From the Editor:
Vistas to discover

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise man grows it under his feet.” – James Openheim, a fellow traveler.
 
I’m back – to stay.

You can’t see it on the page, but those four words for me are burned in mental neon, and tinged electric with wonder, passion and determination.
When I swaggered out of the LPM offices in March after my stint as interim managing editor, I did so believing Arizona’s top English-language, Latino-oriented magazine had a new face of editorial leadership in the competent vision of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, an award-winning author.

I saddled up and headed out to my own new beginnings as an aspiring screenwriter, playwright and novelist, determined to invest the maximum time and intent in these new roles that I had for the past quarter century in an award-winning journalism career.

Basically, the new managing editor and I were flip-flopping the worlds and professions in which we were most comfortable, in a quest to conquer bold challenges in new territories.

Well, that’s not the way it worked out. Latino cultures have a saying: “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.” Like frogs returning to their pond of birth, Alisa and I ended up flip-hopping back into our respective lily pads. She returned to her novels and screenplays, and I – happily – am back as permanent managing editor. By permanent I mean they are going to have to carry out my long body lifeless and prone the next time I leave.

The lesson taught by my absence is that I love this magazine, its mission, you readers, and the Latino community that it serves. I resume as managing editor with the grateful perspective of the traveler who has searched the globe for the Secret of Happiness, only to find it in his own backyard. I return with a renewed commitment to make this magazine and its veteran writers and photographers the best lenses for sight-seeing in the fascinating, ever-changing landscapes of Latinos. This wanderer has come home.

In May, a month that embodies preparation for summer vacation trips, we present in our pages articles by Charles Sanderson and Joy Hepp, kindred spirits and writers with gas tanks topped off by wanderlust. Sanderson takes us on a backroads, highway tour of our state’s road food, while travel journalist Hepp tackles the foreign concept of walking in Los Angeles. Both guide you to paths of discovery on which the destinations are less important than the journeys.

Getting in shape for the summer dresses and swim suits Latinas pack for vacations is the theme of  Georgann Yara’s tribute to post partum fitness. Looking good may be better than feeling good, as someone once quipped, but mothers like Paulina Vazquez Morris show Latinas with children how they can have it all.

Here at home, Latinos – undocumented and citizens – are increasingly encountering harassment in the guise of anti-crime round-ups from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and its vigilante volunteers, headed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, in an exclusive guest column, shares his opinion with our readers that Sheriff Joe’s raids targeting undocumented Hispanic immigrants are not about “green cards,” but about racial profiling for “brown skin.” Thank you, Mayor, for speaking out against injustice.

And thank you all for accompanying us on the monthly adventures Latino Perspectives  encounters in its journalistic travels through the awe-inspiring vistas, unique characters, and hidden by-ways in El Mundo Latino.