Hola, compadres!  Como esta usted? 

I'm afraid I'm no good:  seems life has gotten even worse, if that's possible.

For starters, I flunked school:  have to go to summer school.  My grades took a major nosedive ever since mami y papi lost their cantina and we had to move to this shitty assed neighborhood. 

Secondly, I have been taking a lot of heat from the gringos (non-Mexican) kids at school:  everyday, I see them waving their fists at me, making ugly faces, telling me to "Go back to Mexico, you stupid beaner!" or worse.  I get so scared; I'm afraid they're gonna send a lynch mob after me or somethin'; they look like they really mean business.

I try to tell them that I was born here in America:  I'm a naturalized (legal) citizen!!  Yet they refuse to listen, so every day of my life is colored with fear.  As bad it is for me, it's tons worse for the parentes:  mami y papi, they are not legal (yet), but they are workin' on it, and their English is getting better, too.  I'm scared that they will be deported to Mexico if this "Arizona Law" goes into effect in all fifty states.

I have never supported the Arizona Law:  I feel we have as much of a right to be here as the "average Joe".  After all, those of us who were born here (like yours truly) or those who have become legal citizens pay taxes, speak (or are learning) English, and obey the laws!  Now they want to search all Mexican (or Hispanic) peoples and if they find out that they are not here legally, they want to send them back to Mexico, Hispanola, Cuba, or whereever they came from??

I'm sorry, but to me, that's racial profiling!!  That's just wrong!!  Just because we may speak Spanish or celebrate our culture or have brown skin, dark eyes, and black hair does not make all of us criminals, especially if we happen to be obeying the law, like my family (and myself) happen to be!! 

If I were to lose my mami y papi, it would be the worst feeling in the world.  Then what would happen to me??  Would I become a ward of the state or somehow end up in foster care?  Or would I end up in jail, along with my parents?  I shudder to think what would happen if this damned fuckin' Arizona Law went into effect ...

I have lost sleep and can't eat well ever since I first heard about this law.  It's all I seem to think about, and then I see the anti-illegal protessts on el television, and it's enough to make me want to lose my tacos.  Or I hear the people screamin' at us on the street, and I suddenly wish I wasn't born a Mexican, even though I was born here in America.  I'm ashamed to be Mexican because of this.

Well, I gotta go:  gotta get ready for school; last day's today, but I can't enjoy the start of summer vacay, as I have eight weeks to go to summer school (so that's two months of my vacay wrecked already ...).  I will only have one month of summer vacay!!  Plus I'm threatening to cry again; seems that this is all I've done lately; my life has really turned into a living hell ...

~Arturo.  :(

*to be continued.*