by Dan Matheny

Created on: January 21, 2009

You cannot understand them. You cannot know them. It goes beyond understanding Spanish, for they are all so very different. One may be wild, and untamed. One may be mild and restrained. Some of them know Spanish as an original language, and some don't know a word, and will be asking you to translate a song that was written in language. There is no knowing them, no more than one can know an Anglo, as we are called.

You see, I am in San Antonio, and have been so for the last few months. I could be here another 10 years, and I would still not know them. They like to stay up till all hours of the night, and say everything under the sun, and watch pornography - for they remain a hot-blooded people - and yet are as devout of Christians as you will ever find. They love beer, pot, cocaine, heroin, and everything else they can get their hands on. They whistle and hoot and holler at the girls they see, and they make complete fools of themselves. Hispanic men are over-grown juveniles, truth be known. They'll readily admit that they'll cut your throat over money. Not only you, but your family as well.

For some reason, I've fallen quite in love with this culture in South Texas. I will not disown such an intelligent race of people. Yeh, they like the Spurs, and we have even discussed forming a basketball team of our own. To play the biased Austin guys that think they hang the moon. I'm in charge of a crew of Tejanos, as we are called. We're painters, and we are also musicians, and otherwise regular guys. In the beginning of the history of Texas, Anglos and Hispanics joined together to declare independence from an evil dictatorship out of Mexico. Nothing has really changed. I am not in danger because I am Anglo. I am accepted as they readily accepted Sam Houston's leadership so many years ago.

They love flowers, bar-b-ques, and dogs. They love their women, and more women if they can get them. They love their cars and their trucks, their parties, and their quaint little places called "icehouses" and "cafes". To understand Hispanic culture, you have to get into the local scene. I don't expect to find the same thing in Los Angeles as I do in San Antonio, for they really are different wherever you go. It's amazing how they switch from Spanish to English so easily. I was on some sort of a soap box about getting our grammar right, regardless of which language we spoke. That made absolutely no impact at all. In Spanish, you are not supposed to use the pronoun "tu" unless the person

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