nada’s Reviews > Battles in the Desert > Status Update
nada
is 27% done
How was it that Jim’s father held such an important position in the government, wielding so much influence over the business world, yet Jim was attending a second-rate school, a school befitting the likes of us denizens of the very downwardly mobile Colonia Roma, hardly the spot for the son of Alemán’s superpowerful bosom buddy and banking partner, a man who earned millions every time the president sneezed:
— Oct 07, 2026 07:24PM
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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.
— 21 hours, 28 min ago
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.
— 21 hours, 31 min ago
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.
— 21 hours, 31 min ago
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.
— 21 hours, 32 min ago
nada
is 82% done
Rosales tried to escape, but I caught up with him. Ridiculous scene:
— 21 hours, 37 min ago
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.
— 21 hours, 39 min ago
nada
is 79% done
My parents thought the punishments, the confession, the psychological testing — the results of which I never saw — had cured me.
— 21 hours, 40 min ago
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.
— 21 hours, 41 min ago
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.
— 22 hours, 0 min ago
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rated it 4 stars
Oct 07, 2026 07:24PM
on contracts here, there, and everywhere; on land deals in Acapulco; import and construction permits; on authorizations to set up subsidiaries of North American companies; on laws requiring the installation of water tanks lined with carcinogenic asbestos on every rooftop; on the resale of powered milk stolen from free school breakfast programs in the poorest neighborhood; the counterfeiting of vaccines and medicines; on huge gold and silver smuggling rings; on large tracts of land bought for centavos per meter weeks before the announcement of a new road or development project that would increase their value ten-thousandfold; or on hundreds of millions of pesos changed to dollars and deposited in Switzerland the day before a devaluation.
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Yeah, sure thing, Alcaraz would say, “serving his country” — Ali Baba and his forty thieves. At my house they say they’re even stealing what’s not there to steal. The entire Alemán government is a den of thieves.
吉姆的父親在政府裡位居要津，對商界有如此大的影響力，怎麼吉姆卻在一所二流學校就讀？那種學校只配得上我們這些住在日漸沒落的羅馬區的居民，實在不像是米格爾·阿萊曼那位權勢滔天的密友兼銀行合夥人的兒子該待的地方——這個人每逢總統打個噴嚏就能賺進數百萬：靠的是這裡、那裡、到處的合約；阿卡普爾科的土地交易；進口與建築許可；核准北美公司設立子公司的批文；規定每棟屋頂都得裝設內襯致癌石棉水箱的法令；轉賣從最貧窮社區的免費學校早餐計畫偷來的奶粉；偽造疫苗與藥品；龐大的黃金白銀走私集團；在新道路或開發案公布前幾週，以每公尺幾分錢買下大片土地，等著地價漲上萬倍；或是在貨幣貶值前一天，把數億披索換成美元存進瑞士。