This is not a movie scene:

Nine years ago I was sitting in a small office with my boss, next to a young Columbian.  He was interviewing to become our Latino community service coordinator. His white shirt shone against his olive skin, he answered questions passionately and smiled often. He had raised the issue of “family” and mentioned he had many brothers and sisters. Jokingly he was sharing a story about his mother and his father who lived in his home country, and then his sister who lived in Oklahoma. He mentioned his older brother was a role model to him. One of us followed up with a question: “What is it about your brother you admire?”

The smile left his face. An indiscernible emotion took its place, and he began to tell us that his first brother had been “promised to the Church” and had become a priest. One day he was talking with his brother on the street, a gang ran up to him, and shot him point blank in the head. I’ll never forget this young man’s face when he said with his Latin’ accent, “There…you, you could see his brains.”

This young man sitting in our office had witnessed his eldest brother’s murder in cold blood. And then he said, “But it was a mistake. They thought he was someone else in the church.” Continue reading A Shot Seen ‘Round the World: Toy Gun Films – A Discussion With Brent Green →