Texas Is A Country!

Texas Is  It's Own Country!
   
    It's been a while since the last blog entry due to our extremely busy schedule.
So much has happened and to write all of it down would require an entire book. Actually, a series of books to be exact. We've met and been embraced like a family by many beautiful and kind people. Heard some amazing lyrical artists on every stop. Seen breathtaking sights and eaten some of the best Tex-Mex food we could find in all of Texas. We've been continuously moving, pushing, performing, and the only small breaks we've had have been to get a little sleep in order to prevent the insanity caused by sleep deprivation. Crowds have been moved, children have been educated and in turn we've been blessed with both as well. Our blessings here in Texas have been numerous. In an effort to keep you all updated and maintain an adequate space I've decided to condense Houston, San Antonio and Hondo in to one entry.
    In Houston we met up with S. She's a student at El Paso but she lives with her family in Houston during the summer. She was born in Mexico City and her and her mother moved to the states when she was a little girl. Now at 19 she is constantly under the threat of not being able to live in the U.S. any more. Every year she has to re-file and pay ever increasing fees per document filed. Hearing her story and how after all that her and her family has been through she might have to be sent away was heart breaking. This is just one story of thousands that occur on a daily basis. Stories of people that work their lives away and are then told they are no longer wanted by the government. As Cuttz says "immigrants are the arteries that pump blood into this nation".
    We caught up with S outside of Notsuoh's (Houston backwards...get it???lol) a couple hours before we were set to be on stage. We actually thought we were late but when we got there we were all relieved to know we had some time to breathe. While we were breathing we all decided that it would be cool to experiment with our set. The event was a stop of the "Word Around Town Tour" that a collective of poets in Houston was putting on together. The goal of the event is to bring together a group talented poets under one roof at a number of different venues. One of the poets (Lupe) mentioned that there was a divide in the Houston poetry community and that their goal was to bring poets and their words together under one roof to show that with unity comes beauty. They've been putting on this tour for a few years now and each their success with uniting local poets increases. Being that the event was predominantly for poets and those with a love for Spoken Word we decided to switch up our set and rock it acoustically. We stepped outside the venue for a bit where Cuttz and DJ H20 tuned their guitars and experimented with some sounds that we'd might be hearing that night. After a couple run throughs we decided we were ready and headed in to hear some of Houston's most gifted wordsmith's. One by one they blew us away reminding each of us that words have the power to move. When it was our turn the Word Around Town (WAT?) familia and the crowd showed us plenty of love. We did our thing one by one but this time rather than have DJ H20 do his thing on the turntables he did it with the guitar. As he strummed the guitar like it deserved we rocked out on the mic. The crowd bopped their heads and clapped in unison as we went through our final tracks. As soon as we chatted it up the Word Around Town crew and headed to a Tex-Mex restaurant for some comida. When we got there in the process of parking the bus Decora accidently ran into the top part of the restaurant's roof. Fortunately, Lupe was kind enough to take care of the damage for us. When I learned about this it almost brought tears to my eyes. He barely knows us and yet he was kind enough to do something like that. That my friends is a person with a beautiful heart.
    We all walked into a restaurant and filled a bunch of tables put together with more than 20 people. All talking about poetry, Houston and that night's event. Free and I chatted it up with Marlin (I later realized he was the greatest break dancer I've ever seen) and Lupe while everyone else chatted with others. This is when I realized that Lupe and Marlin were two of the coolest dudes I'd ever met. Lupe is a teacher and Marlin is a Social Worker. Both are humble, hilarious, lyrical scholars and overall great genuine human beings. They talked to us about the great divide that exists in Houston. Each ethnicity has its own clearly separated community. It's defacto segregation (segregation based on where you live not law) at its most defined state.
    After our convo and the great food the Front Lines Tour said goodbye's and headed towards S's house. She got on the bus and guided us as she pointed out things on the way and further explained the division in Houston. We were all exhausted but we had to get gas because it was close to empty and we saw a cheap deal that we couldn't turn down. $3.80! To think that $3.80 can be considered as cheap gas  nowadays is amazing to me. I recall when the most expensive gas I had seen was 3.90 and that was high up on route 1 in California. Never again did I see that price anywhere in the country until recent days. The time I saw that price was years ago while on our first U.S. tour .
    Day 2 of Houston is next.

BTW... I'm currently in a cafe called Perculator in El Paso. We've run out of money and need to get to Arizona next. The past 2 days have been a scramble with all of us working and thinking up way to make money. We made 35 bucks yesterday but still don't have enough for food or even a sip of gas for the bus. Fortunately, our San Antonio, Hondo and El Paso hook up has us set up at her bro's house. The people at Perculator were cool enough to let us host a party here to raise some money. However, due to the date and time (tonight at 6PM) it doesn't seem like it will be a big money raiser. At this point we could use any cash we get though.

-Latin