Ass or Donkey? DEPT.
The Incomprehensible Art of Pleasing Others
ack in the early 1900s in the town of Toa Alta in Puerto Rico, a farmer and his daughter were driving their donkey to the town's square to sell him. They had not gone far when they met with a troop of women collected around a colmadito, talking and laughing.

“Look there,” cried one of them, “did you ever see such jibaros, to be trucking along the road on foot when they might ride?’ The old man hearing this, quickly made his daughter mount the donkey, and continued to walk along merrily by his side. Presently they came up to a group of old men in earnest chat.

“There,” said one of them, “it proves what I was a-saying. What respect is shown to old age in these days? Do you see that idle "muchacha" riding while his old father has to walk? Get down, you young "manganzona", and let the old jibaro rest his tired legs.” Upon this the old man made his daughter dismount, and got up himself. In this manner they had not gone too far when they met another company of women and children:

“Why, you lazy old jibaro,” cried several tongues at once, “how can you ride upon the beast, while that poor little "muchachita" there can hardly keep pace by the side of you?’ The good-natured farmer immediately took up his daughter behind him. They had now almost reached the town.

“Pray, honest friend,” said another citizen, “is that donkey yours?’ “Yes,” replied the old jibaro. “Ay Bendito, one would not have thought so,” said the other, “by the way you load him. Why, you two are better able to carry the poor beast than he you.” “Anything to please you,” said the old jibaro; “we can but try.”

So, alighting with his daughter, they tied the legs of the donkey together and with the help of a pole endeavored to carry him on their shoulders over a bridge near the entrance to the town.

This entertaining sight brought the people in crowds to laugh at it, till the donkey, not liking the noise nor the strange handling that he was subject to, broke the cords that bound him and, tumbling off the pole, fell into the river. Upon this, the old man, vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again, convinced that by endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and lost his Ass in the bargain.


LESSON: When you try to please everyone... you might lose your ass in the bargain... so don't even try.

Boricua Unity
ave you ever seen a Puerto Rican driving on the street without a little flag or a bumper sticker on his car or a pair of tiny boxing gloves hanging from the rear view mirror that depict the Puerto Rico flag? Not many... at least un the USA.

As Puerto Ricans in the United States we have an innate necessity to establish our identity towards our peers. Throughout the years, our effort to be properly recognized among the ethnic groups, has been dimmed by stereotypes. These stereotypes catalogue ethnic groups according to the perception of one or two individual or groups. For example, if in a particular group, the men drink beer and watch the television while the women wear make-up and go to the mall, the stereotype concludes that those men of such group are lazy and the women are vain. I do not have to reiterate that occasionally we have been victims of the such phenomenon... or perpetrators, for that matter.

Stereotypes place an unfair and inaccurate label of third class citizenship in the majority of the Hispanic groups that emigrate to North America, but the Puerto Ricans have been those that have voiced the most ardent protests. Boricuas, peculiarly like red hot chili peppers, tends not to remain silent or "callaos " when treated unjustly and sometimes the protest is manifested as a hostile act. Unfortunately, "the studies" have determined that this contributes to the stereotype. A wise man said once that "a tree is known by its fruit. " For that reason I set as a goal the edification of the image of the Boricua Community at large, in the way of civic works, parades and activities of charity.

For that reason I declare the year 2008, as the Year Of the Puerto Ricans, who must claim it by uniting into the Boricua Communities. Why the Year 2008? No particular reason, just because it’s a great starting point to acquire our proper place of responsibility in the social and political strata of the communities in which we live. This means that each Puerto Rican must give his moral commitment to THAT social unity, since “a cord of three strand is not easily broken.” Untie! ...er, I mean, UNITE!

¿Why a Doc?
want to write as of one who has lived enough to remember and make scrutinies about the validity and consequences life experiences. As a Puerto Rican I gotta take my writing somewhat seriously, making sure that what it is said is what it is meant. As an ethnos we deal with types, stereotypes, stigmas and presuppositions that might shed an ambiguous light upon one’s character. We want to avoid that.

What it is true about us as a culture might be true about any other culture in the world, but it is up to us to paint that culture with vivid colors that provide an atmosphere of excitement and fulfillment. That’s who we are. You can see it in our music, our lifestyle; even in our legacy. Everything that we do is done passionately.

There was no color “mauve” when I was a kid. We had “browncito” or “color carne”. We didn’t have sanitation or maintenance engineers, we had trash men and janitors. The purpose of this writing is to provide the flavor our Puerto Rican culture in what I hope to be a new color. There are new inflections, discoveries and revelations that are constantly being categorized as “new”.

What I do is written primarily for the benefit of the myriad of Boricuas who are born outside of the island of Puerto Rico, who were born and live in the United States, as well as many other parts of the world and don’t have first hand knowledge about the culture that gave them birth.

I have tried to make the text to flow in no particular order. So you can start reading anywhere. It makes no difference. The stories are true; based on my own experiences growing up in Puerto Rico and sojourning later through the Caribbean to United States until I found my niche under a Mexican bridge

Reckoning...
eglect of our primal needs for validation and affirmation belongs into a bottomless bucket somewhere in the past, but sooner or later, the purity and kindness of our soul comes out timely and unscathed... redeeming itself with life.  Consequential healing is part of that life... one that goes on within us or without us. Ultimately, when no merit has been affirmed by our peers, this becomes a dangerous oversight that is discerned and addressed spiritually.

Sadly... our natural minds cannot comprehend these things because they have to be discerned  and addressed spiritually. Self cannot bring healing to the soul... because repairing a wound that you can't see will seem just foolishness.

Puerto Rican jibaros are very spiritual, but some who come to the USA lose that virtue by becoming "natural", ergo, plain as God made them, with no improvement to their souls.

Some day the secrets of the heart will surface for us to see all we've done. Good or bad, they'll be scrutinized accordingly. It's called RECKONING. When it comes to doing what we know is RIGHT (as opposed to what we 'feel' is right) many of us fall to abismal dismay. Follow your soul, not your mind.

Nightmares...
are distorted experiences of seeing images, hearing sounds, and feeling other sensations during sleep... The scientific discipline of dream research is oneirology. Some of the events of dreams are often improbable, but not impossible or unlikely to occur in physical reality, and are usually outside the dreamer control.

One exception is lucid dreaming, in which a dreamer realizes that he or she is dreaming—being sometimes even capable of changing the oneiric reality around him or her and controlling various aspects of the dream, in which the suspension of disbelief is broken.

I didn't believe that people can have continual dreams. Y'know, dream one night, get up the morning come back a few days later, not necessarily the next day... and continue the old dream more or less where I had left off. That could be disturbing since according to psychology dreams are random imagery

Knowing enough about dreams to surmise that they all come from the subconscious psyche, I had a firm belief that the "id" would always have its way once "superego would doze" off and leave The Gate open. It was then that the most preposterous episodes would develop within my sleepy consciousness'.

The precocious Child in me would begin to spin off adventures in which my guns would turn into chocolate when I'd try to shoot at the monsters persecuting me. Other times my shoes would turn to concrete whenever I wanted to run away.

More soon... Keep yo'eye open

Peace and Prosperity!

Talk To ME

“Live in such a way that no one blames the rest of us  
nor finds fault with our work.” --(2 Corinthians 6:3)