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Recently a reader stated how much she liked A Hero For The People, but said that she was not sure what moral lesson she should learn from each of the stories.  This is a valid question, and deserves an answer....
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In Latin America, magic-realism is simply realism.  Our years in Brazil taught me that there are many more things in this world that our minds have dreamed of.  ...
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  �Do you speak French?� my grand daughter asks. �Not really.� �Then how do you know they�re speaking French?� We�re sitting at a table at a small hotel in Costa Rica.  She had heard people conversing at the next table and asked me what language they were speaking.  I told her. I have to think.  �It�s like music,� I tell her.  �You listen to the sound � like listening to different composers and knowing which one wrote the piece.� She�s eleven, but she can distinguish Bach from Mozart, either from the Romantics.  She listens to the neighboring conversation.  �I hear it,� she says.  My mind goes back...
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Faith is a new life, a new culture, a new language.  The Christian writer must be aware of this.  ...
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Years ago, I thought of starting a magazine (there were no websites then) called �The Radical Catholic.�  I was a convert to Catholicism � baptized on Holy Saturday when I was 29 years old � and I found (and find) orthdox Christianity exhiliarating and freeing � the most exciting thing in the world.  I remember telling the poet John Moffitt (then poetry editor at America) that I saw (and see) orthodoxy as a strong frame around a window, through which we look out into the awe inspiring...
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