PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES ‘MAZATLAN, SINALOA, MEXICO — In the moun- tains between here and the State of Durango is a stretch of road the Mexicans call The Devil’s Backbone. The little, narrow highway perches on a thin ridge, the land falling away. stecply on both sides. By bus or in your own car, this “js a roller-coaster ride, exhilarating, you’ re.in the maod for it, other- - wise white-knuckle travel. Gassing up for the Durango wi ride the other day at Villa Union, | used up some of iny Spanish on the gas jockc “ “There are.many curves on that” road,” f said. . -. 4 He tucked his chin into his right : ® shoulder and peered at me. ‘s“On the Durango Road," I said, Many curves,” :. i . “Truly?” he said. © 2 “Yes,” | said, “Many curves.”” _-. “On the road over the moun- tains?" 0 ot Yes, indeed, many, many , ‘eraws." As we drove away my compun- Jion, who is fluent in both lan- :.. puages, said “Why did you say that to the gas station man?” . “What's this all about?" 1 shout- * ed" There are many curves on ihe Durango Road. That's all E said.” “That is not what you said, You told him there were many crows or ‘that Fowd. “A curve is curva, crow is cuer- vo. You said cuerva, which means crows or, if you're using slang, priests. He is just as puzzled about there being nvany priests ou the highway as there being many crows.” My friend pronounced curva and cuervo for me a few times. it's easy to distinguish when spelled, When spoken, in rapid col- loquial terms, it’s not easy lo distin- guish the iwo, at least not easy for those of us born with a tin ear and can't follow English spoken rapidly as in Noel Coward plays. For al} the years | have spent Irying to learn Spanish by speaking it. | can still read far more than I can hear. ‘There's a reason. Reading a language occu- pies one portion of your brain, hearing it and speaking it is controlled by another. Because | spent too much of my youth hanging around libraries, cr for some equally obscure reason, my brain developed the lobes need- ed for print and paper. | learned years ago to read Mexican papers and Mexican books in Spanish and proceed not badly, with only occa- sional resort to the dictionary. Yet there are gringos who come to our village without a word of the language and.within two of three months are more fluent speaking Spanish than Lam. _ Pecan understand Fermina, a neighbor, because she understands my trouble. She speaks Spanish to me stow- ly and very explicitly knowing that Tam printing out the words in my mind's eye and translating them into English. ican never understand her hus- band, who docs not recognize my problem. When he tries to talk he rumbles tike beer kegs rolling down 4 cob- ‘bled street. This does not spare some of us Better Business Bureau lists top scams in annual review for consumers he, tcTHE BETTER Business Bureau of .Maintand B.C. (BBB) reports in its annual Sreview a virtual schemes, scams and con games tarycted at consumers and businesses. : ra, Re Mission Raid joints Automatic & standard transmissions # —Clutches, rear ends & frant ends | —25 Ton motorhome & truck hoist, —-Suspension repairs, ~All work guaranteed in writing ROR TAp ial any eee he North