Why Women, Hispanics And Youth Won’t Save Obama (Forbes): While the president could still win those voting blocks, it is likely that the turnout will be lower and the spread between the president and Republican Mitt Romney will be smaller.

Census: Minority babies are now majority in United States (The Washington Post): For the first time in U.S. history, most of the nation’s babies are members of minority groups, according to new census figures that signal the dawn of an era in which whites no longer will be in the majority.

Minority Births Are New Majority (The Wall Street Journal): For the first time in U.S. history, whites of European ancestry account for less than half of newborn children, marking a demographic tipping point that is already changing the nation’s politics, economy and workforce.

Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S. (The New York Times):  After years of speculation, estimates and projections, the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States.

Minority Rules: Who Gets To Claim Status As A Person Of Color? (NPR):  Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren isn’t backing down from her claim of Native American ancestry, despite the apparent lack of primary documents proving that she’s 1/32nd Cherokee. The controversy surrounding Warren’s heritage led us to wonder — how much of a racial or ethnic heritage constitutes minority status? Should percentages of a bloodline matter at all?

Will GOP domestic violence bill hurt party with Hispanics? (USA Today): House of Representatives approved its version of the Violence Against Women Act on Wednesday, and some GOP strategists worry that it could further hurt the party’s standing with Hispanics even as they try to court the ever-growing voting bloc.

N.Y. police challenged on illegal stops and searches (USA Today/Associated Press):  Finding New York City’s attitude “deeply troubling,” a judge granted class action status Wednesday to a lawsuit that accuses police of discriminating against blacks and Hispanics with stops and searches without cause.

Votes on immigration policy could hurt VP chances for Sen. Portman, Rep. Ryan (The Hill): Controversial votes to crack down on illegal immigrants could hurt the chances of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) or Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) landing on the Republican presidential ticket.

Remembering Carlos Fuentes, Mexico’s Grand Man of Letters (PBS):  Carlos Fuentes was a prolific writer, penning novels, essays, newspaper articles and even an opera. Recognized as one of Latin America’s greatest literary figures and a politically outspoken artist, Fuentes brought stories from Mexico to the world stage. He died yesterday at the age of 83 in Mexico City.

Expect the unexpected in an ambush of the senses not recommended for the weak stomach, this absurd comedy is a visual and verbal onslaught of obscenities from the creator of ‘Borat’ and ‘Bruno’.

A brave opening dedication may cause a few nervous laughs from the outset, but that’s nothing to prepare you for the lunacy that follows. The nonsensical storyline shows the rise of tyrant and supreme leader General Aladeen of the fictional middle eastern republic of Wadiyan. Rich beyond belief from natural sources, he has a serious misconduct of style and no idea how to treat others with respect. Surrounded by beautiful female guards, he is a revolutionary without a clue, except barking ridiculous demands to his disposable operatives. Through some conspiracy, Aladeen heads to America where he is not well received. After a fake assassination from his own people who replace him with a dim-witted goat herding body double, the real Aladeen has to survive in the real world on the streets of New York. Befriending a tomboy feminist vegan anti political organic grocery store owner, the scene is set for some eccentric activity.

Pushing the envelope of decency, this one of a kind film goes out of its way to offend everyone with a pulse and even someone who hasn’t in a funeral scene not soon forgotten. Audiences will be divided with actor Sacha Baron Cohen as either a comic genius or simply an audacious lark marching to the beat of his own drum. However, like him or not, the abrasive enthusiasm he brings to his character is infectious even if the humour is hit and miss. No doubting his talent, chameleon Baron Cohen was delightful in the recent ‘Hugo’ proving to be actually likeable in a relatively normal role.

Full of set pieces that are more demented than the last including exploring the madness of childbirth in public and a riotous helicopter ride above the Manhattan skyscrapers. Watch for some uncredited cameo appearances from courageous Hollywood stars Megan Fox and Edward Norton, while veteran Oscar winner Ben Kingsley is at his deadpan best. Anatomy references and crude behaviour is at a premium, no race, religion, age or stereotype is safe from ridicule, you have been warned.

The Young  Folks: We are a website in which we review music, movies, books, concerts. For young people by young people.

