One week from today is Valentine's Day and this might be the first time I ever give someone chocolate or even a card. Gretchen only likes chocalate ice cream and not real chocolate for some reason so I hope I can find heart-shaped chocolate ice cream bars. I think that I will ask her to see a movie and to have lunch on Saturday in town. I hope "The Chronicles of Narnia" is playing because Gretchen said that she wants to see that. Tom and I saw "Big Mommas House 2" last weekend and thought it was funny, but Dad thought it was a little "corny".

At the movies, I got to talk with Jorge, who works at the movie theater. I asked him if he knew if he had any Mayan ancestors that I could talk to and he said that a lot of present-day Mexicans have connections to "indigenous" people which means they are native to the land that is now Mexico, but that they don't always know exactly which group their ancestors were apart of. After the Spanish invaded their regions, many Mayans were killed and the ones that survived eventually integrated with the new "Conquistadors" and their culture which was from Spain or moved and integrated with other tribes of people. So, Jorge mentioned that a lot of present day Mexicans or Mexican-Americans came from Aztecs, which was a very large empire that existed between the 14th and 16th centuries. Jorge also said that his family can be traced back to Aztec ancestors from the 17th century and that many of them fought the Spanish and then the Americans "to maintain their independence". Eventually, his family stayed and became American citizens in the mid 1940's and his grandfather fought for America in world war 2. I thought that was sort of strange since some of his older ancestors fought against the Americans and then his Grandfather fought for America in the 1940's. "I guess things change over time and that in the end you fight for your land, no matter who is making the laws" said Jorge , or something like that, I forgot to bring my notebook and instead I wrote it down on a napkin that got a little wrinkled in my pocket. I still didn't quite understand how that works but I guess its like that episode of "Malcolm in the Middle" where malcolm is fighting his brother, Reese until a bigger bully starts picking on Malcolm so Reese decides to beat up the bully even though he was just beating Malcolm up just minutes before. I suppose fighting for land is a lot like that and that people will always have to fight to keep their territory from people who want to take it. "It is all part of human survival" Dad said, "there are always going to be bullies who are greedy and try to take something that isn't theirs". "Why do they do that?" I said. Dad just looked off into space for awhile and then said finally "because they think they can get away with it." "Sometimes, it takes many different people who may not normally get along to join together to stop the bully before he takes everything". I then asked Dad why he said "he" and he said that usually bullies are men. "oh" I said and before I could ask why, Dad said "I don't know why...just the way it is." He seemed tired of me asking questions and Mr. Grady would say that when your interviewee is tired of questions you ask one more "wrap-up"question and then say thank you. "Dad. Are we greedy?" I asked, and Dad just looked like he was in pain, but took a deep breath and said "Maybe we are a little son, but we don't take anything that isn't ours to take". "No, I meant our country." i said. Now Dad looked really in pain and he just looked at me and said "I don't know son, maybe we are. Can we go home now?" and I shook my head yes.