Maybe Even American... excerpt The Unforgotten Like everyone else in the kitchen, Armando was from Colombia. One of the hotel owners had a coca farm there. And after the original kitchen staff started to make noise about overtime, back pay and unions, he decided to make an offer to some of the Colombian farm workers. He rounded up a dozen men, some as young as 16, all bachelors, and offered them a chance. A chance to leave their village and go to America. “You’ll travel the ocean and see a great city,” he said. “You’ll have jobs and a place to stay and the pay will be twice what you make pulling weeds and kneeling in this dirt.” Each young man looked into his father’s tired eyes, then one by one laid down those weary dreams. For something more. For maybe even becoming American. One by one they said, “Yes señor. I will leave all I have known of this life I will go and live among strangers and try to be something greater than a gatherer of coca leaves.” They said goodbye to all they e
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