sourceofimageunknown Peeps, In an insightful article for online magazine Being Latino, writer Nick Baez lamented the slow decline of community involvement within today's society, particularly within immigrant communities where the newly-arrived are eager to 'fit in.' He acknowledged the tremendous pressure placed upon the head of households, indeed on all of us, to succeed, usually at the cost of tremendous isolation. As we are all aware, success -- portrayed by Madison Avenue advertisers, steamy tele-novellas on the Spanish-language channels, radio marketing campaigns, and even free circulars sitting next to the bus-stops, involves two important facets, namely consumption and transformation. Success, as one moves up the socio-economic ladder, demands larger and more; bigger autos, newer electronics to fill the kitchen, den, and bedroom. Larger vacuums, barbecue-pits, freezers, lawn-mowers and leaf-blowers are obligatory to appear as being part of the now/...
