Op-Ed Contributor - One Border, Many Sides

From NYT:

"President Obama, appearing on Wednesday with Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, denounced Arizona’s new law on illegal immigration as “a misdirected expression of frustration over our broken immigration system.” Though the law is new, the frustration is most certainly not.

Two years ago, before the last presidential election, I interviewed people living and working in Phoenix and at the Arizona-Mexico border, and much of what I heard then echoes strongly in the debate over the Arizona law. Even then, as I sat at office desks, or in living rooms, or outside at picnic tables, the words were dramatic. The impassioned, rhythmic cadences suggested a social movement. I suspect the speakers were rehearsing the language that we are now hearing nationally.

Here are excerpts from those conversations:

— ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, an actress and playwright who is a professor at New York University"

Sometimes it's enough to hear people speak.