“Then don’t drink beer”, Mrs. Brelsford told me, quite
matter of factly, after I mentioned how consuming them would often times lead
me to having bad night sleeps, and even headaches the next morning. And I wasn’t talking about keg-stands, and
beer pong tournaments. Just one beer had
been producing those unpleasant effects on me.
At the time, I could see the logic behind the advice, but
the issue lay in liking to drink beer.
Hmm. Tough one. Maybe?
Not really. The changes went from
bad sleep to headache in the morning, to headache within minutes of a sip. So here, in Cayey, Puerto Rico, I had my last
sip of beer or wine, upon realizing that the headaches are simply not
welcome. Bye bye booze. There’s worse things to give up: cheese,
chicharrones, mofongo!
So this weekend has been real nice. Saturday started out with a bit of promotion
for the health fair we will run this coming Friday at Barrio La Vega, here in
Cayey. The health fair is part of the
community outreach component of the field school I am working for. It also provides the students for a bit of an
opportunity to engage in a bit of research for their projects. This year the topics are STIs and
homophobia. The idea is to examine some
social underpinning of each phenomena, seeing what factors may be harmful for public health matters. So we
walked around the neighborhood for an hour, handing out flyers and letting the
residents know what would be available and happening at the health fair.
As a big attraction we’ll have Major League Baseball player
Alex Cora, who lives in Cayey. Starting
his career at the University of Miama, he then played for numerous MLB
teams. I’ll try to get Soupy and Jody
some autographs. Alex will have a sports
workshop for the youth of the neighborhood.
The rest of my Saturday was calm. I took a nap, watched some UFC fights I have on
my computer, and had a nice and strong workout.
At night, I made plans with Natalia (another graduate student working
with me), her boyfriend, and June (yet another grad student who flew in
yesterday to spend a week here) to go to the beach.
So to the beach we went.
To “La Posita de
Pi~nones Loiza” to be exact.
From left to right: Natalia, June, Victor
It was
gourgeous. It’s called La Posita because
there’s a big sort of tide pool formed by a layer of reef. We had great weather and spent a bunch of
time in the water. It was pretty windy
too, which was a nice contrast to the strong sun in the cloudless sky.
At around 4ish, we went to a little stand where they sold
typical foods. I had an alcapurria with “juey”
(a crab), one with beef, and an arepa with juey. So first: an alcapurria is a fried delicious
food, made out of “yautia blanca”.
Yautia blanca, in turn, is a type of tuber, sort of like manioc. They make a paste out of the tuber, stuff it
with a meat of choice, and deep fry it.
The arepa in Puerto Rico is a bit like the one in Costa Rica, (which is
sort of like a pancake, but a bit dryer); however, in Puerto Rico I find them
to be fluffier, less dense. The ones
here had coconut in them, providing a beautiful backdrop for the juey
crab.
But the day was nice for reasons transcending food and
scenery. With Natalia and Victor I have established
a real nice friendship, exploring the intricacies of Latin American Spanish
varieties and analyzing the challenges that both their island and my country
face in this globalizing world.
“Tu sabe es que yo no tomo…”said Victor (You know that I don’t
drink). Right around that time, dealing
with topics surrounding and departing from this one, my first “tu sabe” flowed
before my eyes. It’s a moment of transcendence,
really. Not the act of uttering that
phrase per se; more the act of deciphering unconsciously an aesthetic cultural
dynamic to the extent that a local way of expressing oneself becomes self
evident beyond a confining logos; it becomes apparent only if it’s
taken-for-grantedness is deconstructed, the underlying structure exposed for
phonetic and semiotic analysis.
Now if you are not familiar with Costa Rican varieties of
Spanish, “tu sabe” is not one we use (we usually use “vos sabes” or “usted sabe”). Later, I would insert a “pues nada”, as a sort
of ontological grounding point, a reset to the interaction signaling a grasping
of confidence, a reorganization of thoughts and postures in preparation for the
next discursive step.
I’ve been told that the I-Ching reading has its power in the
ability to bring to light synchronicity of multiple elements of our cognitive
horizon which can be seen to connect in ways that bring existential
organization into our feeling. I think
cross-cultural connections have the same type of effect, but in a more powerful way
(if one were to apply a measurement and definition of power to such
topics). I’ve felt re-affirmed and
synchronized in making friendships here, and in experiencing what it feel s
like to be a friend with a different form of Spanish, consuming a distinct way
of preparing plantains and tubers, but being united by a similar thread that
seeks originality of expression, freedom from mass-consumerism and
Walmart-development, and hopes of crafting a way of living in which basic needs
are guaranteed for all to live with dignity.
Tu sabe?
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