Jose R. Rivera Fierro

Hecho en el U.S.A., 1959, (Made in the U.S.A 1959)

 

That’s what my gang patch says on my rib cage.

 

I had to come back here to my beginning, to the point where I learned all about guilt and shame and that whatever happens, it’s my fault. Your true self is inside of you, somewhere in a secret place. It is as young as you are old. Go back and find that child, bring it back, love it and protect it.

 

If not for maximum security, I would still be in there. Everyone should spend at least a week in prison just once. Then we would not be so quick to cut back on so many programs that assist the very poor.

 

What happened? I can feed you a line about how I grew up in severe poverty, with an abusive alcoholic father, in the poorest and most crime ridden part of El Paso, Texas, El Segundo barrio (The Second ward). Juarez, Mexico, just a couple of hundred feet across the border. Heroin, prescription drugs, and glue-sniffing were readily available on both sides. It would just sound like an excuse.

 

Maybe it isn’t an excuse but a hard reality of life in this country where indifference is the law of the land. If it’s not on the news it’s not happening.

 

There is an old saying amongst the poor: “Sal si puedes” (Get out if you can).

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Mr. Rivera passed away on June 25, 2017. RIP