Alcides jumped in: “Yeah, where I’m from, we all say we want democracy but what we really want is a caudillo – a strongman or strongwoman, even – to solve all our problems. You see that all through our history.”
“Thank you, Emilia and Alcides,” answered Romano, who explained to the class what Angela had already found out: that Alcides was originally from Argentina. “So you see, class, that political culture changes very slowly and that ideologies may or may not reflect how politics actually work. I know Mexico has an elected congress…”
The bell rang at that point and the class said “Awww…” Romano smiled and said, “Get out of here! We’ll pick this up tomorrow.”
As Angela and her friends headed to Spanish, they compared notes excitedly.
“My head is spinning,” Benjie commented.
“I love it! We’re going to learn so much this year,” Angela gushed.
“I like it,” Yves put in.
“I can just imagine what some people will say to all this,” mused Fiona.
“What do you mean?” asked Angela.
“You know, the Kellers of this world.”
“Yeah, well. We can’t live in fear, can we?”
“No way!” said Benjie.
They walked into Spanish class, where Mrs. Sepúlveda greeted each one, one at a time.
“Buen día, Angela, ¿cómo está?”
“Bien gracias, señora ¿y usted?” Angela replied.
“Muy bien. ¿Cómo está, Benjamín? …
The teacher spent the hour mostly reviewing to set her students at ease, but there was an opportunity to start on narrating stories in past time. Angela was delighted because she had been waiting for the time in which she could talk about what she did earlier in the day or last week in Spanish. Her intuition told her it would be a huge accomplishment if she could do that.
At lunch Angela, Fiona, Benjie, Michaela, and Yves sat together and invited Emilia, Juan Carlos, and Alcides to join them. Angela was full of questions: how did they like Sargasso Beach? What music did they listen to? What food did they eat in their homes? Soon they were all talking and laughing loudly and Sonya, Angela’s dance classmate, joined them presently. Michaela impressed everyone with her drawings of the teachers and Benjie told funny stories. At one point Kitty Johnson walked past on her way back from leaving her tray at the hatch, eyeing them with haughtily disapproving superiority.
“Nice to see you, too!” muttered Benjie at her retreating back.
“Not a nice person?” asked Alcides.
“She’s the leader of a group of mean girls,” Fiona explained.
“I saw that movie!” Alcides laughed. “It was funny.”
“You saw it in Argentina?” asked Angela.
“Sure, we get all the movies down there. They put subtitles.”
“Well that was fiction,” explained Fiona, “but in real life it’s not funny. Benjie named them the KittyKats, because of their names: Kitty, Kat, Casey…”
“Ashley and McKenzie!” Benjie finished the list for her.
“Who are their parents?” asked Emilia.
“Well, let’s see,” said Fiona. “Kitty’s mom was a cheerleader and beauty queen in high school and still is a social climber. Her father owns a pest extermination and industrial cleanup company and they make industrial amounts of money. Kat’s family is sad. I think her mother drinks a lot and her dad, I don’t know. The group makes her feel she’s somebody, I guess. Casey’s father is some sort of preacher and her mom stays at home and they keep her very controlled, but at school she gets her excitement by acting wild. Her parents don’t know anything about it.”
Benjie took up the thread: “Ashley has no father and her mom barely keeps things going working two jobs.”
“I think she’s starved for male attention,” Fiona commented.
“McKenzie’s mom is a beautician,” put in Michaela, “and her father is a partner in a computer consulting company.”
“They’re mostly really conservative,” added Fiona.
“Everyone’s a conservative in the U.S.,” said Alcides.
“Well, not everyone,” countered Angela.
“I’m hyperbolizing, but I mean by comparison.”
“Yes,” Sonya agreed. “In Europe most countries have a much stronger left wing.”
Angela enjoyed how the conversation moved from people to politics. People really need to talk more about issues and less about other people, she thought. They were interrupted by the bell signaling the end of lunch and time to move to the next class. Angela headed for P.E. After lunch again! Fortunately that day they went through some explanations of what they would be doing in 12th– grade P.E. and then did stretching exercises in the air-conditioned gym. After a few minutes trotting around the perimeter of the basketball court, it was time to shower and change.
Next was geography with Newsom, a domineering teacher with a dangerous temper. Angela, Fiona, and even Benjie, who was exuberant and tended to react loudly, had learned to keep quiet and not provoke him. Newsom began his litany of class procedure, consisting primarily of the prohibition of questioning what he said or indeed of asking questions at all. When he finished and said “Any questions?” the three rolled their eyes and exchanged meaningful looks of disdain but said nothing.
“Geography,” Newsom lectured, “is the study of all aspects of a given place, whether a city, region, country or group of countries. We look at the terrain, the climate, the availability of water, other resources of all kinds, the economic activity, and the social organization, thus getting a complete picture of the place and how it works.”
Angela thought that you also needed history and the spiritual nature of the people to understand them but knew better than to voice her ideas. She looked at Fiona, who was tapping her fingers on the desk and not looking very amused. Benjie was breathing deeply and his nostrils were moving out and in, but he said nothing.
Newsom droned on: “This course is limited to the honors curriculum, so you are privileged. No one does geography any more in this country. But I say: if you don’t know where other places are, you don’t know where you are.”
Well now, that does make some sense, Angela mused.
In the hallway before the next class, Juan Carlos asked, “Is Mr. Newsom always so angry?”
“He was delightful today. Just wait,” answered Benjie.
“Believe me: don’t ask questions,” suggested Fiona, “and take notes.”
Angela said: “Geography may turn out to be interesting. It’s so big picture, if you know what I mean.”
They were at the door of Mrs. Perez, the English teacher. Angela and her friends approved of her because she treated them fairly, kept the class under control, liked the students, and really taught. She exchanged some words in Spanish with Alcides. When everyone settled into their chairs, Mrs. Perez announced:
“This year we will be doing a lot of writing. The main project will be a research paper that we will be doing together with Mr. Romano’s class. We’ve done research papers before, so you know the format and you know how to research. This time we will go into a topic in much more depth. You can do a topic in history or political science: Romano