When I left college, all I had was a bed, a drawing table, some comics, and a little tv with a VCR built into it. The screen was about the size of a lunchbox. 10 inches? Maybe 13?I had a bunch of movies, but after the TV got kicked around a little while I was moving, it would only play one. That movie...was Blade. And it would only play with Spanish subtitles. For an entire summer, I watched nothing but Blade. I would just let the movie play while I was drawing, it would get to the end, automatically rewind and start again. It would play 6 or 7 times a day sometimes. I learned how to say “Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.” and “We’re the top of the fucking food chain.” right off the bat, and slowly but surely the rest of the movie sunk into my brain as well. I gotta tell you, I took YEARS of Spanish growing up in Springfield and most of it did not stay with me. But somehow, someway, Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff turned into the best Spanish tutors I could ever have. A few years later, I had a bit of a dry spell in comics, and I got a job at a local gym. I was working with a woman named Maria who only spoke Spanish, and she helped me expand my Bladeucation. She was a tiny woman(about 4 foot 9) of about 60, and she would call me her guerito, (little white boy)or if she was annoyed with me, guerita. After telling her where I learned Spanish, I told her to watch the movie. She comes back a week later and says to me” Estoy La Magra!” I am the BLOOD GOD. I worked with her for about a year and a half after that and never called her anything else. Heres to you Wesley Snipes, and to you La Magra, thanks for teaching me Spanish.
