by Gayl Jones
No, I can’t tell you who we are, where we are, when or how we’ll assist you, or what our strategies’ll be. No, I can’t tell you who we are. I can just tell you we’ll assist you. No, that’s not us. We don’t allow our people in the media. Well, some of our people are in the media as individuals, as citizens, representing themselves, or maybe different organizations, but not representing us. We don’t allow our people in the media. No, I can’t tell you who I am either. But we’ve reviewed the documents you sent us. Ties, it is our ideal form. One of us will get in contact with you, okay?
He put down the phone and looked at me, then the woman started saying something to him in French.
Why don’t you ask her these questions? said Alvarado, handing me a sheet of paper.
I don’t know no French, I says. The paper in English, though.
She understands English. You ask her the questions in English, she’ll answer in French, and I’ll translate into English. It’s all being recorded. I ain’t want to be recorded. The truth is I prefers not to ask them questions, but he be asking me to ask them questions. I ain’t want to say I prefers not to ask them, so I looks at them.
What is your name? I asks the woman, ’cause it say that on the paper.
Da hieu. My name Nguyen Smith. I try speak English.
Tell me about yourself, I says. I ask her all them questions that on the paper. ’Cept when they write up the report it don’t read like what on the tape recorder, ’cause they just writes up her answers to them questions.
I am girl daughter of Mr. Joe Smith and Miss Ko Xuan Truyen. I am half African American and half Vietnamese. Return beginning. Born Saigon 1970. Mr. Joe Smith and Miss Ko Truyen separated during war and I grow up French convent school. Mr. Joe Smith find me bring me America 1988. Convent school I study seamstress. I no dumb woman. I no speak English, but I speak excellent French. I speak excellent Vietnamese, my native language. Nuns say I speak impeccable.
Here in America I meet Mr. Il a fait impression. Like man I see in movie picture show. Play true American. Aussi, il me porte intérêt. I no come America make revolution. Mr. begin court me. I here America. Free say yes. I say yes. I like very much. He ask marry me. I like very much. We marry, live Keeneland country. Kentucky. Mr.? Homme blanc. Him have many horse. Colt, stallion, filly, foal. Many Thoroughbred. Horse colors. White, gray, black, brown, red-brown. People say he crazy. In Vietnam, people say I ugly. But here America they say I beautiful. Mr. Joe Smith he say no like me marry Mr. Say he no like Mr. Him work factory Richmond.
At first Mr. nice nice, like man in movie picture show. Teach Nguyen ride filly. Learn horses. Learn buy horses. Buy English horse. Buy Arab horse. Buy Turk stallion. Buy Hausa horse. Buy hybrids.
Have two babies Mr. After have babies Mr. say he no longer wanna be married Nguyen. Mr. take Nguyen before judge. I no understand. I say I fit keep babies. Mr. Joe Smith say I good girl, say I raised convent school not streets Saigon. Mr. Joe Smith say all good things. Mr. Joe Smith say I all good things. Mr. say I no speak good English. Want babies learn good English, be American. Say babies grow up Vietnamese brack. Say he don’t want he babies hang on street corner and learn cultural differences. Mr. Joe Smith hire lawyer take Supreme Court. Say challenge Mr. I know this no story. I say Vietnamese brack culture very valuable culture. I no know if Supreme Court rule in favor Nguyen. I know Mr. not like man Nguyen see in movie picture show. I think Mr. Joe Smith true American.
