Milestone: 2 011 Ⅲ EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Milestone: 2011 EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Cover Illustrations: Tracy Liu, front cover; Elizabeth Rodriguez, back cover Milestone Cover 2011.indd 1 4/18/11 10:34 AM Milestone: 2011 EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Monterey Park, California Milestone2011.indd 1 4/13/11 1:58 PM 2 East Los Angeles College Milestone: 2011 Editor Emeritus Carol Lem Editors Dolores Carlos, Lauren Gras, Juan Gurfield, Alexis Solis Selection Staff College Literary Magazine Editing Class of Spring 2010 (English 32) and a panel of editors Book Design Patricia Heckman Student Artwork Dulce Brassea, Kelvin Cheung, Martin Cordova, Steven Correa, Zulma Cruz, Lidia Garcia, Tracy Liu, Manuel Lopez, Susanna Negrete, Elizabeth Rori- guez, Robert Rodriguez, Katie Yuchen-Wei East Los Angeles College 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez Monterey Park, California 91754 Milestone is published by the East Los Angeles College English Department. Material is solicited from students of the college. Milestone2011.indd 2 4/13/11 1:58 PM MILESTONE: 2011 3 mTable of ContentsM Editors’ Note....................... 5 Ben Russak Killer Appetite™ ................... 7 Diana Recouvreur Forward Motion ................... 10 In Queue.......................... 11 Orphanage, China .................. 13 Wonder, Land – April 15, 2009 ......... 14 Trudi Hayashida The Doll Chest ..................... 15 Jose Zuniga Selling Grass ....................... 21 Some day.......................... 27 Gus Ugalde Cyber-battle ....................... 29 Tiffany Ip The forgotten tastes ................. 31 Louis Augustine Herrera-Galindo Love’s Descent...................... 34 Sharif Hamideh Palestine .......................... 36 Bob Noz Gestures .......................... 37 Kenny ............................ 43 Samuel Dominguez Sickness unto Death................. 49 Sergio Garcia The Hour of Lead .................. 51 Songstress ......................... 52 Stevie Johnson Waiting ........................... 53 Oliver Bedolla This Is Just To Say................... 61 Yvette Correll Escape . 62 Look Closely....................... 63 Oscar De Leon You Were .......................... 64 Luis Madrigal Gray blue eyes Pt. 1 .................. 65 Gray blue eyes Pt. 2 ................. 67 Gray blue eyes Pt. 3.................. 69 Christopher Makoto Yee Life With Matt ..................... 70 Home Cooking..................... 77 Contributors’ Notes . 79 Milestone2011.indd 3 4/13/11 1:58 PM 4 East Los Angeles College Robert Ramirez Milestone2011.indd 4 4/13/11 1:58 PM MILESTONE: 2011 5 mEditors’ NoteM e took over the editing of Milestone, ELAC’s literary journal, from Carol Lem, who did a wonderful job on the journal for many years. We determined to try and keep the Wsame high quality in our acceptances that Carol had, and in fact, sev- eral of the pieces included in this issue had been selected by her and her class in “Editing the Literary Magazine,” last spring. In addition, the English department decided to include the work of a recent Eng- lish language learner who is talented. We have many talented writers at ELAC, and this journal represents some of the best of their work. If you would like to be published in the next Milestone, watch for our “Call for Submissions” flyers. The artwork is a product of our art department at ELAC. We would like to thank Trish Heckman, Graphic Arts Designer and the art department for their invaluable help in putting this issue together. Since this is our first attempt at editing the journal, we are sure we have made some errors. If we have inadvertently missed someone’s work, it was due to this changeover, and we apologize. — Dolores Carlos, Lauren Gras, Joan Gurfield, Alexis Solis Milestone2011.indd 5 4/13/11 1:58 PM 6 East Los Angeles College Elizabeth Rodriguez Milestone2011.indd 6 4/13/11 1:58 PM MILESTONE: 2011 7 mKiller Appetite™m by Ben Russak OU KNOW THE FEELING: all of a sudden, deep in the pit of your stomach you feel a pervasive hunger. It may hit you Ynear the end of your workday, or as you wait in an idling car at rush-hour, or right before you go to bed. It may even wake you up in the middle of the night as your partner sleeps soundly by your side with one leg securely fastened to yours. Now, if you are a human being, the answer is easy; just slowly peel back your partner’s leg, slip on some sweats, hop in your car, and drive through the fast food restaurant of your choice. You will be back home, fully fed and fast asleep, before anyone knows you are gone. Yes, humans have it easy, but, you might be asking, what’s a multinational corporation to do? Well, fear no longer, you conquerors of consumers, for we have the answer: an all-you-can-eat, seven course banquet, guaranteed to stuff both your stomach and your coffers. In fact, if you partake in our cornucopia of consumption—which Eric Schlosser revealed in his book Fast Food Nation—you will be delighted, you will be