Miles was twelve when I met him. He was lightly autistic. It was hard to pinpoint his abnormalities. It seemed like his mind worked faster than he could express his thoughts. His left eye blinked rapidly when he struggled to express his thoughts. He was impatient and ignored people who disregarded him as a slow kid. My first impression was that he appeared to be an average kid. How wrong I was. He had been home-schooled. They said there was too much trouble at the public school, and that he had suffered at the hands of bullies for a long … Continue reading Miles Away

Graciela I was born seventeen years ago in Orosi, a tiny town in the middle of California. My parents came from Durango, a northern state in Mexico, where they were farm workers. After they moved to US, they kept working in the fields. My mom worked as hard as my dad. Sometimes, I joined them in the fields, but it wasn’t easy to keep up with them. I loved my parents more than anything in the world, but they didn’t know that my goals were much different than what they could ever  have dreamed. I knew the world was too … Continue reading A Girl from Orosi

A JOURNAL I could still remember the moment I became a pacifist, an animal lover and a defender of animal rights. From that moment on, I also turned into a better person. That day, while playing in the backyard and armed with a flyswatter I squashed a butterfly with it. My big brother witnessed the act, became upset and sad, and then he gave me a lecture I would never forget. “That butterfly probably had a family; it probably had babies that needed to be fed. Everybody loves butterflies, they’re beautiful to see, and they’re tender creatures. The way they … Continue reading CUCA