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though.
    WM:
    But listen to this, I say to her: “Look, Alta, I’m sorry to say this, but you’re overprotective with that kid. He’s a boy and dads have to be firm with them and treat them as if they were men. I know it’s hard because you’re the mom, but that kid of yours, he needs his father more than you right now. I’m sorry for saying this, Alta,” I say to her, “but that kid of yours likes the soap operas way too much and you got to remember that he’s a boy.”
    WMT:
    And she got mad at you, right? Look, those people, they’re hard workers and all that and it’s true they have it hard in their country, but if you ask me they’ve got inferiority complexes. You can’t say anything to them. That’s why my husband can’t stand them. He even wants to leave Santurce and he was born and raised here.
    WM:
    But listen to this. She says to me, the ingrate, “Don’t worry, neighbor, that boy is just fine and he’s being brought up without any delusions. And whoever doesn’t like it,” talking real loud so that the husband hears her, “it’s enough that he has a Dominican mother and has to put up with all the prejudice here.” And I said to her: “That’s exactly why I’m telling you, because later on it’s going to be worse for him.”
    WMT:
    Well said. “Prejudice” my ass.
    WM:
    No, and she said thanks but she knew what she was doing, that she had a degree in counseling.
    WMT:
    Probably from Santo Domingo.
    WM:
    Nena, she got it here. Don’t you know they’re getting all the scholarships? But we’re supposed to keep our mouths shut. I said to her: “Sorry, honey, if I offended you, but that wasn’t my intention.” That’s her problem.
    WMT:
    Some psychologist, she only got to come here because her husband met her at a pool tournament over there and fell in love and sent for her. My husband tells me that at work there’s one who says she doesn’t get involved with married men because she wants to become a citizen. My husband gets all worked up about this because it’s like he says: they come here and take over absolutely everything. Just go by Barrio Obrero, or Villa Palmeras, or Río Piedras. The farmers market is filled with Dominicans and you can count the people who are actually from here.
    WM:
    I’m telling you, girl, it really gets me, but that boy is going to suffer a whole lot because people are prejudiced. There was one working at the school as a librarian. We gathered signatures and complained to the school board until they got rid of him. He was cool and the students loved him, but, honey, there are a lot of lawsuits now and, you know, it’s not good for the kids.
    WMT:
    No, it’s just like my husband says. Now the fags seduce men in broad daylight, right on the street. He tells me that in the men’s room in the Plaza Mall a guy was looking at him and looking right down at it and he punched him so the fag would respect, and then said to him: “Now go call the police ’cause I don’t give a goddamn fuck.” You know how he is.
    WM:
    They’re filthy! Those pigs. Lord, forgive me, since I have sons, but I tell my students that it’s not natural and even though some say no, I tell them they can get help for that. Yes, honey, in Caguas there’s a church that sends them to Florida and they go to a camp there, and they come back nice and straight. The son of the lady who works for the Department of Public Works was sent to that camp and he already has a fiancée.
    WMT:
    Yeah, but you can still kinda tell.
    WM:
    And what do you say about my husband’s brother? He’s that way, that’s why he lives in Philadelphia because people don’t accept that here and when he comes we welcome him with the American and all, but he knows better and they stay in a hotel.
    WMT:
    My husband tells me about