Dear Mexican: We’re in state testing this week at the high school I teach at. After the students finish a section, they can only sit and read or just sit. I did an experiment: I chose the cholo-est, tatted, pierced, non-reader and dropped your book on their desk. Students that never read, read for 45 minutes straight. They were seeing words that they use every day in print for the first time. They had as much fun with the glossary as with the questions. They were sharing, laughing, discussing what they read. Then I set the hook: “We’ll be using that book in my Chicano Studies class.” Best recruiting tool ever. That’s my personal copy, and it’s getting beat up. I’ll be ordering more for the classroom. Thanks again: you have made my job much easier.

Maestro Man

It’s stories like yours that make writing this column worth all the hate mail. The próxima question, on the other hand…

I’m a 23-year-old Mexican girl on my second year at a Cal State University and also work part-time at a hospital. I’m dating a white boy who is 25 and works a minimum wage job and graduated with a GED. We have been dating for over a year now, but when we were about six months into the relationship we decided to move out. Due to our financial difficulties, we had to move back in with our parents. Now, my traditional father is almost forcing us to get married since we have lived together, or dump him a find someone else who is doing better for himself. It’s so bad that now my white boyfriend does not feel comfortable coming over. How do I confront my Mexican father about us not living in Mexico and times have changed, and what do I tell my white boyfriend?

A Confused and Sad Mexican Girl

Dear Wabette: While I’m all for new traditions and the exiling of rancho mores to the rancho, don’t discount your father’s partial common sense. Primeramente, you’re WAY too young to be settling down with one guy right now—Dios mío, you haven’t even finished college! And while I’m not going to hate on folks who earned only a GED, a gabacho who wasn’t able to graduate high school when he was supposed to is like a Mexican man who was only able to eat 10 tacos at the last family carne asada Sunday—a disgrace to the raza, and not much of an hombre. Not only that, if you’re dad really was old escuela, he wouldn’t have accepted the two of you moving out in the first place AND he’d have problems with you going to college, period! So pay attention to your papi saying to look for someone else, but do tell him that the days of a woman having to marry the first man that bedded him went the way of the tequila bottle at my friend Gaby’s wedding. Finally, refry your humble Mexican’s advice, chula: there are many flavors of chorizo in the market, so why buy the first one you see instead of tasting all of them? And finish your education and find yourself a career before getting a novio—the future you’re saving is your own.

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