Que Pasa USA - revisiting my teenage years

Que Pasa USA

If you were lucky enough to grow up in Miami or in my case in Hialeah in the late 70's and early 80's, you  probably had a weekly front row seat, on your living room floor, facing an old box television watching   ¿Qué Pasa, USA?

No doubt, you and your entire family were

(ROFLOL) rolling on the floor laughing out loud!

This home grown sitcom created by, WPBT & Luis Santeiro, comprised of 39 episodes with a duration of 27 minutes each.  Those choice 1,053 minutes  of ¿Qué Pasa, USA? became the mirror to our lives and struggles   in our new country through the eyes of the Peña family.

The Peñas were a Cuban American family who lived in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Their family was very similar to mine, Mom (Juana), Dad (Pepe) and two kids, Carmen and Joe.  I, in turn was an only child with an extended family. The Peñas shared their small home with their parents, Adela and Antonio, as I did with my grandparents Abuela Mercedes y Abuelito Lopez. 

Like our family, the Peñas were also struggling to find their place in the U.S.  They spoke Spanish and English (many times mixing the two in one sentence - Spanglish). They worked really hard and never lost sight of their dream to return to Cuba - just like my folks. Cuyo sueño cambio a pasar de los años en el exilio. 

Although, Spanish was strictly enforced and English was frowned upon in our home, I can still hear abuela Mercedes chide, "Hablen Español en la casa porque el Ingles lo van a aprender en la escuela".  This was written in some Cuban stone somewhere in her room and my cousins and I obeyed. No choice. 

While in the 'Yuma', (which was supposed to be a temporary stay since the return to Cuba was 'un paso' away) they always embraced their 'Cubanissmo' and made sure their children valued the old ways as they did; from religion to traditions. L'est not forget, we children from  the land of the sacred palm trees needed to maintain our education expectations high and 'preparados' for our return to the Island one day.

Boom boom pow! Now that I give it some thought, I bet I can still name every street in Santa Clara and the addresses to all of the familial homes and stomping grounds e.g. Conyedo y Tudurri, el parque Central....   

The stories of their lives, collectively, is now my personal memory despite the fact that I did not live it. This funny first bilingual situation comedy appealed to all of us that share the same immigrant condition and addressed all of our issues of adaptation in this great new world; growing up American with Cuban values.  

My favorite aspect of the series was clearly the bilingual tone.  They spoke the colloquial slang of the time and or the mix of language often heard in Cuban-American neighborhoods - from Spanish in the home and English at the supermarket to the final lexicon cocktail that we have all mastered 'suavemente' the combining of both into " Spanglish."

Here are some favorites below:

SAYINGS
Spanish	English Meaning	Literal Translation
¡Botó la casa por la ventana!	That rocks!	"He threw the house out the window!"
Eso no lo brinca un chivo.	It's a big problem.	"Not even a goat can jump it."
Cantó el manicero.	He died.	"He sang the peanut vendor."
Qué Mona.	She's cute	"She's very much a monkey."

These darling 'dichos' of our homeland require the assistance of un abuelito o abuelita viviendo en casa to explain... 

A que hora mataron a Lola?* A las 3
* ¿Qué le pasó a Chacumbele? Él mismito se mató
* ¿Niño que no llora...? No mama
* ¿A qué se le da la patada? A la lata
* ¿Y si voy al cobre, qué quieres que te traiga? Virgen de la Caridad
* ¿De quién era el platanal? De Bartolo
* ¿A qué hora se tira el cañonazo en La Habana? 9:00 P.M.
* ¿Qué canta la gente cuando se muere? El manicero
* El que siembra su maíz.... Se come su finoro
* El que no tiene de congo....Carabali
* Una cosa es con guitarra, y la otra es....Con Violín
* ¿Cuándo cultivo una rosa blanca? En junio como en enero

Enjoy!

