California, Day 5

After five days in California inside a window-less hotel basement, on Saturday night (which was the first we faculty fellows had "off"), my husband and I hopped in our surprisingly cool-looking, rented black Ford Focus and headed for nearby Balboa Island.

There, we ate at Amelia's, a seafood and Italian restaurant that can't be beat. I had the best shrimp scampi I've ever had and the best Italian-style garlic bread. The quaint little restaurant is very romantic and my husband and I really enjoyed our night out, even though it was raining so we couldn't walk around the neighborhood of very expensive-looking houses.

We did walk into a nearby candy store that had every kind of saltwater taffy one could imagine (I didn't even know what that type of candy was!). But I liked the collection of color-filled barrels.

The Anglo parts of Southern California that I saw struck me as tributes to Excess. The amount of wealth that is evident in the housing subdivisions, and in the small, mostly white towns, was disturbing. Especially considering that the state is bankrupt and that so many Latin@s struggle to make it there.

One of the head Latin@s at the conference made a pitch for me to consider moving to California to teach at a Hispanic Serving Institution in the future. But I'm not sure I can see myself living in that environment. Plus, my husband is quite adamant that he's not moving to California anytime, sooner or later.

Still, if the conference results in my being invited to lecture at one of the HSIs that was represented there, I wouldn't mind visiting Southern California again. While some of the Anglos I met were rather rude, most of the Latin@s I came across with were not only fully bilingual in English and Spanish (which was a treat!), but they also were very, very nice.