we do the best we can here--
--but hey, public education these days is a bit of a battleground.
his record shows that he's a good student.
we haven't had any serious violence, if that's what you mean. we've got a pretty lively mix though--you walk into the cafeteria and the anglo kids are in one section, the mexican kids in another and the black kids have a table in the back--thanks--
they're the smallest group except for a couple kickapoo kids. look, you're obviously a concerned parent. chet has no history of getting into trouble--i'm happy to have him in my class.
okay? he's not here?
he's going to wish he was dead.
i think that's a bit of an oversimplification--
there's no reason to be so threatened by this--
i've only been trying to get across some of the complexity of our situation down here--cultures coming together in both negative and positive ways.
they've got my amado.
somebody called--something about an electronics store.
we haven't talked since high school.
are you okay?
you'll find out when i get you home. thanks, sam.
okay, we have the fight against the spanish with bloody conflict for dozens of years till they're finally defeated in 1821 and mexican independence is declared. anglo settlers are invited--
--to colonize the area and by the time they begin the movement against santa anna they outnumber the mexicans here by four to one. the war between mexico--
and the anglo forces ends in 1836 with the formation of the texas republic. texas joins the united states as a state where slavery is legal in 1845--
after the so-called mexican war and then secedes to join the confederacy in 1861. the confederacy is beaten, and the reformation period here is marked by range wars and race wars--
looking out at the class--
--and all this paralleled by constant battles between both the mexican and anglo settlers and the various indian nations in the area. what are we seeing here? chet?
oh, come on, amado--
leave your sister out of it.
of course you can.
it doesn't have anything to do with being smart.
maybe you're just getting less patient.
well, you hire illegals--
if you spent a little more time training them--
no. i was wondering if you'd like to take a trip down south with us. maybe see where you grew up--
oh, come on--you must be curious how it's changed. amado is into this big tejano roots thing and i've never been further than ciudad leon--
mami, how old were you when my father--
right. when he was killed.
how come you never got married again?
there must have been somebody.
nobody's too busy.
thank you.
mami, the first time i brought him home, those were your exact words-- "some chulo with grease under his nails."
you made it pretty damn clear you thought he was nobody.
what? become a nun? you didn't want me going out with anglos--
"that boy"--mami, say his name for chrissakes!
si.
watching--
lunch hour. my next class isn't till nine-thirty.
i can't name anybody she does like these days.
a real palace. she rattles around alone in that thing--
so she tells me three times a week.
i thought you got through that pretty well.
people liked him.
i remember him watching me once. when i was little--before you and i--
i was on the playground with all the other kids, but i thought he was only looking at me. i was afraid he was going to arrest me--he had those eyes, you know--
weird what you remember.
amado.
he hates me.
with paloma, it's more like she pities and tolerates me- totally age- appropriate. but amado--he's--he's never been book-smart. had a hard time learning to read. me being a teacher and caring about those things is like an embarrassment--like a betrayal.
fernando wasn't pissed off at everybody. he just wanted to fix their cars.
so why did you come back here, sam?
you don't want to be sheriff.
it can happen so sudden, can't it? being left out on your own.
they've got me. different thing.
i should get back.
looks real bad if the teacher's late for class. it's really nice to talk with you, sam.
yeah?
for a while.
what do you think?
i'm only going to have you for two more years. if you decide not to go on to college--
--you're going to be on your own.
so i'm worried about you. i don't want you to end up in jail like your friends.
don't try to con me, amado. you knew how they got all those things.
that makes it okay?
save your breath. that line doesn't cut it with me.
how do you think you're going to make a living?
you can fix old cars. mr. washburn told me that the cars they're making now are all computerized--
i think you can learn whatever you want to. i just don't see you doing it. if you want to settle for--
that isn't true.
if you grew up to he anywhere near as good a man as your father was, i would be happy! i would be thrilled.
i said pretty much the same thing to my mother when i was your age.
two years at hard labor, our lady of perpetual help.
honey, i think you're smart and you're good and i love you. so don't act like an idiot, all right?
i don't think you can take it personally--
i have new respect for some of my kids, meeting the parents they've been dealt--
see you, molly.
steve?
spanish, please. my mother would have a heart attack.
sure, they go back to cortez. when he rode by, they were squatting in a hut cooking hamsters for dinner.
all my mother does is work. that's how you get to be spanish.
the sheriff.
i'm unmarried. i'm not available.
nobody stays in love for twenty-three years.
follow me.
we thought we were something, didn't we?
i look at my kids in school--tenth, eleventh graders. that's who we were. children.
i mean what did we know about anything?
when nando died--it was so sudden--i was kind of in shock for awhile. then i woke up and there was the whole rest of my life and i didn't have any idea what to do with it.
yeah?
my mother hasn't changed the songs since i was 10.
wow.
how come it feels the same?
so what are we gonna do about this?
how long have you lived here?
there's nothing on the walls. no pictures--
like your story is over.
it isn't. not by a long shot. he holds her and they lie silently for a moment--
yeah?
eladio. eladio. cruz.
it's saturday.
yeah. i had uhm--school business.
nobody really wears that stuff, paloma.
enough with the clothes--
i only went for my last two years.
oh, my mother wanted to keep me away from away from boys.
when's the picture start?
she'll figure it out sooner or later. i don't have to ask permission anymore, if that's what you mean.
couple months before i was born--
i've never seen my mother in a bathing suit before. didn't know she owned one.
they can't pull this on me. it isn't fair--i don't believe this--
from the first time i saw you at school--all those years we were married to other people i always felt like we were connected.
so that's it? you're not going to want to be with me anymore?
i'm not having any more children. after amado, i had some complications-- i can't get pregnant again, if that's what the rule is about--
we start from scratch--
everything that went before, all that stuff, that history--the hell with it, right?
forget the alamo.