General Douglas MacArthur said in his farewell speech in 1951 that old soldiers never die; they just fade away. It is the same with writers and artists, they never die, and they do not even fade away. They stay with us and leave the legacy of their thoughts on the printed page.

We can recreate their prose, their style, their ideas for as long as we live, reaching out to newer and younger generations. They are called classics. And all those who stay behind become the inheritors of their production. Each time we open a book by Carlos Fuentes, for example, we recreate his ideas, we commune with a writer who is no longer alive in the flesh, but whose thought will endure as long as humanity endures.

He taught at Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Pennsylvania, Columbia and Cambridge.

What else? At the age of thirty he published his first novel La región más transparente, which became a classic, where the Spanish, the indigenous and the mestizo mix, depicting life in the City of Mexico and the culture of the country in general.

His 1984 novel, Gringo viejo, was filmed as Old Gringo, with Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. The book hit the US best-seller list.

Premio Rómulo Gallegos, Cervantes Prize, Príncipe de Asturias Award, Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica and since 2001 a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua. All except the Nobel Prize, but we all know that award is like the lottery, if not more whimsical.

He is one of the best-known Spanish-language writers in the world today, and rightly so. That is why I said at the onset that writers of his stature do not die or fade away: they stay with us, giving us what we sometimes call culture, which he tried to capture in his fiction and essays. In his case he was able to mesmerize the American English-speaking readership, a difficult market whose attention to hold.

He was a sharp critic of Mexico and the US, who never minced words, and was very outspoken. He was once denied entry into the US, but many other writers have had that honor bestowed upon them also.

He carried a life-long love affair with language and words. Being one of Mexico’s greatest living authors, we have a good excuse now to take up one of his novels:

La muerte de Artemio Cruz, by Carlos Fuentes

La voluntad y la fortuna (Destiny and Desire)

La frontera de cristal (The Crystal Frontier)

Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn)

La muerte de Artemio Cruz (The Death of Artemio Cruz)

Gringo viejo (Old Gringo)

“Los sajones nunca dicen lugares comunes. –Por eso me gustan los latinos.” (Anglos never use trite expressions. That is why I like Latinos. Carlos Fuentes, Cantar de ciegos, 1964.

Read his novels and let him talk to you. And listen hard.

You may follow D.C. Basset on Twitter

This article first appeared in Voxxi.

[Photo by MDCarchives]

NewsTaco

In Mexico, the presidential election of July 1 heats up with front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in heavy campaign mode. The former governor of the state of Mexico, the country’s most populous, is hanging on to this lead in the polls but he had a bruising welcome Friday at Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericano, where students shouted “Fuera, fuera!” and carried signs calling him a murderer.

Some sectors view the candidate as being a handpicked choice of ex-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, whose term from 1988-1994 was marked by violence and unrest.

Behind Pena Nieto are Josefina Vazquez Mota of the governing National Action Party (PAN) and Manuel Lopez Obrador, ex-mayor of Mexico City, running for the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, (PRD).

The fourth contender, Gabriel Quadri of a new coalition party  called PANAL, picked up some steam after his performance in the May 6 presidential debate, overshadowed by beautiful model Julia Orayen, an edecan who walked onstage in a revealing white dress, stealing headlines around the world.

It wasn’t enough to distract from the drug war violence that grips Mexico. On Mother’s Day, celebrated on May 10, about 300 women and relatives from around the country marched in Mexico City to demand the government find out the fate of their missing loved ones. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights says 5,000  are reported as missing.

Meanwhile, fighting among cartels isn’t letting up. On Thursday, May 9, police found 18 dismembered and beheaded bodies inside two vans near a tourist area in Guadalajara, capital of Western Jalisco state, where allies of the Sinaloa cartel called Jalisco New Generation are fighting the Zetas.

In Venezuela, a former Supreme Court judge who fled the country a month ago could prove to be bad news for President Hugo Chavez. Eladio Aponte is collaborating with the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Agency, implicating government officials with drug ties, allegations the Venezuelan government denies.

