A Journey Across Our America - The Interview

Here is wisdom:  One must know from where he has came to know where he is going.  Louis Mendoza has applied such knowledge and is blazing the roads across America in search of the Latinization of America.  And from my conversation with him he didn't have to search hard.  From little towns to big cities he has stopped and talked with Latinos of all backgrounds. 

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with him in a small Starbucks around Times Square, New York City.  And below are some of the things we had talked about. 

He sees our 'continental ethnicity' as not just American as in the United States but all of the Americas - North, Central and South.  In the past it was one group or the other, like the Puerto Ricans of New York, the Cubans of Florida, the Mexicans of Chicago, but now we have groups here from all over Latin america and we should be learning from one another.

When I asked him about such words as Latino or Chicano he stated that it's okay for us to identify ourselves as one or the other.  "I can do both and understand my connection with somebody else and respect our differences.   Something in the US makes different equal less than...(we) are not necessarily in competition with one another...society is so competitious that they wanna say white is better than black, or this way is better than that way - different, should just be different."

He rides a bike across America because it 'forces him to go slow and experience the notion of migration;' an experience very different from a car.  He has noted that in small towns change is very profoundand and that new immigrants sustains the lifestyles of previous generations by enabling them to keep their buisinesses when their children are seeking new lifestyles.  In fact, smaller towns are very welcoming to immigrants.  This is a significant contrast to what we read and see in newspapers and television.

I look foward to a book (or two?) by Mr. Mendoza.  His observations are fresh and first hand; void of idealogies, politics, or prejudice.  His trip around America is as much as it is global as it is personal.  For only, he knows what lessons he has learned and how this trip has made him see differences in America, as much as in himself.

At this point in time I think he is over at Florida, and will start heading west to complete his journey.  Go visit him:  A Journey Across Our America, because he may have already visited you.  And if you are lucky, he'll be coming to a town near you.