Bus rides more than just a journey

Story and photo by Gabi Piña

During a recent bus ride, I noticed a man looking at me. I smiled at him as I do with every stranger but he brushed me off. After my failed attempt at being friendly, my cell phone started to ring.

I usually try not to answer phone calls while I’m on the bus because others might find my conversations rather rude, but I saw that it was my mom calling. She would freak out if I pressed ‘ignore.’

Being from Nogales, I’m known to switch rapidly from English to Spanish to a mixture of both. The bus was semi-empty, so I figured a five-minute phone call with my mother wouldn’t bother anyone.

After my mother and I traded our goodbyes, the man turned to me and said, “Fucking wetback, go back to Mexico.”

I casually glanced around the bus to see if there was anyone else he could be talking to. Because there was no sign of another Hispanic person on board, I quickly realized he had picked me as his target. I told him that I wasn’t from Mexico and smiled once more.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he kept mumbling something. I didn’t want to risk being told off again, so I paused my music instead of removing my headphones.

Turns out, he was arguing with an older man who defended me. The older man told him there was no need to talk to a young lady in that manner and tried to get an apology.

Both men traded their fair share of “f-word this” and “f-word that.” Once the bus driver evicted the younger man, he followed the bus on foot, threatening to kill us.

That incident was the highlight of a recent weekend I dedicated to Tucson’s transportation services. I mostly rode buses I knew would be extremely packed and chose routes I knew attracted the weirdest people.

I was starting to lose faith because I hadn’t encountered anything other than homeless people with horrid body odors asking me for money.

Finally, since I had just gotten paid, I decided to go to the mall and give my adventure hunt one last shot.

In past bus rides, I’ve been punched by a drunken homeless man and have been told scandalous sex stories by crazy women but never had my life threatened.

Most people would never ride the bus again after an event like that, but where is the fun in that? If I stopped riding buses, I’d miss out on future adventures. I still consider public transportation safe and reliable most of the time.

I encourage everyone to ride the bus at least once. It’s a great experience to get a feel for the world around us. It’s also an excellent way to come in contact with all different types of people.

Even if some end up wanting to kill you.