In Argentina, the Senate passed two landmark laws: a gender identity law that allows people over 18 to legally change the sex assigned at birth if they want and a “dignified death” law giving the terminally-ill and their families power to refuse treatment for incurable illnesses or injuries.

The Congress in Chile approved an anti-discrimination law after a gay man, Daniel Zamudio, was brutally killed in March

In futbol-mad Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff is expected to sign a Senate bill that gives the world soccer-body FIFA guarantees to organize the 2014 World Cup.

Political unrest grips Bolivia, with union and indigenous protests breaking throughout the Andean nation, challenging the left-wing government of Evo Morales.

Not All Latino, Black Clergy Oppose Marriage Equality (Lezgetreal): GLAAD today issued a press release in which they highlighed a variety of different Latino and Black clergy who support same-sex marriage.

Will Obama’s support of same-sex marriage cost him Latino votes? (SCPR): That’s become one of the burning questions since yesterday’s announcement by President Obama that he believes same-sex couples should have the right to marry, made a day after North Carolina legislators voted to outlaw same-sex marriage in their state.

Gay marriage issue will not alienate Hispanic voters, experts say (Fox News Latino):  The historic and politically risky announcement by President Barack Obama supporting same-sex marriage comes at a time when the largely Catholic Hispanic community is also evolving its opinion on the matter, experts consulted on the subject on Thursday told Efe.

 House OKs money for jailing illegal immigrants — with caveat (Los Angeles Times): Incarcerating illegal immigrants is expensive, and local and state governments have for years insisted that the federal government help foot the bill. Congress appears poised once again to keep the money flowing.

Rubio met with Hispanic Democrats to pitch DREAM Act vision (The Daily Caller): Rising political superstar Marco Rubio courted three high profile Hispanic Democratic lawmakers last month in an attempt to gain support for his alternative DREAM Act proposal, legislation which his spokesman told The Daily Caller would include a path to permanent residency and citizenship for some illegal immigrants.

Roaring Fork Valley fights Immigration on plans to deport Basalt woman (The Denver Post): When Norma Galindo Gonzales was awakened by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at her Basalt home early May 1, a valley with a history of opposing perceived unfair immigration enforcement also was roused. People rallied against the action in Glenwood Springs three days later.

Immigrant Mothers To Be Deported Beg ICE To Let Them Stay In US With Their Children (Huffington Post): There may not be anything more painful than a mother having to say goodbye to her child. And yet that is the predicament that many mothers, including Carmen and Maria, are facing. After both women pleaded with immigration officials to be allowed to stay with their children, Maria was granted an extension but Carmen was ordered out of the country.

Mitt Romney Gets Testy After Gay Marriage, Immigration, Pot Questions (Huffington Post): Mitt Romney got a touch testy with a local Colorado reporter on Wednesday after fielding several successive questions on social issues and immigration policy.

Ted Cruz, U.S. Senate candidate from Texas, reports bounce from Sarah Palin’s endorsement (ABC News): Call it the Sarah Palin bounce: Hours after the 2008 vice presidential nominee endorsed Ted Cruz, a Republican candidate for U.S. senator from Texas, on Thursday morning, the staff at Cruz’s headquarters in Austin reported a swift and positive reaction.

Justice Department Says Alabama Immigration Law Disrupts Access to Public Education (Immigration Impact):  While eyes remain fixed on the Alabama legislature’s effort to revise their immigration enforcement law, HB 56, the U.S. Department of Justice informed state officials in a letter last week that the state’s immigration law has resulted in significantly higher absence rates among Latino students.

Alabama senator’s move to kill immigration law fails and most commenters cheer (al.com): Alabama senators killed Wednesday a move to repeal the state’s immigration law. Sen. Billy Beasley, D-Clayton asked senators to bring up his bill to repeal the 2011 law in place of legislation that would merely rewrite the law, Birmingham News writer Kim Chandler reports.

Census: Foreign-Born Population Reaches Record High (Education Week):  The U.S. Census Bureau reports today that the population of foreign-born people living in the United States has reached 40 million, an all-time high. That figure—from the 2010 American Community Survey—comprises about 13 percent of the total population in the U.S., which is roughly 312 million people.

