A few years ago, Chaim Amalek placed a singles ad for me on craigslist. The hottest date I had from it was with a Mexican lady, ten years younger than me, who appeared to be “the whole package” as she described herself. She was in grad school. She was hot. She was not Jewish. I took her to dinner and I just felt awkward because I had never been out with a Mexican before (or since). All I could do was talk about things I presumed to be of interest to her relating to Mexico. She laughed at me for this. I didn’t call her. She later called me — from her bathtub. But I could never get comfortable at the prospect of marrying a Mexican who had no interest in Judaism. So I let her go…and now my heart aches to go south of the border.
When I went out with black or Filipina or Chinese girls, I never felt any need to keep talking about their culture. I just talked about myself, just as I would with a white girl. But with a Mexicana, I was uncomfortable. Hmm. I was a bad man.
After 40 years of failure with cold, selfish, career-obsessed Anglos, I’m ready to give the Mexican woman her shot to be Mrs Ford, even if she doesn’t have papers. (No Guatemalans, please.)
I’m opening the borders to my heart and refusing to discount the redemptive powers of the Mexican woman.
* I just got reamed for sneezing towards the floor of my office but not covering my mouth. “Is that an Orthodox thing?”
