Christmas Time In Puerto Rico

Every person who has spent Christmas time In Puertop Rico knows theer is no better place to spend the Holidays, Puerto Rico's Holiday time traditions are so fun, family oriented and the food is so good that once you've had a Puertorrican Christmas, you'll never see Christmas time the same way again. :) So here's a little something for all of you out there who want to have a glimpse of what I am talking about.

“T’was the night before Christmas, Boricua Style”

Era la noche antes de Navidad en Puerto Rico y en todos lados se podía apreciar
a las familias boricuas de camino a parrandear
Titi Carmen se quedo atrás, ella velaba el lechón,
Mientras Tío Cuco custodiaba el coquito sin compasión.
Y después de la parranda, a lechonear todo el mundo!
Hasta los más viejos, en andador, llegan en un segundo.
Había arroz, lechón, pasteles, arroz con dulce y rones muy variados
Garantizado que saldrías con par de botones reventados.
Y fue entonces cuando abuelo dijo “Esperen un segundo,
sé que algo falta aquí, el lechón está muy bueno, el arroz con dulce,
riquísimo esta, y comería mas tembleque con coquito pa’ bajar.
Pero aun así una Navidad boricua realmente no es Navidad, sin que
saquen el pitorro así que vamos! A Pitorrear!”
Y así el reloj dio las doce, Y la Navidad llego.
Y todavía fiestando la luz del día los cogió.
No hay mejor Navidad que la que se celebra en Puerto Rico,
Musical, en familia, se baila mucho y se come rico.
-Yalitza Santos

On confrontation and independence

The last couple of weeks have given a very loud and clear message; some people hate confrontation. They hate to be confronted or to confront others around them, even if those people’s actions are affecting your life for the negative. As I was talking to a friend today, I got a plausible reason for this evasive behavior. It’s simple, it’s just a matter of manners, and you don’t want others to perceive you as hostile, aggressive and impolite. Therefore, you prefer to suffer in silence that which is killing you softly.

 I disagree. No, I will not deny that confrontation is a hard thing to do (especially if you are a woman who has been raised to be polite and obedient, you know, to be a “good girl”), but it is necessary for you to live YOUR life. By confronting those who make us uncomfortable we are removing obstacles from our lives and at the same time standing our ground, something that will let other know clearly, specially to those being confronted, that you will not tolerate manipulation, thrash talk and/or abuse. In life, part of growing and being an adult is claiming your independence, and personal independence starts by loving, supporting and respecting yourself and your decisions.

Re- designing

Today I took my car to the repair shop because the AC  was not working (and in this tropical weather AC is a must), turns out it had been a mistake from the mechanic, he left one cable adrift, and that messed up the car. And that took me to think, how many times does the domino effect destroyed something you have been planning for quite a while? Just one thing is left unattended and BAM! in your perspective, everything else goes to hell. Well, in that case we have to adopt a new term, re-design. If you are focused on everything that has gone wrong you will have no space in your mind to enjoy the things that actually go ok. So let's learn to move with the flow of things, and everything will end up just fine I don't know, it seemed kind of important for me to share this.

On the evil nature of humanity

As I was reading an article on a freshman's suicide because of a roommate's prank, I sat down and I asked myself, What could possibly drive a human being to be so evil towards another? Why would you feel such satisfaction ruining another's life when you don't even know him?
You know, some people say that children are naturally good, I disagree. As members of the animal kingdom we are taught to be nice, we are inculcated with a sense of morality and right and wrong, we are not born with it. Could it be that we channel the frustrations of out lives by doing to others what we would love to do to those that hurt us directly? Or are we just psychotically driven to hurt others just because it feels good?

To think that as humans we consider ourselves an evolved and civilized part of nature and even sometimes, we think we are above nature. But when things like this happen it is when we remind ourselves that we are not above nature, actually we are below it, because there is no other animal in the face of this earth that loves so much so the an innocent suffer, there is no other animal that enjoys destruction as much as we do. It pisses me off to see how this is reported in the news with easiness and calm as if it was just another natural thing that we cannot control, but it is not, we can control it. Why don't we? That is what really worries me.