The Undocumented Speak Out Everybody has a story to tell. It doesn't matter who you are or who your audience is. This is true even for recent arrivals in this country.You can still speak, still shout out, "Hello, America! I'm here!" This is true, even if you are one of those people who are invisible, identified only by the label that in the minds of many renders you a non-person, an alien somebody. But you have personhood. You can still say, "I am somebody. I have a right to be here, I belong...

Joe Barrera In the nostalgia time that comes at the end of December every year I remember my past life and what that past means for me now. In this town full of military veterans I think a lot about my Army life, the combat I saw in the Vietnam War, the long twisting road I have walked since I came home from the war, and the many other veterans who have walked that road with me. Christmas time is a powerfully special time, making every memory more real, making every reliving so vivid that it...

The explosions wake me up at night. I'm back in the war. I almost roll off the bed to lie on the floor.The enemy is at it again. Mortar rounds. Then a shriek, a blast as the 75mm recoilless rifle round lands close. I'm caught in the open, in between waking and dreaming. It only lasts a moment. I wake up. I remember. It's the preliminaries for the 4th of July. Bottle rockets and the thick firecrackers that look like sticks of dynamite. Fireworks, just fireworks. The neighborhood kids,...