I ain’t read the file, then, I just ask them questions and she answer them in English and keep saying she not a dumb woman, that she sound like a dumb woman ’cause she don’t speak English, but she a intelligent woman in her own language. Then after I ask her them questions, Alvarado take her to another little room and Ray come in that little room and ask me what I’m doing there, and I tells him that Alvarado want me to ask a Vietnamese woman some questions, and he asks what kind of questions and I tell him, and then he listen to the tape recorder for hisself, and then he jot down some notes. I ain’t want him to hear me ask them questions, ’cause I’m supposed to fill in some of them blanks myself and I know for one of them I asks. Did you grow up in blank? And I’m supposed to say Did you grow up in Saigon, ’cause I’m supposed to fill in the blanks myself, but that woman she a intelligent woman so she know I means, Did you grow up in Saigon? and she fill in the blank for herself and say yes she grew up in Saigon until Mr. Joe Smith come and bring her to America. But she be seeing men like that Mr. in all them picture shows and she be thinking he real self the self in them movie picture shows, but then she learn what he true self. So they’s supposed to be getting their legal guerrillas to work with that woman. Ray take some notes, like I said, while he listen to that tape. Then the phone ring and he be talking to someone on the telephone.
What’s his girlfriend’s name? asked Ray. Yeah, they knew her from the revolution, so the person who was supposed to transport her to Canada refused to. They said they wouldn’t forget even in America. Yeah, I know, yeah I know, yeah I know, yeah I know, man. Naw, I didn’t go to the meeting. Talking, you know. Gave her a beer, though. Koshoo bandaged her arm. Naw, he ain’t the one usedta be a medical student. Say what? What do you mean say what? Anyway, so we took her to Koshoo’s farm, but some of the guerrillas wanted to follow them there. And especially the man that kept saying he didn’t forget, that he wasn’t so stupid not to remember. We had to rescue her again man. I’ve got her at the cathedral now. At first I thought they were some instigators with the CIA, man. Yeah, man. I know who she is. Like I told them, they’re in America now and this is a different revolution, if you want to call it a revolution. Do you print well? If you do, then you can work with Koshoo on the documents. I mean you have got to be an artist, though. Don’t bullshit me. Maria? I gave her some of the tapes and she translated for us. Yeah?
He put the phone down and looked at me.
Our Maria? I asked.
What? He scratched the tip of his nose.
Is our Maria working with us? I asked.
Oh, yeah, well, yeah. She knows this Native American language, Quechua, and we needed her to do some translating. One of those Mayan languages, I think. They were just saying the same thing, though. What were they saying? He looks at his notebook: Don’t believe the government officials, don’t believe the military people. They wouldn’t tell us anything about themselves, just that. Listen, it’s better if you don’t ask me who’s doing what, you know.
I just heard you say Maria.
I shouldn’t have said Maria. She isn’t exactly working with us. I needed her to do some translating. She wanted to get involved, you know. But her little baby needs some babying right now. He’s still a baby.
He’s so cute, ain’the?
Yes, he is. I went by there and she introduced me to him. I took her those tapes, you know, the Quechua tapes. She does some magnificent, really magnificent work, you know, I mean the dolls. It’s better that you don’t ask too many questions, though, not of our people.
I know, you said they might be Nicodemuses.
Yes, even if you do think someone is with us, and you’re not sure, don’t ask them questions.
Alvarado wanted me to ask questions.
That’s for our interview. We have to interview some of the people. But those are the documented people. Those are the official interviews. Well, we have our official files on the people that we assist.
So if them immigrations comes snooping, you’s got them documented peoples you helps.
Right.
I kinda liked asking them questions, asking that woman who she is and everything.
Yeah, well, Alvarado shouldn’ta had you do that.
I kinda liked it, you know. ’Cause before I just seen these people. I ain’t know nothing about them. Is y’all going to help that woman to prove that she is a woman of culture and substance?
Ray said nothing. He laughed and scratched the tip of his nose, but he said nothing.
