El Chino by Allen Say

Author:Allen Say [Say, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The school was just a clearing in a wood outside the city, but the maestro had been a famous matador when he was young. We took turns playing the bull, and the old master taught us to use the cape and the sword.

"He is a good athlete," I heard one student say about me.

"And he has courage and grace," said another. "But he cannot be a matador. He is not Spanish."

My dad would've said a few things to them, but it was no use. How could they understand? They hadn't grown up in the United States.

Before I knew, it was springtime in Spain. That's when the bull ranchers hired student matadors to test their young cows for courage and spirit. And the students who fought well would go on to become real matadors. Like my classmates, I went looking for work.

Everywhere I went, though, the ranchers took one look at me and shook their heads. My family sent me love and money, and that kept me going, but after two years I still hadn't fought a single cow. Maybe it was time to give up, time to go home and be an engineer again.

But what would Dad have said to me now?

I'd tell him this wasn't Arizona, U.S.A. So I couldn't be a Spanish matador.

But uno momento, Señor. A Spanish matador? What had I been thinking all this time?

I'm Chinese!

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