When Teachers Overcompensate for Racial Prejudice (The Atlantic): A new study suggests that educators are wary of critiquing minority students — and in the process, actually undermining children’s self-esteem.

Programs needed to encourage Latino males (San Antonio Express-News):  (The) choice between immediate gain and action with more long-term benefit is one of the key reasons that Latino males are lagging in economic and academic achievement.

Best Latino Actor at 2012 MTV Movie Awards (ONDT): Zoë Saldaña, Diego Luna, Demian Bichir, Penélope Cruz and Harmony Santanaare the nominees for Best Latino Actor at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, which will be held June 3, the MTV, Musica y Mas television channel announced Monday.

CHICAGO — This fall the Supreme Court will hear Fisher v. University of Texas, a case that could decide the fate of racial preferences in the college admissions process. And here’s a perfect example of why higher education’s affirmative action and diversity initiatives should focus on socioeconomic status rather than race and ethnicity: Elizabeth Warren.

It turns out that Warren, a Harvard law professor who decided to challenge Sen. Scott Brown after she was passed over as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has in the past identified herself as a minority — 1/32nd Native American, to be exact. Warren’s great-great-great-grandmother was Cherokee.

A Massachusetts genealogist tracked down Warren’s long-deceased relative after Brown’s campaign raised “serious questions” about her credibility. The Brown camp noted that Harvard Law School counted Warren as a Native American employee in the 1990s when the school was being attacked for its lack of diversity, and implied that her racial classification gave her an unfair advantage in getting hired to begin with.

Though Warren said she didn’t know about the label Harvard had assigned her, she confirmed that she had, for about a decade, listed herself as a minority in a directory of law professors that was widely used as a tip sheet for minority recruiting purposes. Warren said she’d hoped to meet peers of a similar background but eventually gave up.

Social media streams have been brimming with offensive remarks directed at Native Americans, illustrating how completely clueless most people are about contemporary Indians — but also how angry people get about any type of ethnicity-based preferential treatment.

Much of this mini-scandal centers around whether Warren can rightly claim to be Native American. But who has the right to tell another whether they qualify for admittance into a particular cultural heritage?

Interracial households in America recorded a 28 percent increase between 2000 to 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In my family, between me and my two cousins, we have six kids who are half Hispanic (from two different Latin American countries) and half white, black or Asian. When our kids grow up, any choice of mate will produce a child of further-diluted race or ethnicity, and so on, until our adult great-great-great-grandchildren get to decide their identity for themselves.

Which brings us back to affirmative action. Unless the government decides on a minimum percentage to be considered any one of the acknowledged racial or ethnic minorities — and requires blood tests or DNA sequencing to prove it — how will any college or other organization with a mission to maintain a diverse faculty and student body do the sorting? And how could it possibly be fair?

Many middle- and upper-class minorities can afford a college education. So is it right for their children to be considered for extra financial aid, a break on tuition, or a coveted registration slot alongside minorities whose parents are truly poor? And what about poor white students? Are they simply out of luck because their race supposedly accords them special privileges to begin with?

But far worse is the perception that when race enters the equation, merit is overlooked in favor of whatever category needs to be added on to meet a quota — and that minorities are more than happy to exploit such a situation.

Warren’s list of accomplishments — not the least of which is that, as a child, her parents struggled financially and troubles worsened after her father died, but she still managed to earn a full-ride, merit-based college scholarship — is impressive by any measure. Warren worked hard to get from her kitchen-table law practice to the White House where she advised President Obama.

If we would only ensure that college is accessible to all those who can excel academically and professionally, we’d neither feel the need to question Warren’s qualifications nor doubt her personal connection to her family’s heritage.

Esther J. Cepeda writes a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times and three columns weekly for national newspaper syndication for the Washington Post Writers Group. She is an opinion journalist and expert on the issues of U.S. Hispanics/Latinos. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Chicago Headline Club, and The Society of Professional Journalist. You can learn more about her at www.estherjcepeda.com

[Photo by hhsara]

It has been two decades since that Wednesday in April when Los Angeles went through either a civil unrest or a riot – it all depends on your perspective. For example, the beating that Fidel Lopez endured was a couple of clicks past civil unrest. That was a full scale riot. We all sat glued to our television sets, watching the carnage unfold wondering if the story was big enough to interrupt my mom’s novelas. It was like free pay-per-view, except that this fight was not going to be called in the first round. I still remember the smell, the air so thick with smoke from the fires from the other side of town that it replaced the usual stink of semi-truck exhaust that normally filled my lungs.

