Hispanic Day 2006...

There's a little barber shop near the place where we drop off our shoes to get repaired. I decided to give it a whirl.

When I entered, I felt like I was transported to a previous life of mine when I traveled the world and thought that the ultimate in "in-depth cultural experiences" came from getting your haircut in a foreign country. Okay, maybe not ultimate, but I thought it was a great way to meet the people.

The owner of the shop didn't speak English. Her customer did some translating for her. I said, "Is someone available now?"
She said, "12 dollars."
I said, "Ahora?"
She said, "Si."

Fortunately, Carlos or "Carlito" as he was summoned has an excellent command of the English language.

We got to talking and he explained to me the difference in grammatical accuracy of Spanish between those from Spain/Argentina/Chile (high) and those from Mexico/Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic (low).

Soon, the conversation turned to women..Well, I asked him if he was married and he said, "I was engaged, but then she found out I was cheating on her and she broke it off."

Clearly, a nice conversation opener with a lot of potential follow ups. I asked them all. :-)

Let's just say that when it comes to committed monogamy and serial honesty, Carlito would not be a Hall of Fame candidate.

He did share with me that it was cultural, in his opinion. Latin women, he claims, will forgive MANY transgressions of the men with whom they have fallen in love. He sees that as a weakpoint to exploit.

Carlito is an observer of women. He likes to study them. "If you just shut up, you will learn something." On this point, he's got it. "My goal," he says, "is to fully understand them."

"Impossible," I interject.

"I know, but I can still try."

After exhausting this subject (and my questioning of the wisdom of engagement given his relationship maturity), we moved on to the subject of Immigration-not as tittilating, I know, but on my mind.

He was born in the US, believes that immigration is critical and then said something that shocked me....[paraphrasing] "Hispanics commit more crimes than other cultures. It's a more violent, temper-fueled culture."

The crime part of the immigration debate had never really occured to me. I spend more time on the fairness issue..."you should have to pay in to get out."

What was doubly intriguing was that Carlito's sentiments on Hispanic crime were echoed by Ramon, a US born, Panamanian-descended, probations officer in Virginia.

I met Ramon at the pool and he shared his observations...both parents are working hourly wage drops at all kinds of hours, can't afford to miss work to attend school meetings, don't supervise kids, and as a result, the kids get mixed in with the wrong crowd.

I asked Ramon how to solve it..."the problem is resources, the governments, the schools...no one has enough money."

BTW...I was satisfied with Carlito's job on my hair!