federal, ni más ni menos, está autorizándose para falsificar dinero en lugar de controlar el gasto excesivo. Creo que esto será el inicio de una escalada crítica para el páis." (página 85)

Virgil a.k.a. Publius Vergilius Maro, to Alonso de Ercilla y Zuñiga:
a span of over fifteen centuries of militant latin literary tradition!

Virgil starts out his Aeneid (Penguin Books edition, page 27) with the following:

I am that poet who in times past made the light melody of pastoral poetry. In my next poem I left the woods for the adjacent farmlands, teaching them to obey even the most exacting tillers of the soil; and the farmers liked my work. But now I turn to the terrible strife of Mars.

"This is a tale of arms and of a man. Fated to be an exile, he was the first to sail from the land of Troy and reach Italy, at its Lavinian shore. He met many tribulations on his way both by land and on the ocean; high Heaven willed it, for Juno was ruthless and could not forget her anger. And he had also to endure great suffering in warfare. But at last he succeeded in founding his city, and installing the gods of his race in the Latin land: and that was the origin of the Latin nation, the Lords of Alba, and the proud battlements of Rome."

Alonso de Ercilla y Zuñiga reflects a similar theme in his opening of the classic Spanish New World epic, La Araucana :

"No las damas, amor; no gentilezas
de caballeros canto enamorados,
ni las muestras, regalos y ternezas
de amorosos, afectos y cuidados;
mas el valor, los hechos, las proezas
de aquellos españoles esforzados,
que a la cerviz de Arauco no domada
pusieron duro yugo por la espada.

"Cosas diré también harto notables
de gente que a ningún rey obedecen,
temerarias empresas memorables
que celebrarse con razón merecen:
raras industrias, términos loables
que más los españoles engrandecen;
pues no es el vencedor más estimado
de aquello en que el vencido es reputado."

Friday, December 09, 2005

La Guadalupana: Sonajas de jade!

Power point presentation by Doctor Mariano Allen C.
Knocks around a hundred of us all dead Thursday night.
December 1, 2005 at the St. Patrick's Cathedral Elementary School Cafeteria.

Ladies bring along some good food, too.
Good time had by all!

Invisible literary guests beam down and are also astounded!


In P.D. James' A Certain Justice, a worthy addition to any UTEP English Department Detective Fiction Class as an example of James' own peculiar How Catchum genre, we read on page 366 of the Ballantyne Books paperback edition (1997) of how Theology Graduate turned English Police Detective Adam Dalgliesh is looking at a madonna picture in an Anglican chapel.

"To his right he saw that two fresh candles had been lit before the statue of the Virgin and wondered what hope or desperation was held in their steady burning. The statue, despite the pristine blue of the robe, the golden curls of the child with the chubby hand outstretched to bless, was less sentimental than most of its kind. The face, gravely carved, expressed in its perfection a Western ideal of untouchable femininity. He thought: Whatever she had looked like, that unknowable Middle Eastern girl, [emphasis added] it was never like this." (366)

Next week: Dan Brown's convict clowns drop in on the lecture.

And the little street urchins in Fynn's Mr. God This is Ana.

All these people accompany P.D. James' police hero to quietly listen in on Dr. Mariano's power point presentation.

And boy! Is his real life celestial art work going to astound them all!

Your main man Willie



Heath Dillard: Daughters of the Reconquest:
Women in Castilian town society, 1100-1300.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

One of the author's concluding statements says it all:

"The long persistance of [Spanish] frontier society, ... afforded even ordinary women challenging opportunities to better their lot in life and to stake claims to substantial wealth and privilege. New prospects promised a fresh start, held out hopes perhaps for unaccustomed respectability, or nurtured a woman's desires for recognition as a person of no small importance. Expansion, the continuing need for colonizers, the scarcity of women at new settlements and a fluid class structure sustained diverse aspirations among many medieval women." (220)

This book is a fascinating read!

Second Half of Serenity Prayer

Thanks to the compañero who hand-copied this for us!

After reciting the last line of the First Half of Serenity Prayer, we continue:


Accepting hardship as the Pathway to Peace,
Taking it as HE did,
The world as it is,
And not as I would have it,
Knowing that if I but surrender my will to HIS,
HE will make all things right,
That I may be reasonably happy in this world,
And supremely happy in the next,
When I'm with HIM.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Red Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF):

Proud of their part in Mao's contribution to victory in the Vietnam War!

Kenneth Allen, described as "a Senior Analyst at the CNA Corporation, a non-profit research and analysis organization," wrote this synopsis as a footnote in a Rand study:

www.rand.org/publication/Cf/CF182/CF182.Ch

On page 356, Allen makes this laconic comment that Vietnam was "where the PLAAF's main involvement was its antiaircraft artillery troops stationed inside Vietnam and Laos, plus a handful of air engagements along the border."

