Arturo Mocino, "I Need Happiness"

Photo of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

I’m blue because Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was included in Forbes’s list of the millionaires in the world. The economic magazine calculated his fortune at one million dollars and put it in 701 sites. I’m sick and angry about this news. Something smelled bad when Forbes published this fact. Something smells bad, too, when Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico, said “Mexico is winning the war against drug cartels”. Who believes him? I do not. I have tried to forget this announcement in Forbes, but it’s terrible. It's bad news!

Abdel Largaespada's Dog, "Max"

Good day, all you readers. The story that I’m going to tell you is about “Max”, my dog. He has a rare story. He has 2 fathers and 1 mother. Max was born on February 14, 2006. One of his fathers is a cute, white Boxer named “Ton Ton” (in Spanish that means “silly”). The other father is a mix of Rottweiler, Doberman, and Mutt. The mother is a brown, pure bred Boxer. Max is always funny. He likes to play with balls, with empty soda plastic bottles, and my shoes. Nobody liked Max when I brought him home because he was a male and we always had a female dogs, but a few months later, everybody loved Max. Something that I haven’t told you yet about Max, is when he comes in the house, he pees on everything, and that is another reason why my mom wants to sell him. Every day in the afternoon, I take Max to walk in the nice park that's near my house. One day, he fell in love with a little Cocker Spaniel, but she didn’t like him, because for her, he was too BIG . Anyway, Max is still in love with her, and he will be waiting for her all his life. Now Max is 5 years old, and he still pees on everything. I don’t know what to do with him, because now, that makes me get mad! Oh Max! why do you do that? Well, dear readers, thank you for your attention and for your interest in my doggy Max. Some day, I’ll tell you about the puppies that I hate, Guinea Pigs!

Salvador Vargas, "English is the Best Way to Communicate in the USA"

I want to explain how important it is to speak English for all the foreigners that do not speak this language in this country. Every single person that lives in the U.S.A. must speak English in order to be successful in this country. I'm going to share a bad experience with everyone about what happened to me 14 years ago because I didn't know how to communicate in English at that time. I'm about to tell the most embarrassing story of my life. One day I was hungry, so I went to McDonald's to buy lunch. But the problem was how to order my food in English. So I tried to make my order in English, but I couldn't pronounce it correctly. Then some customers and employees began laughing at me. I was very shy because I'd never been in such a hard situation before in my life. Now I am attending English classes to improve my skills. Also, I have a good teacher. His name is John Robinson. He's friendly and very patient with all his students. In addition he's very intelligent. He teaches English very well. I want to be an English teacher like him.

Aura Pineda, "Serious Problems"

Hi, my name is Aura. I am an ESL student at City College of San Francisco. I have been living and working in the Bay Area for many years. Because of the economic situation that we are living through at this moment, all of the families are dealing with serious problems. Day by day, we are learning about how many people are losing jobs. After many years of working in the same place, I received notification that I have been laid off. I never expected to lose my job. Now I do not know what I can do. I have many things to worry about at this moment. I feel confused. Getting a new job is very hard because of the situation we are in. How long will it take to accept the reality? I don’t know. Every day I hear from the news that thousands of people are still looking for jobs. In conclusion, I feel sad and worried. I only hope for the best a soon as possible.

Arturo Mocino "The Soundtrack of My Life"

When my Dad and my Mom fell in love, the population in Mexico was 50 million people. I didn’t exist yet, and Fidel Castro, sipping his rum and puffing his cigars, enjoyed power in Cuba. It was 1968, and the world was crazy. People shouted and cried with The Beatles and the Olympic Games, but, in the streets in Paris, Prague, and in my beloved Mexico City, students protested for many changes in the society and the world. In the middle the turmoil, my parents, just married, were traveling and enjoying their honeymoon in El Bajio, a zone in the north west of Mexico between the states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.

I'd like to think I was conceived when they visited Chapala’s Lake. Mom always told me she remembered this beautiful and quiet site. When she was pregnant with me, the soundtrack of my life began. All times, when I listened to “El son de la negra” (Negra’s son) I imagined my father and my mother kissing and enjoying themselves with this song as a background, in the personal movie in my life. Then, when I was a kid and was learning the first letters, they put all songs of Francisco Gabilondo Soler, a famous songwriter in Mexico: “El chorrito” (Little water), “La patita” (Little duck girl), “La marcha de las letras” (Letter’s parade) and my favorite: “El rat’on vaquero” (Cowboy mouse).

My father always sang Javier Solis’s songs, and his favorite song was “Sombras nada m’as” (Shadows…). My mother prefered Consuelito Velazquez. When she cooked or when she was happy she sang “Besame mucho” (Kiss me much). Of course, these songs are part of my personal sound track because I missed my parents when I listened to these songs.

I consider some songs are stronger than others. Every time in your life has a particular music. When you fall in love, when you are happy, when you are young, when you have a new job, some song always exists as a background.

My first girl friend had a song: “De musica ligera” by Soda Stereo. My last job was “Desaparecido” by Manu Chao. San Francisco is “I Only Happy When It Rains” by Garbage, for the many and cruel rainy days in the season. Robinson’s class is “Viva la vida” by Cold Play for the thesaurus of language. Mexico city is “Chilanga banda” by Caf’e Tacuba and Mexico is, and forever and ever, “Mexico lindo y querido” by Jorge Negrete.

This is my personal sound track because, sometimes, the life is like a movie and, always, the music is the best company for the bad or good times.

Now, Obama is president of US, Fidel Castro continues to enjoy the honey of power in Cuba with his brother Raul, and i pod is the king, and many people walk involved in a musical world. But I ask myself: What kind of music are they listening to? What is their personal sound track? Is it short, is it long? What about you?