12 | NOVEMBER 12 - 18, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
CITY VOICES LANDGREN YOU CAN’T PLOW SNOW REMOTELY!
WORCESTERIA
FIRST PERSON
Visiting mi abuelo Frankie Franco Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
So … I fi nally mustered up the energy to spend time with mi abuelo. He’s an old fashioned machismo man, meaning it’s diffi cult for him to express love and aff ection, especially with family. As a young boy he showed me an abundance of love because it was safe to do so because of my age. He cared for me, bought me what I wanted, and spent quality time. As I got older though, the love slowly began to fade. During my recent visits, I will hug, kiss, and say “I love you,” but his response will be “me too” instead of “I love you too.” He then will leave me alone in his apartment, while he sat in his room watching novelas. This bothered and hurt because I
wanted to hear and feel loved by him like when I was a boy. However, it’s not his fault. His father was abusive and had a reputation of being mean and cold. This was the male fi gure that raised mi abuelo during a time when toxic masculinity was the norm. Toxic masculinity wasn’t even a phrase and it was simply being a “man.” Men were forced to swallow their emotions and project a tough exterior for the world. I should not take it personally that mi abuelo behaves this way and I also should not expect him to know how I would like to receive love from him. People show love in their own way and I should have taken the time to learn his love language because he’s using limited tools at his See VISITING, Page 13D
District 5 city council candidate Gregory Stratman campaigns at Worcester State University. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM&GAZETTE
Lessons learned from the Worcester election Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
One is forced to wonder if the results of the Nov. 2 Worcester City Council and School Committee elections signifi ed some sort of cultural shift in Worcester. After all, as Telegram & Gazette reporter Steve Foskett points out ably in his article, “Five takeaways from the City Council race: making history, crunching numbers,” the city did not fall prey to “national projections of a conservative
backlash across the nation,” and indeed, most of the more conservative-leaning members of the Council who held onto their seats did so by the skin of their teeth. They’re not fools, and most of them have coasted to re-election before, so they’re probably looking long and hard at where things went wrong. If one were to conjecture, one might be forced to reckon with the fact that this was one of the dirtiest, most personally vicious elections in recent memory, one rife with racist dog whistles, homo-
phobia, misogyny and just out-and-out meanness, and to Worcester’s credit, the city didn’t buy it, and indeed, even the candidates standing next to the toxicity suffered for it. Which brings us to the fi rst lesson from this election: Be very careful who you stand next to. If one were to look at the gubernatorial election in Virginia, Republican winner Glenn Youngkin made very certain to distance himself from former President Donald See ELECTION, Page 13D