delirious, your competition will be devastated, and while you may never be fully satisfied, you will always be able to come back for more! So, let’s start with something light: Employee Empanadas. Stop treating workers so well! Grind them into easily digestible pieces. With our lobbying team and our patented union busting tactics, not only can you strip them of benefits and decrease their pay, but also work them to the bone, violate state labor laws and stop worrying about those pesky little safety codes. Simply hire teenagers, recent immigrants and undocumented workers. Let us explain. Desperate people make ideal workers because they’re far less likely to protest long hours, underpayment and safety code violations. And while such violations might result in worker injury or even death, when you consider the billions of dollars in profits your company can achieve, the risk is nothing by comparison. We guarantee that an unfortunate amputation will cost you no more than $36,000, and a careless worker’s death, a mere $480. Plainly, death at the workplace is not so bad. Hell, it might even be preferable to life, especially when you consider that the dead can’t file lawsuits. However, we recommend avoiding teenage deaths as the data we have on their parents’ understanding of the U.S. legal system is unreliable. Now that your appetite’s been whetted, let’s move on to course number two, Soup of Supplier. You might think you don’t want to Milestone2011.indd 7 4/13/11 1:58 PM 8 East Los Angeles College anger the people who provide your product, but a big multinational corporation like yourself has absolutely nothing to worry about. Remember, you are the boss; you tell them what you want to pay and make them figure out how to deal with it! The key here is market influence, because in the world of capitalistic distribution of goods and services, or “McOnomies of Scale” as we like to call it, size does matter. For your third course—a little roughage to drain the digestive track and make way for the main courses. I know you’re probably scoffing, “Salad? That’s what the meat on my plate eats!,” but believe us, we’re only interested in you growing big and strong, and getting as large a portion of market share on your plate as possible. Remember, there are other folks out there who have their eye on that same juicy market share and they might not go down as easily as the employees and supplies upon whom you have already dined. Many times they can create complications during digestion and may even try to come back up (this can be quite messy). So it is important that you tune up your body before you chow down on your competition and eat your vegetables! Now for the fourth course, let’s cleanse the palate with a little soil. As Franklin Roosevelt once said, “the Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”. Well, nice try, Frankie. We see this mindset as a classic example of ineffectual micromanagement by governmental busybodies. We prefer the slogan: “The Corporation that Destroys its Profit Motive Shits the Bed.” Why worry about tomorrow when you can make a killing today? Finally, it’s time for the main course! During this promotional season, we offer three options: Toasted Township, Butterflied Borough or Corn on the County. “Whoa!” you might exclaim. “Entire cities?” We can’t possibly digest all of that!” But these civic centers will go down as easily as the workers, suppliers, and competing businesses before them. Just note Schlosser’s example of the celebrated case of Lexington, Nebraska. Lexington was a sleepy town with a rich history of wine cultivation, churches, and Indian massacres, until a corporation decided to set up shop with one of their renowned slaughterhouses. Within one decade, due to a high turnover of a largely uneducated and grossly underpaid migrant workforce, this quaint town was transformed into a crime-ridden, poverty-stricken, gang and drug infested community, and one of the most profitable centers of the meatpacking industry! And while the town staggers along, that corporation is stronger than ever, thanks to the selfless sacrifices of places like Lexington. That is only the tip of the iceberg! One Milestone2011.indd 8 4/13/11 1:58 PM MILESTONE: 2011 9 particularly glorious Saturday morning, one of our co-sponsors devoured the entire Nebraskan tax code for breakfast, with the simple threat of relocation to another state. The kicker? After they got what they wanted, they relocated anyway! Now that you’ve left entire cities writhing in the septic tank of your forward momentum, you might wonder if the meal isn’t finally over. But no corporate feast would be complete without its pièce de résistance, Cutlet of Customer, a fatty delicacy not to be missed! Some of you might think, “Are you frigging out of your mind? If we eat our customers, who’ll buy our product?” But hear us out—with all the money saving practices our strategists put in place, certain contaminations are bound to occur, but more often than not the overall population barely notices these “microscopic” problems.