Carlos Fuentes Gives Me an Idea of a Path We Should Take

by Ernie McCray

I just put a Carlos Fuentes novel down,
a book that will be nameless
because these words
aren’t to be interpreted
as a book review,
other than to say
it was a nice read to say the least,
a typical narrative
from a man whose imagination
can shape realities
into fantasies,
his characters routinely
traveling somewhat cosmically
back and forth
over the lines between
truths and myths,
those in this drama
all in step with the ages long
human enterprise
of seeking meaning in their lives,
reliving old memories,
learning new things about themselves
and each other,
desperately trying to be loving and decent
and I enjoyed meeting them
and I’ll always
remember how amidst all of Senor Fuentes’
shimmering descriptions
of their adventures,
the words on one page
gripped me
and moved me spiritually,
words about regular folks
excusing Hitler’s rise to dictatorship
with sentiments like
“He studied architecture, so he is one of our class,”
and
“He has given us the Autobahn
and established order,”
with no thought that the Jews who were gassed
or interned in concentration camps
were human beings too,
trying to survive and prosper.

And I immediately realized
that I was seeing America,
as it is now,
right before my eyes,
aiding and abetting and holding up high
a man who, because he feels superior to us,
wants to reign over us,
a man who has never studied anything
and would, because he doesn’t really give a damn
about us,
choke on the notion
that he is in class with us,
but he, like old Adolph,
der Fuhrer,
got millions of us
to buy in to his
hateful racist xenophobic idea
that dark skinned immigrants
are below us,
deserving to be treated cruelly by us.

But Germans made amends
for that era of their country’s existence,
taking paths
towards creating meaning in their lives
and becoming their better selves,
something we Americans should take on too
so, we can best
get our nation back on track again.

Making America Governable Again,
if you will,
in any way we can.

I thank the great Carlos Fuentes
for inspiring this thinking.