QuePasa USA: Citizenship Clip - vignette

Scene description                 Pena Living Room discussing

Character                              Abuelo; Abuela, Carmen,  Violeta

1. Pena Living Room

Grandparents are seated in living room. Carmen and Violeta are talking standing up.

dissolve to

2. Conversation

Carmen: It’s a lost cause. They’ll never pass.

violeta: Sure they will

Carmen: How?

Violeta: There are ways. Hay muchos truquitos. Like the trick about the yes and no questions

Carmen: What trick is that?

Violeta: My mother figured out that in the yes and no questions there is an 80 percent chance that the right answer will be yes.

Carmen: Hey! That is a good one.

She walks over to Abuelo and abuela

contd- Violeta dice que las preguntas de si y no el 80 % de las veces la respuesta es Yes       

abuela y abuela excited: speaking at the same time, smiling

abuela: a lo mejor tenemos una oprtunidad.

Abuelo: Dale vamos. Preguntanos algo.  (The all walk to dining room table and sit across from Carmen and violeta.)

abuela: Vamos a ver Pregunta hija

Carmen to abuelo:Have you been living in this country for more than five years?

Abuelo: (hesitating) Yes (very serious

Everyone looks at each other laughing confident that answers are correct.

Carme to Abuela: Do you swear that the answers to these questions will be truthful?

Abuela: excited smile: Jesss!

Violeta: que te dije? Es un tiro.

Everyone excited happy faces

Carmen to Abuelo: Are you willing to take the full oath of allegiance to the united states.

Abuelo: with serious affirmation: Yesss

Everyone laughs. Happy answers are good.

          Abuelo: Que Bueno

          Violeta: Great

Abuela: Estamos hecho

Abuelo: Yo creo que no vamos a tener que estudiar

Carmen to abuela: have you ever committed adultery?

Abuela: happy faced: Jess

Carmen and violeta have frozen nervous expressions

Carmen to abuelo: she appears scared as she asks: Have you ever been arrested for the posession of drugs?

abuelo: serious look. Yess

Carmen looks upset.

carmen to abuela: Have you ever engaged in prostitution?

carmen has a scared looking waiting for the answer.

abuela: screams out smiling and nodding her head yes.

 Yess. Yess.

Pause: ahh, very good , I like it very much.

Violeta and Carmen reach for the head in their hands.  Scene over.

End.

No jorobo mas - hasta la proxima!

Will edit this piece later - p'alante como dice Chirino!

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Back in the saddle again...next Sunday.

Short and sweet!

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again...

Message for my besties at I.C.:

This Sunday marks my return to 8:00 and 9:30 a.m. masses.

If you are at I.C. , hit me with a hello choir pit side.

Would love to see you!

 

See ya on the road as well...soon.

 

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Twenty years.

 

 

 

 

Twenty years. 

Twenty years in the making.

Twenty years of waiting.  

Twenty years of reunions and separations.

Twenty years of growing older and growing apart.

Twenty years of anticipation.

Twenty years of saudades.

Twenty years of saving and spending. 

Twenty years later we are inching our way home... 

 

Casa Dolce Far Niente

The fence adventure last summer.. no more uninvited guests unless they can leap tall buildings and climb high fences with a dash of barb! 

Below the final touches to the perimeter fence.

Aerial view of 'el bico'...



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Una Rosa de Francia - poesia y musica

 

Una Rosa de Francia

 

 

I have never been a muse nor do I suspect I ever shall be one. I do, however, appreciate the value of inspiration however it may arrive just as I am inspired by the musings of any muse.

 

Last night, while organizing a stack of sultry novels from a new crop of contemporary Cuban writers like Zoe Valdes, Guillermo Cabrera and Daina Chaviano, I tripped over some beautiful literary musings that refer back to the time of Cuban splendor - one in particular struck a cord, 'Una Rosa de Francia' by Gabriel Gravier. (Capitulo Tres - Zoe Valdez - Te Di la Vida Entera) 

 

Gabriel Gravier's poem gave birth to one of the most magical musical genres of all time.  The marriage of his poetry and Rodrigo Prat's muscial lights still personfies a people and an era that lives beyond an Island - a time  where a slow tempo associated with dance became the culture. 