Ah, Ray, I knows that’s prohibit
ed. I didn’t mean to ask you that. I knows that who is or who ain’t in us movement and who is possibly involved is supposed to be kept as a question unless they is peoples that you have introduced to me, and I ain’t even supposed to ask them they names. I gots to remember everything that’s prohibited. I been reading some of it aloud so’s I can remember what’s prohibited. Seems like y’all has got so many prohibitions. No wonder you says that y’all ain’t the mainstream Sanctuary movement, ’cause I don’t think them peoples has as many prohibitions as y’all. I know even that book you give me to reads gives the names of some of them people. Seem like them peoples would know a woman of culture and substance even if she don’t speak no good English. And I know she speak better English than any of them speak Vietnamese, nor French neither.
Ray don’t say nothing. But he look like I’m discussing things that is prohibited. I be sitting there imagining him with Maria and her baby, though. I be imagining coming in and Ray got Maria baby and he kiss Maria baby and say something to Maria baby in Spanish, and then he put Maria baby back in the crib, and then he say something to Maria in Spanish and then he say something to me in English.
Ray looking through some folders on the desk. I notices a big book bound in black leather. They ain’t no writing on the outside of the book. It about a couple of inches thick. I reaches for the book but before I can open it Ray takes it from me and puts it on the other side of the desk. Seems like I has seen that book before. I ain’t know what kinda book it is that Ray ain’t want me to read it. I be thinking it some type of wisdom book. I ain’t know why the word wisdom book come in my thoughts. Being bound in black leather it also remind me of some type of Bible, ’cause they is Bibles that is bound in black leather, ’cept them Bibles usually is gilded and announces theyselves as Bibles. I knows what some of them folders got in them, ’cause they is writing on the outside. They is also a filing cabinet that has writing on the outside:
Immigration and Naturalization Forms
Applications for Nonresident Alien’s Canadian border crossing
Immigrant Applications for Special Immigration
Applications for Employment Authorization
Visa Waivers
Applications for Naturalization
Applications for Asylum
Citizenship Applications
Fingerprint Charts
Sample Green Cards
Employment Papers & Authorizations
Employment Letters
Sample Visas
Affidavits of Support
Petitions
Adjustment of Status Applications
Supporting Documents
INS Submissions Addresses
Sample Forms
Booklets
Guides to Citizenship Examinations
I got some phone calls to make, Mosquito, say Ray. Why don’t you go downstairs and talk to the gals till we get the people ready that you’re supposed to transport.
Okay, Ray, I says. Then after I transport them me and Delgadina going to see Denzel Washington.
Say who? Deznel?
Denzel Washington. He a big movie star. I gots to get you to come to the movies, Ray. He one of the handsomest movies stars they is.
Deznel?
Denzel. He’s a African-American movie star. You gots to know Denzel. Maybe you seen him as Malcolm X. I likes him in every movie. There is better actors I have heard. But every star ain’t the best actor. ’Cept Delgadina’s favorite is Edward James Olmos. She comes to Deznel’s movies ’cause I likes him. I mean, Denzel. You’s got me saying Deznel, and I knows the man’s name. He’s almost as handsome as you is, Ray. Monkey Bread is still a fan of Billy Dee Williams and when us were in Covington were the president of the local Billy Dee Williams fan club. He looks like he wants to ask me some more questions about Deznel or Denzel but he don’t. He scratches the tip of his nose and turns the tape recorder on. Then he dials a number on the telephone, Mickey? Yeah, we were thinking if you could maybe rent a Land-Rover or something? Yeah, the people that we have can’t forget the revolution. Did he say that he knows her? I didn’t know your husband was in that revolution. I thought he was Mexican. Yeah, I guess a Mexican doesn’t have to fight just in Mexico’s revolutions. He talking to some woman name Mickey but looking at me, like he still thinking ’bout Deznel or Denzel, like he thinking what I favors about this Deznel or Denzel. I ain’t really thinking ’bout Denzel, though.
