We took my wife's mother out to lunch yesterday. There is a Chinese restaurant near here that has a fabulous lunch buffet. It was crowded, and at least a third, maybe half of the people there were Mexicans. The fact is that we have a number of top notch Mexican restaurants here, and with a fast-growing Mexican population, they are usually busy. I never get tired of Mexican food, but I suppose if you grew up on it, you might like Chinese for a change.

I still laugh about the time I went to a new Chinese restaurant near here, and discovered that the chef was a Mexican gentleman. He later opened his own restaurant, serving his native fare. He did that really well, too.

The Mexican "invasion" of this small souther town has been one of the best things to happen here. Oh sure, there are still a few distrustful rednecks who don't like anybody who looks a little different, but for the most part, they have been welcomed. At first they came here to work in the "mushroom factory." That's what the locals at first called the big building where mushrooms are grown in trays indoors. Then the began to take jobs in construction. Now they own their own businesses and are buying homes.

My sons, both contractors, are impressed by the way they work. Many are brick and stone masons. They also operate much of the heavy equiptment.

One of the stories I like about Mexicans on the job, is when they break for lunch. They don't bring a brown bag or a lunch box. They build a fire and cook for scratch. I asked one of my sons what they cook, and he said, "I don't know, but it sure smells good."

Naturally, they are learning English. The kids go to school and pick up English rather quickly, and I guess the adults learn from them. Merchants, policemen, teachers, and others here are learning Spanish and you even see bilingual signs. A few years ago, there were no Spanish speaking people at all around here.

I understand that the very small Catholic church is overflowing.

All of this reminds me of a trip that I made to Key Largo, Florida in 1969. That was a time when large numbers of Cuban refugees were begining to come to the U.S. Some of them were camped near us, and I have never seen people having such a great time. They laughed, joked, and smiled all the time. Just like our Mexicans, they had found a better life.
Howard