SMILES AT MAX’S CAFÉ

The conversation did not include him, a young white man with a smirk on his face, but he chose to enter into it, and asked me at the neighborhood café, “What do you think of Trump?” The café with its communal sofas and tables lends itself to easily socialize with the rest of the clientele. I was talking to a former colleague about her current work with bilingual student teachers in the present political climate. I did not answer immediately, and he could not wait, following the first question with another one, “Do you need to think about what you think about Trump?” Since what I was thinking was not about Trump, but about why would a young white man asks an unknown to him, older Latino man, about his ideas on Trump, my answer was, “No, I am only thinking about the likes of you.” His smirk quickly disappeared from his face and added another question, “Why are you saying that?” My former colleague, a Nicaraguan educator who specialized on multicultural education, including how perception influences diverse cultural and class related narrative styles, did not say anything. She simply smiled.