On the way to a meeting downtown today I picked up a burrito from Anna’s. Arriving a few minutes early I plopped down under a shade tree in the Boston Common to eat. A few minutes later I noticed a man staring longingly at my lunch. He came forward and introduced himself as Antonio from El Salvador; his English was broken, but between one thing and another and my magnificently rusty Spanish we had a talk. Antonio told me about his family in Texas and his recently deceased mother in El Salvador. After a few minutes, he fished out a bottle of liquor from under his shirt and offered it to me.

It was clear that Antonio was down on his luck; his face was worn and resigned. I offered my burrito (which I’d only taken a few bites of at this point) to him, and his eyes lit up. “Are you sure?” he asked. I nodded. He ate with relish, thanked me and wandered off.