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About a month ago a new person moved into the neighborhood. The old man, Don Jose who is one of the original people in this area, he has rentals now that he is older, well past retirement, but still likes to work. So this new young man rented one from him. It was to be $800 pesos a month, but when he saw the visiting mothers car, which was almost new, he made the rent $1000 pesos. Don Jose always charges according to the ability to pay. Which is wise. Being very many young men in this neighborhood he was near unnoticed by my husband or I until just yesterday. As he, Tommy, walked by the fence that runs along the street on my property, he paused to ask for work. There are workers here, so there was no work, but a conversation started. It switched to Egnlish very soon, which is unusual for here, not to many speak it where I live. I was quick to notice his English was better than his Spanish and asked why. And then he started on his story, his past. Born in Mexico and brought to Long Beach California at three months of age. That was the last time he was in Mexico, unil now. His mother is a waitress and had several more children on the north side of the border and a new husband. He was brought up American style, enough money, enough luxuries, enough plenty. The first summer after his high school graduation he made a mistake, like youths can often make. At the wrong place, wrong time. On the way to go play ball, three friends decided to break into a house they saw the neighbor leave. He had no nerve for it and debated out front waiting, but to late. A squad car pulled up, the boys inside ran out back with what they stole and escaped. He being out front, like a target was easily picked up and taken away. Being a true Mexican, he would not tell on his friends, so instead of being given a light sentence he received two years in the state penitentiary at Lompoc. This is something his mother would remind him of on her visits. That she was the one who came, put money on the books, and would be there for him when he got out, not his long gone friends. He wasn’t ready for prison, he had been a good boy, not to experimental, stayed away from drugs, just a little marijuana, quite sensible. The stay there hardened him, one could tell. At the end of his jail stay, upon release he was suddenly taken to Mexicali, Mexico and dropped there late at night from a bus. He was told just before leaving his papers were not straight and his Mexican birth made him not a citizen. They told him next time he was caught across the border it would be five years in jail, for any reason, even just living and working. So he got a job picking asparagus and learned what hard work was. He has kicked around a lot since then. Just recently on Saturday night on the way walking home from a job, he had bought marijuna and some groceries. The police here stopped him, took both and all his money and told him to run. He said he never ran faster, he did not want to experience Mexican jail and the cops were smart enough to know he did not need to either. He has been here three years now and is almost twenty two years old. He has improved his spanish and definitely learned quite a lot of the ways of the land, necessity taught that. He misses his family and his college plans, but his safety here is more to him and his family then his being with them up there in such a dangerous for the innocent country.