nada’s Reviews > Battles in the Desert > Status Update
nada
is 23% done
I didn’t understand anything. For me, war, any war, was the stuff of movies. Sooner or later the good guys win (who are the good guys?). In Mexico, fortunately, there’d been no war since General Cárdenas defeated the Saturnino Cedillo uprising.
— Oct 07, 2026 07:13PM
Like flag
nada’s Previous Updates
nada
is 88% done
I never again saw Rosales or anybody else from that era. They demolished the school, they demolished Mariana’s building, they demolished my house, and they demolished Colonia Roma. That city ended. That country is finished. There is no memory of the Mexico of those years. And nobody cares — who could feel nostalgia for that horror? Everything came to an end the way the songs on the jukebox come to an end.
— Oct 08, 2026 12:07AM
nada
is 88% done
Rosales is fucking with me, it’s a stupid joke, he’s always been an asshole. He wanted revenge because I saw him down and out with his box of chewing gum and me with my tennis whites, my Perry Mason in English, my reservations at the Plaza, and my tennis racket.
— Oct 08, 2026 12:04AM
nada
is 88% done
I saw death everywhere: in the pieces of animal about to become sandwiches and tacos along with the onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, crema, beans, guacamole, jalapeños. Living animals, like the trees they’d just chopped down on Insurgentes. I saw death in the sodas: Mission Orange, Spur, Ferroquina. In the cigarettes: Belmont, Gratos, Elegantes, Casinos.
— Oct 08, 2026 12:03AM
nada
is 88% done
I’m surprised you haven’t heard anything till now. Remember, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you, that’s why I hid, not because of the chewing gum. Carlitos, don’t look at me like that. Are you crying? I know, it’s terrible and hideous what happened. I was in shock, too, like you can’t believe. But you’re not going to tell me, seriously, at your age, that you were in love with Jim’s mother.
— Oct 08, 2026 12:03AM
nada
is 82% done
Rosales tried to escape, but I caught up with him. Ridiculous scene:
— Oct 07, 2026 11:58PM
nada
is 79% done
By the time the Christmas holidays rolled around, everything had changed for us. My father had sold the factory and been hired as a manager for the North American company that had absorbed his brand of soap.
— Oct 07, 2026 11:55PM
nada
is 79% done
My parents thought the punishments, the confession, the psychological testing — the results of which I never saw — had cured me.
— Oct 07, 2026 11:54PM
nada
is 79% done
I started going to a new school. I didn’t know anybody. Once again I was the foreign intruder. There were neither Jews nor Arabs nor poor kids on scholarship nor battles in the desert, although there was, as always, mandatory English. The first few weeks were hellish.
— Oct 07, 2026 11:53PM
nada
is 68% done
My mother always insisted that our family was one of the best families of Guadalajara.Honorable, hardworking men.Devout women, selfless wives... Obedient and respectful children. But then came the revenge of the Indian hordes and the rabble against decency and the wellborn. The Revolution — that is, the old caciques — stole our land and our house on Calle SF with the excuse that our family was full of Cristeros.
— Oct 07, 2026 11:34PM
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
nada
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Oct 07, 2026 07:13PM
My parents found this difficult to believe, however, because their childhood, adolescence, and youth had been spent against a backdrop of constant battles and executions. But that year, or so it seemed, things were going quite well; they were always cancelling class so they could take us to inauguration ceremonies for highways, avenues, dams, sports complexes, hospitals, ministries, enormous buildings.
reply
|
flag
As a rule, there was nothing but a pile of rocks. The president dedicated huge unfinished monuments to himself. Hours and hours under the sun without moving or drinking water — Rosales brought lemons, they’re good to quench your thirst, pass one over here — awaiting the arrival of Miguel Alemán — young, smiling, warmhearted, dazzling, waving from a flatbed truck, surrounded by his retinue.