•The conversation•
The end of the 19th century was near and everything was changing, even society and culture itself, breakthroughs in science, new animal species discovered and even some miraculous events were occurring in the darkest parts of the world. Personally, I was interested in the latest. As a life dedicated to abstract journalism I have seen very strange,odd, and in some ways disturbing cases. But this case struck me not only because it was based on a breakthrough in science and animal research but because what triggered these events were a long life of social and cultural oppression.
My name is Daniel Remington and as I sat in that saloon on a cold night somewhere in arizona talking to an empty chair I still could not believe that there was a man sitting there engaged in deep conversation with me. He preferred to be called "simply Joe" as he had said, but most people in the west knew him as THE amazing Joe. But Joe ladies and gentlemen, had not acquired his name simply because he was the best accordion player in the whole west, but because believe it or not, he was invisible. And as I said before, his story was as amazing as he was but also remarkably abstract, so I thought I would use his own words even the tangents and the awkward facts so that the story is truthful and intact.
•JUAN HERRERA•
The original name given to me by my parents was Juan Herrera, how I miss my name! Such a disgrace that I sold it for fame and money. These two are so bad they should be considered a sin, they make you feel real good but they slowly kill you inside if you don't know how to control them, that's what happened to me, but I guess its all in the past now.
I was born in the Sonoran dessert where the desert is all you know, its all you think of, and its all you dream of. You long to get out but once you're out you miss it so much you just have to go back and the cycle starts over again until you die. I'm telling you the desert is like an addiction that drives you crazy.
I'm a full blooded Yhaqui indian, a pure blood if you will, and proud of it too, the only problem is that I was'nt always proud of my heritage. I tried to be someone else I tried so hard to be accepted and well I ended up like this.
•JUAN AS A CHILD•
For some reason Yhaqui families are always very big, muchos niÑos, lots of kids. My family was not the exception for I have nine brothers and four sisters some older some younger, and I'm number eight down the list. I know, my parents really needed a hobby or something.
Since I was in the middle I never got much attention from anyone, my responsibility was to take care of the younger ones but since they were not much younger than me they could take of themselves as much as I could take care of myself. This was not much of a problem while growing up but what always drove me crazy and killed me the most, was that wherever I went nobody knew my name, everybody knew me as "so and so's little brother." That really bothered me, every one wantedo me to be like the rest of my brothers and follow their footsteps, but I never cared for sports or school they never called for my attention. Now that I think about it, nothing really called for my attention except the for the accordion.
The desert is a very big place but our town was very little just a couple Yhaqui folks settled in that humongous place, the biggest thing was the water tower and that seems small now that I have seen more of the world.
One summer day when I was six or seven, or maybe eight, well truth is I can't remember. The thing is that one day a trobador decided to settle in our town.
•TROBADOR: THE GREATEST CAREER•
Let me tell you what a trobador is, it is simply the greatest job in the history of the world. A trobador is not only a professional musician, a trobador is a traveler, a psycologist, a journalist, reporter, mailman, and the maker of history.
