One Boy's Way of Knowing

Mexican poet Alberto Blanco wrote a singular poem called, “The Broken-down Bus,” which is set in the winter of 1965. The narrator is riding a bus from Mexico to Los Angeles—his first journey across the border into the United States. But on the second day of the journey, at midnight, the bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere. All the people—first the teenagers, then the children and grown-ups—get off the bus. They are exhausted from the long journey, anxious to escape the wailing of a baby, impatient with the delay, and angry with the bus driver—blaming him for the mechanical breakdown.

Once the passengers are out under the night sky, their collective mood begins to change. The mother nurses the now quiet baby “under the soft stars,” “bajo las suaves estrellas.” A blind woman starts playing an accordion. The open air outside the bus is cool and smells sweet. Someone sings the first Beatles song the narrator has ever heard. The passengers light a small fire and gather around it.