We have added emphasis here, because of what the Soviet Russians will be telling us a little later.

In his footnote #846, bottom of pp. 356-357, of this same online version, we read:

"According to [the official PLAAF history], the PLAAF began deploying units to Guangxi and Yunnan to help the North Vietnamese in August 1964, following the Gulf of Tonkin incident. From August 20, 1965 to March 14, 1969, the PLAAF sent 8 groups of AAA units from seven AAA divisions, 26 AAA regiments, eight AAA battalions, nine search light battalions and 14 radar companies to assist [North] Vietnam.

"Altogether, PLAAF AAA units were involved in 558 battles, shooting down 597 U.S. aircraft and damaging 479, losing 15 AAA pieces, 4 AAA radars, 280 troops killed and 1166 troops wounded.

"From December 29, 1970 to November 14, 1973, the PLAAF also sent AAA units to Laos, to support Chinese road construction. During this period, the units shot down 17 aircraft and damaged three. In addition to aircraft shot down over Vietnam, the PLAAF history identifies three as [U.S.] Air Force (one F-4B and two A-4B's) and two Navy (one A-3B and one A-6) aircraft and 17 unmanned recce drones that it shot down over or near Chinese territory."

PLAAF Nomenclature:

Aviation (aircraft) - hangkongbing
Air cover - kongzhong yanhu
Deep strikes - zongshen kongzhong

Air Defense - dimian fang kongbing - Allen implies that this includes AAA, SAM and Radar troops.

AAA troops - yipao

SAM troops - erpao

Más que cuatro siglos antes Tepeyac, More than four hundred years before Tepeyac.

Temas Guadalupanos, topics related to our Lady of Guadalupe.


Cautionary Note: Sometimes things crop up in one language, even in translation, that seem to send a message that is almost prophetical in its content, but which is not so noticeable in some other translation, nor even in the original. Much less may it have been apparent to the person who gave utterance to the original thought. For whatever may be the case, what we have here below, courtesy of the online Spanish translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, seems to resonate especially well given that many of us are going to begin celebrating the Feast Day of our Lady of Guadalupe this coming December 12.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux lived from around 1090 A.D. to August 21, 1153 A.D., and had much reknown as both a writer and as a preacher. On day, while apparently writing in figurative language to describe the role played by the Church in uniting men with God, Saint Bernard drew from at least two different parts of the Canticle of Canticles, or The Song of Solomon. While he wrote his thoughts presumably in Latin, we are giving the modern Spanish translation below for the five lines of this entry attributed to him.

Catequismo de la Iglesia Católica #771.

"Qué humildad y qué sublimidad! Es la tienda de Cadar y el santuario de Dios; una tienda terrena y un palacio celestial; una casa modestísima y una aula regia; un cuerpo mortal y un templo luminoso; la despreciada por los soberbios y la esposa de Cristo. Tiene la tez morena, pero es hermosa, [oh] hijas de Jerusalén. El trabajo y el dolor del prolongado exilio la han deslucido, pero también la [¿ o, tal vez se debe poner es ? ] hermosa su forma celestial." San Bernardo de Claraval In Canticum Sermones 27,14.

Catequismo de la Iglesia Católica #773.

"María nos precede a todos en la santidad que es el Misterio de la Iglesia como la Esposa sin tacha ni arruga (Ef 5, 27). Por eso la dimensión mariana de la Iglesia precede a su dimensión petrina" (ibid.).

To carry this theme of #773 a little further, we have here the:

Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp 318-319.

This is what it says:

Catechism #773 (2) Mulieres dignitatem 27

"In every age and in every country we find many perfect women (Cf. Prov 31:10), who, despite persecutions, difficulties and discrimination, have shared in the Church's mission. It suffices to mention: Monica, the mother of Augustine, Macrina, Olga of Kiev, Matilda of Tuscany, Hedwig of Silesia, Jadwiga of Cracow, Elizabeth of Thuringia, Birgitta of Sweden, Joan of Arc, Rose of Lima, Elizabeth Anne Seton and Mary Ward."

Then there is a certain famous quote from Proverbs 31, for which we hereby thank a certain "Brother Mel," a dynamic up and coming young member of a tried and true teaching fraternity, who xeroxed for us the relavent passages of Proverbs according to his English language Catholic Holy Bible, most likely an up dated version of the New American Bible.

Here, then, is a key component of the ideal woman, English version:

Proverbs 31:25

"She is closed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come."


