Podcast: The Author's Corner: Manuel Peña

The Monitor invited author Manuel Peña for the first-ever Author's Corner podcast.

Click here to listen to it. (Right click and choose "Save as" to download. File is 14.5 megabytes and may take a few minutes to download.)

An excerpt from Where the Ox Does Not Plow: A Mexican American Ballad by Manuel Peña:

"For my first day of school, Mama had packed some tacos in a brand new metal lunch box Papa had bought for me, with a picture of Hopalong Cassidy and his horse stamped on the lid. In those days, anything wedged or wrapped in a tortilla was called a taco, and these were made of refried beans and potatoes mixed into a hash, which Mama had rolled into a homemade flour tortilla-what in later years came to be known as a burrito. During midmorning recess, I had met and befriended a couple of children, and when it came time to eat, I joined them and two or three more in a little circle, where we all set about opening our lunch boxes and unwrapping our noon meals.

When the other children saw what I had brought for lunch, they all burst into simultaneous laughter. ‘Lookie, lookie,' one of them jeered in his Mexicanized accent, ‘he's eating tortillas!' By this time I had learned a little English by listening to my older brothers and playing with a poor gringo neighbor's kid, and when the other classmates joined in the taunting, I quickly found myself in a state of crushing embarrassment...

‘Tomorrow I am not taking tortillas to school,' I wailed to Mama as soon as I walked into our shack. Taken aback, Mama tried to find out what was wrong. ‘They made fun of me and made me feel ashamed,' I complained. ‘They laughed and made fun of my tacos, and I'm never gonna eat them again!'

The next day at noon, I proudly pulled out my white-bread-and-bologna sandwich, complete with lettuce-and-mayonnaise trimmings. No one laughed or jeered this time. I was now one of them."

Manuel Peña will be reading from his book, Where the Ox Does Not Plow: A Mexican American Ballad, Friday, May 16, at 4 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble on the corner of 10th Street and Nolana in McAllen. He will also be holding a reading Saturday at the Weslaco Museum at 2 p.m.

To learn more about Peña, visit his Web site at www.manuelhpena.com.