It’s the proverbial gila monster in the room––that thing that everyone knows but nobody wants to talk about. The uncomfortable fact, in plain view: in our lifetime we will see vast water shortages in Arizona. The water is running out. But when exactly will sand flow from the faucet? Nobody can be sure, and many[…] See more ⇒

And then everything changed. In less than a month, the largest student movement since 1968 has swept Mexico, changing the course of a presidential election and sparking the first popular opposition to the country’s television duopoly. To say that political events in Mexico are moving quickly would be an understatement. In the final days leading[…] See more ⇒

In the Sonoran Desert, no calendar is needed to know that May has turned to June, and that we face a long dry stretch before we can count on tasting the delicious monsoon rains. Across central and southern Arizona the season is marked by the blooming of the saguaro cactus, the plants covered with thousands[…] See more ⇒

Part four of La Otra Arizona series. This month the Supreme Court is expected to take on Arizona’s SB1070, the now-infamous immigration bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer in 2010. As with any Supreme Court case, SB1070 has traveled a long road of litigation to get to this point: decisions by lower courts,[…] See more ⇒

Are you a native Arizonan? Were your grandparents natives? As centennial celebrations continue in Arizona, this word keeps coming up––native––but not in the way that one would expect. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that in Arizona, the word native is more frequently used to describe people born here, rather than people who have indigenous roots[…] See more ⇒

As celebrations ensue for Arizona’s anniversary of statehood, it is fitting to remind ourselves that it is a centennial––as in, one hundred years young. As a legal entity fully entered into the United States, Arizona is just a generation and a half old. And besides, the vast majority of people who call themselves Arizonans today[…] See more ⇒

Porque el sol es grande grande y nosotros pequeños pequeños, buscamos ser soles, los muchos todos que somos. No es fácil ser cuando hay tanto que hacer, con todos los quehaceres y todo lo que debemos a nuestros deberes. Porque de tierra está hecha la tierra y de hecho todo está hecho de tierra: los[…] See more ⇒

I. Sunset after the long day So many things a bullet can do and most of all only one. The weather just turned in Tucson; it hadn’t seemed so cold this morning. Most of all in this one, this late dawn-drenched pueblo, sun metal-warm, it hadn’t seemed so cold this morning until bullet screamed first.[…] See more ⇒

Un colibrí llega a mi azotea chilanga y de repente todo me parece posible, aunque improbable: flores donde no hay colores sino cemento, metrópolis construida sobre metrópolis, metrópolis suspendida sobre lago, nervios tensos esperando tremores, craneos esperando volcanes, en fin todo, al final, todo finalmente. Entonces colíbrí, ¿así? ¿Pero cómo? Esta ciudad es cemento oxidado,[…] See more ⇒

the ink writes the poet. Headlines write the politics. Sentences write the prisoners. Textbooks write the memory, lessons ignore everyone. Grades make the student. Students learn the teacher. Jobs work the employee. Streets drive the car. TVs watch every household. Religions rely on the fanatic. Prices buy the customer. Drugs do the poor. Lines wait[…] See more ⇒