      The ball kicks loose from a scrum near the center of the
field, and Diego Nuñez, a history and literature major writing
his senior thesis on polo as an instrument of British
imperialism, breaks away, crouching down in the saddle, mallet
held high. With no one in front of him, he easily guides the
ball home.  The match is barely a minute old, and Harvard leads,
1-0.  It’s a gorgeous day in Hamilton, Massachusetts, a half
hour from Harvard’s campus­—the sky cloudless, the horizon rich
with the burnt orange of fall leaves on distant trees. A group
of maybe 20 spectators, hands jammed into pockets against an
unseasonable cold, gathers around the low walls of the polo
arena. The sound of horse hooves beating the dirt fills the air
romantically. And for this moment, it seems that all the
cultural expectations we carry will be fulfilled.  These Harvard
kids are the brightest in the land. They bear literary names
like Diego, Albany, Casra. They ride horses donated by actor
Tommy Lee Jones (Class of ’69). They a