Puerto Ricans and Domestic Violence
Memory by Don Jibaro
have never met Aurora before, but she flagged me: "Hey, Don Jíbaro, look this way!" I looked and was disturbed by the urgency of her compelling message. It made me think back to my childhood... to the times that I remember as chaotic. 1954... I was six years old... My father and my mother were fighting... Mami grabbed me by one arm. Papi grabbed me by the other one and it was a tug-of-war. My father let go of my arm and my mother ran dragging me along. My father pulled a barber's razor blade from his pocket. Yes, the ones that open like a jackknife and barbers hone it with a leather belt.

Papi hurled the blade at my terrorized mother who was quick enough to avoid it as it zoomed by her face.  The blade got her earlobe and she began to bleed. She forgot all about me and ran from the dark and musty single room house where we lived. She didn't look back. She never came back. Never.

Today I am 60 with a gray beard... I cry with disdain as I think of how life could have been without domestic violence.  I try to repel my conscious mind, a reasoning that forces me to recall to the aberrant memory and live it again like a bad dream. I snap off with a lightning blink... back to the video that Aurora just sent me. Well, see it for yourselves.

Aurora's Note...
"Revolú" is Spanish for chaos... a song was inspired by the court case of Gladys Ricart and the subsequent Brides March against domestic violence. Many of the images were taken from the internet. Thanks to the East Harlem Preservation website for their brides march photos. Domestic Violence affects everyone, especially the children. It is not your fault and it is NOT a secret!
 

Revolú is performed as a "bomba," a native rhythm from Puerto Rico brought to the Island by enslaved Africans and later banned as it was considered a music of resistence. "Revolú" can be found in the CD Cortijo's Tribe by Aurora & Zon del Barrio at www.zondelbarrio.com or download it through itunes.

Don Jíbaro's Note:
Some 25 years later my father had become an old man, blind and lonely in PR, while I was working as a minister in Los Angeles, CA. I asked my sister Ñeca to put Papi on a plane to L.A.. I brought him to my house and told him about the Lord Jesus Christ and his (Papi's) need for repentance. He prayed with me. He repented! I baptized him by immersion and read him Bible passages. He became a different man. My incredibly kind wife (Irene) helped me take care of him until he died in 1995 at the age of 82.

Occasionally, I go to the cemetery with my son Sammy (who cleans the tombstone). There, in almost silence,I talk to the wind... my words get carried away, but I know he hears me. "¿Cómo estás, Papi?"

Buy Aurora's Amazing
Bomba y Plena CD from AMAZON!

CLICK HERE