Blessing or Curse? I Don't Know. Just What Is.

When Subcommandante Marcos of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas made one of his famous speeches (and he was a great speechifier), he started with a long list identifying himself. (This are my words in imitation of him):

I am Subcommandante Marcos. I am a North American Indian at Wounded Knee. I am a peasant in El Salvador. I am a woman in Afghanistan. I am a child soldier in Somalia. I am a farmer in Sri Lanka. I am a miner in West Virginia. And he went on and on. He ended with "I am you."

For my life, I can also  add and I am a socialite, I am a power broker, I am a highly privileged woman. I say this because of some quirk of fate, I can pass into a society where, in spite of my radical politics, in spite of my deep sympathies for the oppressed and the poor of the earth, in spite of the fact that I dress totally haphazardly and flaunt conventions, I am accepted by the poor and the rich.

Last night we went to see the horse show at the Granada, Nicaragua Jockey Club. My friend had a neighbor who is a Chomorro/Sandino. We ran into her. Then we were seen by some of the other ruling class people. Then we somehow got introductions to various Ambassadors and the biggest horse owner in the country. Then we were introduced to a man who was the brother of someone very important here and he was a polo player. I remarked that I thought polo was a cool sport. He checked me out by asking where I had seen polo. I said there was a little club near my father's house. MYOPIA. Magic word. We were in the VIP tent being served food and drinks and introduced around.

Myopia trumped everything. I never did say that the only time I had set foot there was when they had their rare "open to the pubic" events. Weird. The horses were so insanely beautiful and the night so gorgeous, and I still recovering that I didn't even get around to making some of my rude remarks about how they can live with themselves and sleep at night when they think about what their bank was built on. And also, it is impossible these days to feel any righteousness as an citizen of the USA. We don't feel any different to me from these Central American countries except that we have so much more arms, power, disproportionate wealth, world wide enemies than they will ever dream of.