TONY GRAY

Tony Gray spent the night roaming Matamoros' dark streets. He has never liked Brownsville. There is no ambience, no life, no soul. He believes that Brownsville's people battle paranoid lives. He never grows bored with Matamoros.

"Just like the drug trade is an honorable business in Mexico, vice is normal behavior," he explained over Tecates and peanuts at Garcia's. "Matamoros has an edge that Brownsville lost with the death of its downtown. Matamoros is rampant with young women. You can find a wife, a lover and a whore within a one-block radius of each other.

"Brownsville is sterile; everyone demands promises. Matamoros is sensuous; everyone seeks passion. Brownsville plans for tomorrow; Matamoros risks on today. Brownsville is a good place to be a child; Matamoros is the perfect place to be an adult.

"Men with money in their pockets are the unofficial princes of the Rio Grande Republic. They can satisfy their lusts and return to Brownsville with their dignity, consequences be damned.

"Comparing Brownsville and Matamoros is the difference between an animal in a zoo and an animal in its natural habitat.

"I feel my pretensions fall away in Matamoros as I become one with my nature. Males are sluts and Matamoros provides us with the opportunity to become one with ourselves. Long live the difference!"