have such a machine with a whirling disk of diggers that shaves the land away. A rich seam of coal lay under our village, you see. One of the big companies had bought the mineral rights, and they just left an open sore where I had lived.
“What upset me most was the graveyard. They tore poor Mother out of the earth and put her someplace else. I had many dreams about it.
“Now that my father’s store was gone, he had gone to work at the Bayer factory. He lived in a horrible room with the money from his store in a box. A horrible room in a horrible factory town. You would not believe the air.
“I finished two more years of study at Heidelberg. There were many radical students there, and we did a number of street-actions. Some of us became urban guerillas. I myself bombed a general’s car at the American base. A Mercedes.
“Suddenly the police were very interested, and chasing down my friends. I had to leave Heidelberg. The bulls had put my picture on their terrorism posters, just for one Mercedes.
“I took the train up to Essen one morning, and while my father was still at work I broke into his room and stole all his money. I left in a big hurry and ended up in Paris.
“There were some other German radicals there, and we all lived very well for a few months. After that my money was used up. Holger, one of my friends, knew an Arab who wanted to pay us for some jobs. Bombing someone’s embassy, things like that. We told him to meet us with the money, out in the Père Lachaise graveyard.
“I don’t like Arabs at all. When men have killed all the green, the whole world will be like the Middle East. Holger and I robbed this guy and beat him up. Holger went too far, and suddenly the Arab was kaput . He had friends, and we had to get out of Europe fast.
“We got some false passports and took a plane to New York the next day. America…the land of unlimited possibilities.
“The only job I could find was as a waiter in a Bavarian restaurant. What a joke. They are the biggest fascists in Germany, the Bavarians. It’s as if you came to Germany and worked in a Texan restaurant. I had to wear leather pants and let old people touch my ass. Soon I missed Europe very much.
“The whole time, I was taking courses at the Free University, mostly things about radical politics. This is where I met Beatrice. She convinced me to come to Italy with her.”
The Story of Beatrice Luz
“My mother is Italian and my father is Spanish. I guess they’re still alive. Shoveling shit in Buffalo.
“We had a really humongous family. I was the first girl and did a lot of the child-care. Mom worked in a piss factory, inspecting pipes. Dad was on the swing shift at Hooker Chemical.
“When I was about eighteen these really horrible things started happening in our neighborhood. Everyone was getting leukemia and blood-cancer and tumors. The little twins…the little twin boys in our family…both of them got leukemia the same year.
“Mom was real Catholic. She hung rosaries on the twins’ beds, but they died all the same. And then it came out that we were living on top of a toxic chemicals dump. I mean it was no surprise…there was always horrible scum oozing out of the ground, and when our neighbor tried to grow cucumbers they were curly and rotted on the vine.
“The Feds said we had to evacuate, into downtown Buffalo. I was out of high school and spent the summer working in Mom’s sewer-pipe factory. They buried the first twin in July and the other in August. Little white coffins. I couldn’t take the scene, and hitched to the City.
“My big brother Hayzooz was living there in the Lower East Side alphabet. Avenue B. He was speeding a lot, working in a garage capping tires. I did a lot of weed till one time I got dusted. Somebody sold me a pack of KJ and said it was Colombo. I was so fucked-up, walking down the street on wood feet, talking crash. Hart of the wud and trubba not. I got busted, and in jail it came to me how for
“What upset me most was the graveyard. They tore poor Mother out of the earth and put her someplace else. I had many dreams about it.
“Now that my father’s store was gone, he had gone to work at the Bayer factory. He lived in a horrible room with the money from his store in a box. A horrible room in a horrible factory town. You would not believe the air.
“I finished two more years of study at Heidelberg. There were many radical students there, and we did a number of street-actions. Some of us became urban guerillas. I myself bombed a general’s car at the American base. A Mercedes.
“Suddenly the police were very interested, and chasing down my friends. I had to leave Heidelberg. The bulls had put my picture on their terrorism posters, just for one Mercedes.
“I took the train up to Essen one morning, and while my father was still at work I broke into his room and stole all his money. I left in a big hurry and ended up in Paris.
“There were some other German radicals there, and we all lived very well for a few months. After that my money was used up. Holger, one of my friends, knew an Arab who wanted to pay us for some jobs. Bombing someone’s embassy, things like that. We told him to meet us with the money, out in the Père Lachaise graveyard.
“I don’t like Arabs at all. When men have killed all the green, the whole world will be like the Middle East. Holger and I robbed this guy and beat him up. Holger went too far, and suddenly the Arab was kaput . He had friends, and we had to get out of Europe fast.
“We got some false passports and took a plane to New York the next day. America…the land of unlimited possibilities.
“The only job I could find was as a waiter in a Bavarian restaurant. What a joke. They are the biggest fascists in Germany, the Bavarians. It’s as if you came to Germany and worked in a Texan restaurant. I had to wear leather pants and let old people touch my ass. Soon I missed Europe very much.
“The whole time, I was taking courses at the Free University, mostly things about radical politics. This is where I met Beatrice. She convinced me to come to Italy with her.”
The Story of Beatrice Luz
“My mother is Italian and my father is Spanish. I guess they’re still alive. Shoveling shit in Buffalo.
“We had a really humongous family. I was the first girl and did a lot of the child-care. Mom worked in a piss factory, inspecting pipes. Dad was on the swing shift at Hooker Chemical.
“When I was about eighteen these really horrible things started happening in our neighborhood. Everyone was getting leukemia and blood-cancer and tumors. The little twins…the little twin boys in our family…both of them got leukemia the same year.
“Mom was real Catholic. She hung rosaries on the twins’ beds, but they died all the same. And then it came out that we were living on top of a toxic chemicals dump. I mean it was no surprise…there was always horrible scum oozing out of the ground, and when our neighbor tried to grow cucumbers they were curly and rotted on the vine.
“The Feds said we had to evacuate, into downtown Buffalo. I was out of high school and spent the summer working in Mom’s sewer-pipe factory. They buried the first twin in July and the other in August. Little white coffins. I couldn’t take the scene, and hitched to the City.
“My big brother Hayzooz was living there in the Lower East Side alphabet. Avenue B. He was speeding a lot, working in a garage capping tires. I did a lot of weed till one time I got dusted. Somebody sold me a pack of KJ and said it was Colombo. I was so fucked-up, walking down the street on wood feet, talking crash. Hart of the wud and trubba not. I got busted, and in jail it came to me how for
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