"In Berkeley, they act so friendly."

"'And it's supposed to be so, you know, Berkeley. But so many people I met there, they were weird. They asked so many questions. They were friendly, but they wanted to hear me say thank you for letting me work here,' he said.

"Erwin remembers one shopper at Berkeley Bowl asking where he was from. He said Cuba. She asked a few more questions. On the surface it was an ordinary conversation, coming out of ordinary, even welcoming, curiosity. But Erwin says there was also a strange undercurrent -- maybe a kind of pride over bequeathing this poor immigrant a spot in paradise. Indeed, at the end, the woman gestured around the store and said, 'You must feel very lucky.'

"'I'm stocking fruit -- do I have to feel lucky?'" Erwin recalls thinking. He felt that the woman, a middle-class Berkeleyite, didn't seem to be holding herself to the same standard.

Interesting.