American Myth

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From where I come from, in Latin America, you grow up seeing America as a dream, like a Hollywood movie, bright, inevitable, the promised land. Everyone wants to get there. This movie is believed.

 

In Pledge Allegiance to the Flag, every face holds the same flag. Every skin color, every story, flattened into the same gesture. Is this what freedom looks like? I realize the promise and the reality are two very different things.

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And then there is Coyote. Where I come from, this is the name for the person who leads people across the border — through the desert, through the danger. He is also a trickster. He survives by his wits. He knows the system and he moves through it.