Travel Note
On my most recent trip to Big Bend, we drove in to Presidio to look around and eat lunch. A big sign on El Patio, where we dined, welcomed the transmigrantes. At first, I thought it was all about the truckers hauling goods into the US from factories in Mexico, or vice versa, but the dictionary definition says the phrase describes people hauling used goods from the US to Latin America. The key word there is used goods and the destination isn’t Mexico.
Of course, I have a feeling I’m jumping into the language pit where terms have multiple uses depending on who’s speaking and what they’re trying to say and how they say it. In other words, the people who wrote the sign were speaking to an audience they have in mind and it’s likely not the one my lousy English translation understands. But it made me curious, and that’s the good part of travel. I guess you can say my horizon was broadened.
It made me recall days long ago one summer when we camped at Falcon Lake State Park with the kids, then drove into Mexico on a lark just to say we did it on our way home. Those were different days. I simply flashed my driver’s license to come and go. It probably terrified my wife, but it seemed like the thing to do, so we did it and she was a good sport about it. I like thinking about the days when the southern border was a blended spot of cultures and lives, and easy come and easy go. Although that was then and this is now, and I’ve never found living in the past to be very fruitful.