X- Passports

The Basque man getting turned away by "border control" is what stuck out to me in this chapter. It kind of reminded me of the Mexican people crossing into the United States. I did not know that there were border control problems back in the 1920's and that surprised me. However, I guess there has always been a desire for a better life, so crossing over into different areas of more wealth has been around for ages, I mean look at Moses and the Promised Land. I am also surprised about how much I am learning about this time period and the people from this novel. I don't like the novel so much because I find Hemingway hard to read and I do not get some of the things happening or the words, but I am learning. Anyway, back to the Basque man. How can a man who just wants to sell his goat not get a passport into a country he can just cross a stream into? It is not like he wants to live there; he just wants to make a living. It also makes me think about how people like Jake, Bill, and Cohn can get passports while the poor, old Basque man cannot. I think it comes down to learned versus illiterate, the white versus the indigenous, ans all of those usual differences. I think this is one of the universal truths of the world which is sad. The poor were treated differently back then and they are treated poorly now.