 

I furthered my search to the place whereby poetry made love to music and found...

 

'Inevitable no sentir nostalgia al escuchar esta hermosa canción en la inolvidable interpretacion de Don Barbarito Diez.

 

 

Se ha dicho que la mejor versión de Una Rosa de Francia, sin duda alguna, es la que grabó Barbarito Diez, la Voz del Danzón. Rodrigo Prats compuso la música de la criolla-bolero Una Rosa de Francia, cuya letra es un poema de Gabriel Gravier.

 

Gabriel fue poeta y se desempeñaba como abogado en Santiago de las Vegas. Aficionado al violín, no escribió ningún libro de poemas, pero dejó una serie de folletos dedicados a patriotas. Mantuvo una peña literaria que visitaban intelectuales como Enrique Serpa, Guillermo Villarronda, José Sanjurjo.

 

La musa inspiradora del joven escritor y poeta Gabriel Gravier –según contó años después al musicólogo Helio Orovio - fue una bella mujer llamada María Teresa, quien por su presencia parecía francesa.

También cuenta Orovio que Gabriel, además de ser un intelectual, era amante del béisbol. El poeta falleció sobre 1977, con más de 80 años de edad.

A Rodrigo Prats le encantó el poema de Gabriel, titulado Una rosa de Francia, se sentó al piano, y salió a la luz la mágica música, la evocadora melodía sin la cual no hay canción. Poco después la estrenó el astro de Fernando Collazo – el mismo que se dio un disparo en 1939-, y que era conocido como el Rey del Danzonete. '

 

Una Rosa de Francia

Letra: Gabriel Gravier

Música: Rodrigo Prats

Una rosa de Francia,

cuya suave fragancia,

una tarde de mayo

su milagro me dio

en mi jardín en calma.

Aún la llevo en el alma

como un rayo de sol.

Con sus pétalos blancos,

es la rosa más linda,

hechicera que brinda

elegancia y amor.

Aquella rosa de Francia,

cuya suave fragancia,

una tarde de mayo

su milagro me dio.

For those who know me personally, you may also know 'Dr. D.' or Jose Ignacio Diaz Gravier my longtime colleague and friend.   His exceptional muscial acumen was decided long before he was born perhaps even before his great uncle Gabriel Gravier. He comes from a long line of pianists and composers. 

Too bad the greatness juju's aren't contagious.
 

 

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The return of a burnout....me...

Edvard Munch - The Scream

'En un santiamen'...one fine day in late October 2012 my last weak wick burnt out! After eight years of diligently working two jobs, parsing through health issues, navigating ministries, conflicts, family and finances, I woke up one morning and found I had nothing left.  I could do no more to recover except to get out from behind the wheel, steer violently off the road and park myself in a dark musty garage with no windows and limited contact with the outside world. 

I broke ties with everyone.  I made deals with myself and repeated that this was temporary - it was not a divorce, more like a temporary separation - until better. Although better was an illusion at best.

No sooner did I park myself in that dark place, I became bitterly  ill with chronic, rib rattling bronchitis that lasted over two months; four visits to urgent care, no sleep, no rest, no voice, no desire and no energy. All drama aside, November 11th marked the decline of 2012 and I became a lifeless piece of chopped liver.

I looked to the heaven's and asked God many times what His plans were for this 'asmatica cronica Catolica'? He began to offer some subtle answers. 

I found that, He gave me permission to take a vacation from myself and revealed that not only was I a closet case of 'burnout' in denial, but also a classic case.

If you google Wiki and  or Miriam Webster you will find what I found - the following definition of 'burnout" illustrations et. al.:

1: : the cessation of operation usually of a jet or rocket engine; also: the point at which burnout occurs

2: a: exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration

3: b: a person suffering from burnout 

 

 

Moreover, I suffered from all   12 classic phases that led to my combustion of lethargy including: the compulsion to prove oneself, working harder, neglecting my needs, displacing conflicts, revision of values, denial of emerging problems, withdrawal, obvious behavioral changes, depersonalization, inner emptiness, depression and burnout syndrome. 

