Greetings from the Land of Enchantment

Obamanos!

Well, I'm thoroughly sunburned and still recovering from a day of political rallying here in Espanola....but we made Salon's online magazine (my daily news source) and we might just make a big difference in the general election!

It was fun to be a part of the 'scene' and it has been a HUGE wake-up call for me. One would think that I've lived here long enough to know that I live in a largely latino place; but I have admit that although I've known it intellectually, I haven't really related to this place in that way. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing really.

But in volunteering for the campaign and in hearing the way the campaign addresses local residents, I realize that my 'cultural' blindness may be hampering my ability to really relate to this place: its history, its people, its richness, its ethnicity. I am white, white, white--or gringo as they say around here. And my whiteness (or pinkness as a friend calls it) has always been a sore spot for me. But what can you do? It's who I am...but I did realize that more than 60% of residents in my county speak Spanish as their First language--even if they've lived here their entire lives. And I've been waking up in the morning with Spanish going around in my head, which seems implausible given I don't speak Spanish, but there it is. I guess I'm finally ready to learn to speak it (after 6 years of studying it-ha!)

So--vamanos Obamanos!

posted by Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa @ 10:55 AM