The following day was a Thursday. I was doing that deviant math people tend to do when they want to get out of something. Out East, people look out their windows and pray for snow. I thought that there had been just enough arson-related ashes falling from the sky to call it a modified snow day, but I was wrong. I remember my dad was sitting at the table nursing a hangover. He was the recipient of a four-day holiday and had started celebrating that Wednesday. He went outside for a second and looked past the smoke clouds and declared it unfit for both man and beast to venture into the metropolis. I thought that was the pardon I needed to cement my modified snow day – but then my mom objected. She made my dad and me find our pants, because not only was I going to school, but my dad was going to drop me off. There was nothing my dad hated more than giving me a ride, for any reason. I could be twisting around snake bitten and in pain, and my dad would still take the time to calculate not only gas usage, but the wear and tear on the thread of his tires. In addition, he would spend days giving me the silent treatment if his parking spot was gone by the time he came back.

Naturally, I protested that I had to go to school during a city-wide riot. My mom’s rationale was that I would be safer in school than at home. She figured that the teachers and administration were trained professionals and would therefore be able to address looters and arsonists. My dad was no help. He weighed out the lesser of two evils and figured that the possibility of losing a parking space was less severe than incurring my mother’s wrath.

The first thing that struck me was the emptiness of the school. I was like Charlton Heston in the Omega Man. The only other kids who were there were the ones who had received too many truancy tickets and could not afford to be seen outside of school. I remember for P.E., I still had to endure the charade of changing into my gym sweats to watch “Stand and Deliver” in the gym. It was reassuring to know that the school district’s contingency plan was to treat riots like a rainy day. The rest of the day followed a similar pattern. I spent three other periods watching a poorly dubbed documentary on Martin Luther King, “La Bamba” and a very special episode of “Growing Pains,” in which Kirk Cameron’s character receives an offer of cocaine. My other teachers used class time as a “rap session” in an attempt to connect with “us kids.” It was obvious they had spent all night watching the riot footage and neglected their lesson plans.

By the time fifth period rolled around, I asked for the bathroom pass and just meandered around the school. I realized that my teachers were actual human beings. They were no better prepared than I was. The only thing they were trained for was to tell us to duck our heads under the desk and take cover. I walked home watching that smoke cloud get bigger and bigger, all the while getting closer and closer, wondering when it would make it to my house. The riots were said to have ended that very Friday, although if you look up, you can still make out that cloud that has been hanging around since 1992.

[Photo by JMR_Photography]

Push for Latino vote in US election (ABC News): A non-partisan organisation in Florida is trying to encourage more Hispanics to make their vote count in the upcoming US Presidential election. Latino’s now make up 16% of the population in the United States but in the last Presidential election only one in three eligible Hispanics voted.

Hispanics lack opportunities in faltering economy (The Washington Times): The Pew Hispanic Center recently found that the top issues for Hispanic voters are jobs, education, health care, the federal budget deficit and immigration. Yet when it comes to those issues, President Obama’s policies have hurt our nation’s growing Hispanic population.

Latinos, Latinas: More difference than ‘o’ or ‘a’ (San Antonio Express-News): Along the way from preschool to high school graduation, the institutions that serve as the pipeline to college degrees somehow spring leaks for Latino males. They fare worse than Latinas.

Report Cites Higher Education Gap for Latinos (Arizona Public Media): Latino students lag their non-Latino counterparts in higher-educational attainment and “intentional” programs and services are needed to balance the equation, says a new report from Excelencia in Education.

Where Immigration Rallies Once Drew Hundreds of Thousands, Few Turn Out (Fox News Latino):  Where immigration reform once brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets — over 500,000 in Los Angeles, 250,000 in Chicago, 100,000 in New York, and while the issue has grown more heated in the courtrooms and politically, immigration rallies have gotten smaller — much smaller.

