PRISONER EXPRESS

Celebrations come and go. And the Mexican-American population in Texas and around all the Southwest love a good party. Any kind of celebration is a good time to party. And Cinco-De Mayo is celebrated all over this area because one small group of Mexicans led by a compesino now called a Mexican army led by General Ignacio Zaragoza, fought back and defeated a legitimate Foreign Legion French Army, in Puebla Mexico, now in own as Goliad, Texas, where a statue of the proud Gen. Zaragoza stands as memory and tribute to his heroic task and that called Battle of Puebla...Soon, there will be mariachis all over, and party time in San Antonio, the Market Square, and Rosedale Park, as well as big parties in Austin, Houston, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Dallas, Abeline, Big Springs, and Brownsville, Leredo and Amarillo, and all over Texas from any direction you want to take from Waco, Cut and Shoot, Pecos, or Midland, Texas will have a big party going on.

Just like the coming Easter...everyone starts off by fixing up egg shells and painting them with brightly colored designs on the outside, and filling them inside with confetti; then getting baskets full of that artificial plastic grass, and chocolate Easter bunnies, and egged shaped candy, and presto, ready to party. Everyone will be merry and celebrating...it will be party time!

Us Mexicans here in prison are getting ready, just like those out there in society. We even invited Big Foot to join us for some tacos or refried beans, chili, with jalapeƱos and chips, mixed with a soup, and a bit of cheese and it will be time to party.

We can not drink any tequila, or margaritas, but...of course; like some, Sleepy, got busted drunk in his cell and was sent to the hole for thirty days! Sad. But, well it reminds me of that song by POCO, 'Thirty Days in the Hole'...hey, maybe that's where POCO got the title for that song? It's an old song. Well, then on 2/23/07, I got surprised by an early interview from parole. My fifth interview in twenty-eight and a half years in prison. I was excited, no doubt, so were a lot of friends I got here, including Big Foot! Yeah, he is locked up here with us. But everyone is in a party atmosphere. Sadboy said 'let the celebration start'...and since the parole interview came up, the party cranked up, and continued. One bowl of food for him, one for me...four to six weeks the man had said...to get my answer for parole, to see if I go home. All looked great! I checked my calendar quickly and found out that the 6th week fell on 'Good Friday' April 6th, and then Easter would be April 8th.

The roots of the Easter celebration date long before Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection. Various Easter customs can be traced back to ancient spring celebrations surrounding Astarte, the goddess of spring and fertility.

The origin of the Easter egg is based on the fertility lore of the Indo-European races...the easter bunny has its origin in Pre Christian fertility lore. That Sskuwey Wabbit, being the most fertile animal our ancestors knew serving as a symbol of the abundant new life in the spring. The Babylonian and Assyrian fertility goddess was named Ishtar, maybe Easter got its name from her? Some where Elmer J. Fudd hunts that Skewey Wabbit...

We, as a people (free and not free) love a party, and we celebrate anything! Pill day, parole day, birth day, MLK day, people day, bad hair day, pay day, baby ruth day, Jackie Robinson day, (old #42) day, and well...any day! We are a party animal people, in fact look how we got parties, Republican party, and Democratic party, it all started with the Boston Tea Party...and the party continues...Sadboy smiled a little wicked grin...and sent me another bowl of food, it was his turn to cook. And I sent him one later...I sat here in my cell just thinking. The days passed, and we exchanged another bowl, several more bowls of food...

Then on April 16th, Rachael drops the bomb on me. Her call to the parole board had devastated her, with the sad bad news that I had been set-off three years...till March 2010...The air of the party balloons could be heard as it hissssssed out, a celebration of relief of its own hissssss the air kept flowing out, and I sagged like a blow up doll with a punctured heart...and it started to rain too, and then it got cold, thunder hit, and then I heard the news about the real bad incident at Virginia Tech...

Poor people, they won't be able to celebrate any more with loved ones, but lets pray they celebrate the big party at the big house with the supreme being up above we call The King of Kings, and God of Gods. I was out of air...and I chilled out a bit. The news changed, our President was on the air...