The equally superb rendition of this passage from Los Gedeones Internacionales, El Nuevo Testamento, is likewise precise and to the point:

Proverbios 31:25

"Fuerza y honor son su vestidura; y se rie de lo por venir."

In either language, the thrust here is toward a straight forward triumphalism, one, moreover, soundly rooted in the Bible and which can be applied to both the New Testament times, as well as to the Old Testament era. While this does not preclude other published versions of this key, utterly revolutionary phrase in Proverbs, this is the one that is preferred on this blogspot, that's for sure!

Saturday, December 03, 2005

China becomes openly involved in the Vietnam War: 1965-1973

Mao's warning to Washington seems to be grim: "Better keep your pilots out of the range of our batteries operating on North Vietnamese territory, or else!"

Commanding generals of upwards of sixteen Communist Chinese air defense artillery (ADA) divisions then feel free to begin waxing American pilots raiding North Vietnamese territory. And proceed to do so.

Author Qiang Zhai, in China and the Vietnam Wars 1950-1975, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, makes a good point when he tells us starting on page 137, "As one China specialist has perceptively observed, the deployment of Chinese troops in Vietnam was not carried out under maximum security against detection by Washington."

Indeed it wasn't! Perhaps the Chinese, a very astute people, had learned more than one lesson from their massive intervention in the Korean War (1950-1953).

Instead, in North Vietnamese territory, "The Chinese troops wore regular uniforms and did not disguise themselves as civilians. The Chinese presence was intentionally communicated to U.S. intelligence through aerial photography and electronic intercepts. The presence of troops, along with the large base complex that China built at Yen Bai in northwest Vietnam, provided credible and succesful deterrence against an American invasion of North Vietnam." (Zhai -138)

While America's pilots continued pressing home their fighter and bomber attacks against concentrations of Chinese ADA combat troops, much as they had in Korea, Washington buckled.

As Zhai tells us, an obviously worried "William P. Bundy, assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs, told Secretary of State Dean Rusk on June 5, 1965, that the Chinese foreign minister had drawn a line for the United States."

Author Chen Jian, Mao's China and the Cold War. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

The Use of Chinese Antiaircraft Artillery Troops

24 July 1965. "The Vietnamese General Staff telegraphed the Chinese General Staff, formally requesting that China send the two antiaircraft artillery divisions that have long completed their preparations for operations in Vietnam. The earlier the better. " (Jian - 225)

1 August 1965. "The Sixty-first and Sixty-third Divisions of the Chinese antiaircraft artillery forces entered Vietnam from Yunnan and Guangxi respectively." (225)

9 August 1965. The Sixty-first Division, "using 37 mm and 85 mm antiaircraft guns, shot down one F-4, which according to Chinese records, was the first American plane to be downed by Chinese antiaircraft units." (225)

23 August 1965. "The troops of the Sixty-third Divison entered the Kep area and engaged in their first battle with the Americans on 23 August. Reportedly, they shot down one American plane and damaged another." (225)

Early August 1965 to March 1969. "A total of sixteen divisions (sixty-three regiments) of Chinese antiaircraft artillery units, with a total strength of over 150,000 men, engaged in operations in Vietnam. These units, which entered Vietnam in eight seperate stages, were mainly from the artillery forces, the air force, the navy, and, in some cases, the Kunming and Guangzhou Military Regions. Following their experience during the Korean War, the Chinese military leadership adopted a rotation strategy for these troops -- usually a unit would stay in Vietnam for around six months and then be replaced by another. These units were deployed to defend strategically important targets, such as critical railway bridges on the Hanoi-Youyiguan and Hanoi-Lao Cai lines, and to provide cover for the Chinese engineering troops [up to 170,000 men strong ] ." (226)

Mid-March, 1969. Chinese ADA Scorecard: By the time their last ADA combat units were pulled out of Vietnam in the early Spring of 1965, "Chinese records claim that these troops had fought a total of 2,154 battles and were responsible for shooting down 1,707 American planes and damaging another 1,608." (226)

Hummm ... so, what was the protocol then, when an American hit the silk, in his parachute? Landing on Red Chinese-occupied North Vietnamese territlory?

Hummm ... to hold on to the US pilots until the North Vietnamese showed up to claim them???!!!

Hummm .. so, maybe Hanoi never has been lying, when Hanoi tells the US they're not holding any more U.S. POWS.

Hummm .. so, like maybe China knows the answer to all that ....

Friday, December 02, 2005

Jovita la cristera, una historia viviente. Jovita Valdovinos Medina, Zacatecas, República Mexicana, 1995.