Teach black and Hispanic students differently (USA Today):  Regardless of the measure used — state reading and math tests or the district “exit” exams students need to pass to graduate — Hispanic students in recent years have been making faster progress than black students.

Women say ‘I do’ to education, then marriage (Chicago Tribune): For the first time, women with one or more college degrees are more likely to be married by age 40 than their lesser-educated counterparts, according to a long-term study by Paula England, professor of sociology at New York University.

Navy ship to be named for Cesar Chavez (Orange County Register):  With a sharp crack of the champagne bottle bursting against the hull of the massive ship and these noble words “I christen thee USNS Cesar Chavez. May God bless this ship and all who sail her,” Helen F. Chavez, widow of the ship’s namesake, will launch the USNS (United States Naval Ship) Cesar Chavez on May 5.

Spain Braces for Anti-austerity Rallies (Hispanic Business):  Spain braced for rallies against austerity and labor-market reforms Tuesday, a day after the country joined seven other eurozone economies in recession.

Coming Soon: Telemundo-Fandango Hispanic Moviegoer Website (Fishbowl LA):  Among the NBCUniversal headlines being made today at the Digital Upfronts in New York City is the news that Telemundo Media has partnered with movie ticketing behemoth Fandango for Fandango Cine, a Spanish-language Web venture scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2012. 

Is illegal immigration passé? (Los Angeles Times):  The more pressing question now is what to do with the 11 million illegal immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere who are already here. Some Republicans want to redouble efforts to deport them; Mitt Romney has said he hopes they will “self-deport.”

The Growth Effect (The Wall Street Journal):  When the Pew Hispanic Center released a report last week showing that net migration to the U.S. from Mexico was now zero, a debate ensued over whether the cause was a weak U.S. economy or enhanced border security. Demographers, however, had long predicted that Mexican immigration would taper off sooner rather than later for different reasons.

Spain Officially in Recession (Hispanic Business): The Spanish economy is officially in a recession, after shrinking for two consecutive quarters, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said Monday.

Hasta La Vista, Aol Latino (Fox News Latino): Beginning today AOL Latino ceases to exist as we’ve known it for almost a decade, and instead will be making its way to become ‘Voces,’ yet another vertical of the almighty The Huffington Post Media Group.

Bienvenidos a la Familia!Introducing HuffPost Voces (Huffington Post): With the robust debate surrounding Latino issues — a debate that, regrettably, is far too often detached from the real experience of Latinos in America — there’s no better time for the launch of Voces.

Sombrero Shaped Galaxy Has Multiplied (LA Weekly):  It turns out the so-called Sombrero Galaxy — shaped like the Mexican hat — is now two. Ay Dios mio: Leave us Latinos alone for two seconds and — boom! — we multiply.

Tomas Choc an elderly man in a small town in Guatemala searching for his daughter, who he hasn’t seen in 20 years. He hopes against all odds that she is still alive.

Every day, he visits a site with unmarked graves that some young forensic archeologists are digging in hopes of identifying more victims of the country’s civil war that took 200,000 lives.

Twenty years earlier, the military kidnapped his daughter. She was 3 years old.

Word comes to Choc one day that his daughter, Lucia, may still be alive in the town of Nebaj. So Choc embarks on a 100-mile journey through the mountains and Mayan villages of Guatemala.

This is the premise of “Distancia” (2010), the award-winning first film by director Sergio Ramirez, of Guatemala.

The film, made on a shoestring budget with a crew of 10 and using two actors and people from the surrounding communities, has won many festivals prizes in Latin America, the United States and Europe. It recently won Best Picture and Best Direction at the Havana Film Festival of New York City and has won awards at the Miami International Film Festival and the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.

Ramirez has said he hopes the recognition will attract money to produce other films. He wants to do a story about a Guatemalan immigrant in New York City with filming in New York, Guatemala and Mexico.

In “Distancia” Choc leaves his humble home and starts on a journey through his Central American country. Full of quiet dignity and grandeur, he encounters people along the way who give him rides in trucks, cars and buses until he reaches Nebaj.

 Antonio Zavala writes for Voxxi, where this article first appeared.