He puts down the telephone and looks at me. On the walls they is maps and photographs of different areas of the Southwest, mostly areas around the border. There’s also a map of the San Pedro River. I’m thinking of when I first met Ray and then when he were trying to recruit me for the new Underground Railroad or whatever the name of these people. I calls them Ray’s people myself. I’m thinking listening to him were kinda like listening to the Learning Channel, but better, ’cause sometimes when I’m listening to the Learning Channel they teaches me what I already knows, but when Ray were telling me about the code talkers that weren’t something that I already know. Then I be thinking about being a little girl and listening to Monkey Bread talking. Sometimes I ask her. Monkey Bread, who taught you that? And she be saying, Ain’t nobody taught me, I just knows. Seems like they’s a flowering tree in this room. Sometimes I has images like that. I remember once I was in Delgadina’s apartment and I had this image of the Brazilian rain forest, and then she shows me some new books that she have ordered and one of them is about the Brazilian rain forest. I’s got this image of a flowering tree, so I puts my little red bird up in that tree to sing in it.
I knows a woman name Mickey, I says. ’Cept her name Miguelita, which is the Spanish word for who she is, and she a crazy gringa that the wife of Mr. Delgado who own Delgadina’s cantina, I mean the cantina where Delgadina work except but it Mr. Delgado’s cantina and they’s crazy bosses ’cause they don’t boss nobody but to tell you the truth I think that Mr. Delgado is a nayatl and that he has taught that crazy gringa the art of transforming yourself ’cause that what nayatl means except I don’t think they transforms theyselves into peoples I think they transforms theyselves into other men and womens, and that’s how ain’t nobody seen that Mr. Delgado and wouldn’t know him if they did see him ’cause he be any man he want to be, ’cept Miguelita allow people to see her as her true self, ’cause that true self is crazy as shit, so people only think they knows who the real Miguelita, that’s what I thinks myself. Sometimes Miguelita travels around with me and Delgadina in Delgadina’s Land-Rover and we been to Marineland and to New Mexico and to Galveston. Delgadina just rents that Land-Rover, though. I says, Delgadina, why don’t you buy you that Land-Rover, ’cause I know Mr. Delgado paying her enough to buy her that Land-Rover, and what he don’t pay her she gets in tips, but she prefers to rent that Land-Rover.
He looking at me like he still thinking about Deznel or Denzel.
So what I think is the mens that come in to try to court Miguelita, especially them that think she a puta, which is the Spanish word for whore, is really Mr. Delgado transformed into other mens, ’cause some of them mens even calls Miguelita by other names, like they knows her but knows her by different other names. So I thinks that Mr. Delgado has taught her the art of being a nayatl and I think that’s why she loves him myself, ’cause he has taught her the art of transformation. I don’t know if Mr. Delgado thinks she’s crazy. Maybe Mr. Delgado is the only one who knows she ain’t crazy or believes she ain’t as crazy as everybody else thinks she is. ’Cept they is crazy bosses that don’t boss nobody.
He looking at me like he still thinking about Deznel or Denzel.
Delgadina don’t boss peoples, but she do a lot of specifying.
What’s specifying mean? He kinda lean back in his chair and look at me. The chairs and writing desk is old-fashioned-looking mahogany and looks like they was manufactured in the American Colonial period. He look at his notebook and I think he going to write that word in his notebook like Delgadina likes to write words in he
r notebook, ’cept he don’t write that word in his notebook, nor do he write Deznel or Denzel in his notebook. I can tell what in that notebook. He ain’t write Deznel or Denzel in it. Part of the notebook he write, “The Spiritual Mother Project” and then in another part of that notebook he write “El Despertador Mexicano.” Get a copy of their Declaration of War and the Lacandona Jungle Chronicles. Then it just be notes, then it seem like what be a article or a translation from a book:
Today the guerrillas are saying, Enough is Enough! They, who consider themselves to be the descendants of the true builders of the nation, are speaking to the people of the Mexican nation, to the people of the Mexican government, and to the people of the world. They are speaking from the jungles of Lacandona. They are speaking from the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. They are speaking from the remote little villages. Today the guerrillas everywhere are saying. Enough is Enough!