Visita al Presidente de la República

"Cuando llegamos a México el general concertó una entrevista con el Presidente de la República, que era el general Lázaro Cárdenas.

A la entrevista me acompañó el general Macías y el coronel Alatorre.

El Presidente nos recibió en el Palacio de Gobierno que estaba en el Zócalo.

De lo que recuerdo de su recibimiento hay algo que me llamó mucho la atención y que nunca voy a olvidar.

Fue muy bonito!

Hubo unas palabras que me gustaron y no porque yo pensaba que el Presidente no hablaba como uno; Y no! él hablaba cosas que a veces no se oyen bien.

Yo me sentí identificada con él por su manera de hablar.

Cuando me presentaron con él dijo:

Gral. C. Oye compadre, (el general Macías era su compadre) yo esperaba que me trajeras un viejón grandote, una mujer bien hecha, pero mira nomás esta 'chingarita' de muchacha y haberles dado [t]anta lata en la sierra a todo el gobierno; ¿cómo pudiste aguantar tanto a caballo?

Jovita. Mi general; yo estoy acostumbrada a eso; desde la edad de 5 años he montado.

Gral. C. Fíjate! Cuando recibí la Presidencia quería darme cuenta como vivían los Huicholes y quise visiarlos; me fuí en avioneta hasta donde se podía porque quería verlos en donde viven. De ahí tuve que montar a caballo y nomás aguanté una tarde; pero ya estaba todo desgraciado! No más caballo! Como pude, bajé a donde me podía recoger la avionea y me dije: 'Pobrecitos Huicholes pero yo ya no camino, que vivan como Dios les de licencia pero yo ya no camino más.' De ahí me regresé; y tú haber andado tanto tiempo así; ¿dormían siempre en la noche?

Jovita. No pos a veces.

Gral. C. ¿Y cuando dormían?

Jovita. Cuando se podía; depende de como se pudiera; pero siempre unos dormíamos y otros vigilaban; yo, claro! como soy mujer dormía siempre más.

Gral. C. ¿Bueno ya todo esto, tu otro compañero, dónde está?

Jovita. ¿Quién?

Gral. C. Ese perro que salió retratado en las revistas y el periódico; tu fiel compañero.

Jovita. Lo tuve que dejar en Aguascalientes.

Gral. C. Jovita; te voy a dar un pase muy amplio para que conozcas las partes de la República que quieras; ¿qué te parece?

Jovita. La verdad es que no tengo muchos deseos de hacerlo; prefiero regresar a mi rancho.

Gral. C. Paséate un poco; luego te regresamos a tu rancho; también te voy a dar dinero.

Jovita. Pero yo tengo a mi madre y ya es persona mayor.

Gral. C. Pues sí! pero ya ha aguantado tanto; que se aguante un poco más.

Jovita. Pero ella no sabe si estoy bien o no.

Gral. C. Cómo quiera!

Acepté.

Me dió el pase y me regaló 10.000 [pesos].

Nos despedimos.

Pedí el pase para el Estado de Oaxaca a la tierra del Indio.

FIN

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Liras de Nezahuacóyotl

Hombre justo, soldado valiente, poeta, filósofo, y sobre todo, no sólo un mero rey, pero casi un Rey Sacerdote de su pueblo aguerrido legendario, los Acolhuacanos.

Aquí tenemos un fragmento de un tema religioso, para él muy preocupante:

"¿Quién es este Señor, Tloque Nahuaque, Dios Dadador de la Vida?" y, luego, "¿Y de qué manera podemos tratar con El, este Dios Desconocido?"

"... Y te prometo reconocerte
por mi Señor y Creador,
y de agradecimiento del bien recibido
de hacerte un templo
donde sean reverenciado,
y se te haga ofrenda toda la vida,
hasta que tú, Señor,
te dignes mostrarte a éste tu esclavo
y a los demás de mi reino;
y de hoy en adelante ordenaré
que no se sacrifique en todo el reino
gente humana, porque tengo para mí,
que te ofendes por ello."

Habían dudas que le castigaban. Sin embargo, tales hombres de viejo testamento como Job y el Rey David sufrían iqual a él. Para este rey justo, su sendero hacia La Luz era una verdadera noche triste, larga y obscura. Pero igual a sus antepasados del espíritu, los tres Reyes Magos, Nezahuacoyotl también estaba dispuesto para aguantar las penas de su peregrinaje hasta el fin.

"...Que el dolor que llevo es
no tener luz ni conocimiento,
ni ser merecedor
de conocer tan gran Dios;
el cual tengo por cierto que,
ya que los presentes no lo conozcan,
en que sea conocido
y adorado en esta tierra."