Hermano and Brother

Two words or two worlds?  The question comes as you watch a man on TV.  If two worlds, he's at one of those worlds and has had to decide whether he'll move into it or try to conduct his business from outside it.  He's on a dance floor in a night club in Argentina, a young woman, lovely, svelte, in his arms.  They're dancing the tango.   " How in the hell can he be dancing after that tragedy of Muslim terrorists slaughtering so many innocent people in Brussels . . ?" echoing in your mind from a previous TV news commentator.  You're instantly transported to walking down a sidewalk in Mexico City and you're suddenly hearing  ". . . Hermano . . . oye, mano . . ."  You continue walking, but seconds later the call comes again and you think, There're only a few people on this sidewalk, maybe he's calling out to me.

You turn and see this guy wave, hurrying toward you.  "Que pasa, mano, vamos a tomar  una cerveza" (" What's happening, brother, let's have a beer . . ."). he says.  You've been in Mexico long enough to know that you represent a world of people that some of them have heard about but do not know. and you marvel at the ease and frequency with which "hermano" or "mano"  is used among these Spanish-speaking people and the ease with which the language lends itself to "mi adorable" or "mi vida" or "mi corazón" between men and women who might not even know each other.

You watch this man on TV, a black President from an Anglo-strong society where the only people who constantly refer to one another as "brother" are Afrikan Americans and to them that black President is "gettin' down," and to that they say, "yeah, do the do, brother."  He had done it in Cuba.  And you could imagine some non-brother people wailing, "How dare him represent us super immortal people by being so cordial with those people.  He's probably calling them 'hermano' and 'hermana.'  My God, we've never been so humiliated!"  The dance is ending, her shapely white thigh cradling high on his, and you burst out laughing, visualizing racists of all colors, world-wide, groaning in agony.  You try to think of another President who could've stepped into those two worlds and done the business he'd come to do, especially with fear and hatred being spread throughout the world not by Christians, not by Hebrews, not by Buddhists but by Muslim terrorists.