President Bush, being the rascal he is, said he finally figured out what was causing global warming...'it's all the girls in mini-minis'...they are the main cause of global warming.' More hot air from Bush. And if man stops all those marathon running competitions and stops spewing all that hot air into our atmosphere, it would help also, and it would not get so hot! Alberto and I will put a stop to all that, right Alberto? Yes Sir. I will write legislations and implement stipulations to punish all those violators and incarcerate them all, Sir. Good. Good Jon Alberto. I turned off the radio. Said a prayer for those lost at Virginia Tech, and meditated on them, and then started to think again... An idea formed. Why not flood the Texas Parole Board with support letters, and requests for my parole reconsideration?

This was a great idea. This will be my 29th year in prison, and I am a first timer, almost fifty four years old, so I am no spring chicken, and I have fifty years good time for good behavior. Maybe the public will be heard, before anything that I say will be heard. I guess... I'll celebrate that great idea!

Certain objections will be sure to come to mind, but upon honest investigation, the earnest seeker after truth learns that these days of celebration are all of heathen origin and pagan significance. Ancient Rome's pagan holidays have been chained upon a heedless and deceived world, these days include Christmas, New Year's, Easter, Halloween and possibly many more...every one a pagan day, and mostly established to sell merchandise.

In Austria, there is a horned and hairy Krampus, a companion of St. Nick, aka Santa Claus. Northeastern Europe folklore tells of a dualistic creature, half good, half evil, that roamed the land in the form of two figures, one rewarding good behavior with gifts and the other punishing the bad. Known by various names, Knecht Ruprecht, in Germany, Krampus in Austria, depicted as horned and hairy.

As with Christmas and Easter, Christianity swept the region and certain pagan traditions melded with the new religion to ease conversions. But Santa Claus is not welcome at the church, that's why he stays at the malls...

If we are good, then Krampus won't get us...and St. Nick will reward us...if that's what is instilled in us from childhood, then, why can't the Texas Parole Board see that??? Where is my St. Nick's reward for good behavior??? The parole board is playing the role of Krumpus!

As I said, Christmas and Easter, and also Halloween, go back into the pagan past. Known as All Hallows Eve... November 1 had been established as All Saint's day...and the evening before as All Hallows Eve, October 31, known as Halloween day today! Halloween is the name for the eve of Samhain, a celebration marking the beginning of winter as well as the first day of the New Year within the old ancient Celtic culture of the British Isles.

The Celts observed many other holidays, including the Winter Solstice (later transformed into Christmas), spring fertility rites (reborn later as Easter), May Day as a harvest festival, Feb. 2, Candlemas, the supposed day of Jesus' presentation into the temple and the purification of Mary, and Lammas, a harvest festival August 1 in the U. S A, this Candlemas persists today as 'Groundhog Day'ā€"but on Halloween, it is believed that on this day of celebrations a gathering of supernatural forces accrued as during no other day or period of the year. The time when the barriers between the human and the supernatural world were broken the souls of dead could come visit, and humans could take the opportunity to cross over into the supernatural domains.

The fires built were to frighten off evil spirits...Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divinations concerning marriage, luck, health and death.

It was only the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes. In fact, bobbing for apples was a form of divination. The first person to bite an apple was predicted to be the first to marry the next year...peeling apples could and would determine life span, the longer the peel, the longer the life. The pumpkin, with the lantern on the inside (or Jack-o-lantern) was representative of a watch man...or a man caught between the earth and the supernatural world.

Even Santa Claus flying into the air is only a modified broom stick...of course, God does not cut for all these kind of celebrations. And sets strict rules to follow, but He is understanding too. He knows Satan simply takes advantage of our desires to seduce us as individuals. Religion has actually been one of the major tools that the devil has used to deceive people. 'The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one' he said...and then, there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death...

As all celebrations must end, and the air continued to hissss out of the party balloon...and somewhere in the echo of my mind, I could still hear Elmer J. Fudd saying 'I'll get ya you skuwey wabbit!' I reached over next door, stretched my arm with the last bowl of good food. I said 'That's it Sadboy...no more food to cook, no parole, no money, nothing to celebrate. The party balloon could be heard hissing its last air, and it ran out of air.

The End!