My little latin love story, Part 10 of ...

At that time Xbox had come out and I was studying whether to buy an Xbox or a Playstation 2. I really liked Halo on Xbox, but my sister said I should come to her house in Salt Lake and try out her Playstation 2. With what I was going through I thought it was a good idea to get a distraction in my life. While I was there I called Mili. At long last she answered.

I was so happy just to speak to her, but she was more reserved. A more ‘I-want-to-tell-you-something-but-I-probably-shouldn't-tell-you’ kind of mood.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I didn’t go in.”

“Did they not let you go in?”

“No, I just didn’t go in.”

“WHY!” I screamed into the phone. This was the first time I had really become agitated with Mili. I was usually the one that kept his cool.

“I’m not ready to marry you.” This wasn’t happening. I had paid so much, suffered so much and fought so much. I wasn’t even going let Mili stop me at this point.

Eventually, I pried the information out of her and she told a tale of how she just didn’t feel like she was a good person. Mili felt bad about some things that she had done in the past. Things that had long since past, things she had long since left behind her, things she had long since repented of. I could see that she was a completely different person now then the person in her past. But she couldn’t. I listened as she laid the whole story before me, and when she was done I broke into the ‘you-shall-be-as-white-as-snow’ speech. Sure, it's a little overdone, a little cliché, but things don't get cliché because they arn't true or useful. I didn’t care about what she had done or how she felt about things she had done in the past, and at that moment I felt like an old friend had walked up to me to say 'hello', I remembered the true reason I was fighting so hard and tolerating so much. Something that had gotten lost in the fighting, the straining and the overall mess of government. I loved her, and I wanted to spend eternity with her.

The next day Mili called the embassy and they told her she couldn’t get another appointment until next year. Although the government was taking their time, with regard to 9/11, I feared that they might just get their act together and look at the INS instead of just promoting patriotism. First, I called the US embassy in Peru and tried to convince them that just because I was a tax-paying US citizen I had some say in what went on in government, I refused to speak or acknowledge that I spoke Spanish in a foolish attempt to intimidate them like I would a Wal-Mart customer service employee into accepting the return of an item that I had bought without the receipt. It didn’t work; they probably don't get paid enough to care. Next I called my representative in Washington, my voice in federal law, my congressman, Chris Cannon. I figured that he could call the embassy, throw some proverbial (and probably literal) weight around and tell them to make an appointment for Mili and that would be that. I got passed off to some underling who gave me the excuse that because of Sept. 11 the INS told them that they couldn’t pull strings like that any more and I never voted for Chris "Jowels" Cannon again.

I wish I could take back every tantrum I ever had. I wish I could take back every tear I had ever made my mom cry, every sleepless night that she had for my sake. My Mom, seeing my suffering, called Orin Hatch’s (our senior senator) office and told them of my plight. Orin Hatch or at least one of his powerful secretaries (because, let's be honest, it's the secretaries that get things done) waved the stick of senatorial power and with a call, a fax and within 24 hours Mili had an appointment for the very next week and I had a smile on my face once again.