 

It has taken a few months to climb out - October through January.  I wished it would have been easier, but this just couldn't be fixed with 'cuatro meprobamatos' and a glass of milk.

 

No one knew  - not even my closest friends.  My family thought I was going through a phase.

 

For the last few months I reported to work from nine to five because it had to be only to arrive home to a sullen darkened room,  a lifeless flatscreen with images from the 'Lifetime Channel' and a twist of 'Sundance'.   Not a real life, not really.

 

Today, I know that the final leg to my recovery hinges on future social support.  It is now time that I reconnect and recreate an organizationally-supportive environment. Such as my girl Liz Taylor proclaimed, " "Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together."

 

I look forward to reacquainting myself with everyone in 2013!

 

Hiatus is officially over - I think!

 

 

 

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There is no place like home.

 

And this is why I don’t sleep … A story about OUR house and home.

I am really reaching this time, but here goes... This is a story about our house coupled by what seems to be a lifetime of a diasporic existence.  I submit, our story can be oddly compared to the Classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. 

Really? Really!

Ehem., Clarification is just ahead…The Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodsman made their way with young Dorothy to the Land of Oz. Along a road of yellow bricks, through great struggles, they made their way to the great Oz himself! This is Clutch!

Later after they were all cleaned up and polished by the hospitable "Wash & Brush Up Co.", the Wicked Witch of the West appears in the sky, riding her broomstick, skywriting the words "SURRENDER DOROTHY.

In this Classic, the Wicked witch is a true threat. In addition, the idea of surrender remains an anathema – much like our separation from our home and house in Portugal. 

No one wants Dorothy to surrender to the wicked witch. They would do anything to stop this travesty, just as our kin are not willing for us to surrender to a never never return home to Portugal. I’m rooting for Dorothy on this one just as I am rooting for us.

In this dreamland of Oz, she and her companions are seeking their true selves, and their place in the world. To do this requires a consummate surrender.  We, in turn are struggling to create our own version of a dreamland and our surrender has been a dedicated mission awashed with torrential currents. 

As we reach the last and final chapter, Dorothy, eyes shut and gritted in faith, clicks her heels and repeats, “there is no place like home, there is no place like home, there is no place like home.” 

 

I click my heels and do the same, “there is no place like home.”

 

 

 

In Portugal.

Caminando....

 

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Day 3 - The Children's Hour

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's three daughters

 

 

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, o blue-eyed banditi,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!^[6]

 

 

^{Dedicated to two months of convalescence - re-discovering  reading, writing and the beauty of written and spoken worlds!}

^{Day 3 of the new year looking and feeling better - at last!}

 

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No resolutions...just dream catching...

Trio: Rose, Paula and the Royals

Thank you ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. It is a pleasure to pen a few words, at this, my favorite time of year. This time when magical dreams and schemes are created as we face the next 12 months with gladdened old hearts and open doors to 2013!

 

Allow me to offer some exposition to this first narrative of the year.  One colloquial day, while on the train northbound sitting with my travel buddy Jackie, we found ourselves visiting the topic  of living your best life through visuals, a topic of mutual interest. After our conversation, I decided to actively pursue my imagination and follow this colorful stroll as so did she.
We agreed that boxes were the visual tools of choice. 

Now, many of you will be wondering by what right I presume to present my visualization endeavor to all of you clearly more high and fine and talented in the world of living life.  I am an unlikely character to speak of this topic.  It seems slightly preposterous and silly even to me! I certainly can’t lay claim to any of the following banter as a  great achievement of my own - yet. I am a beginner and these vessels pictured above have been chosen precisely as a tool to set this year ablaze and to march on right-foot-forward. 

 

I will offer, I have taken great pains to affectionately personalize the trio pictured above.

Hence, please meet Rose, Paula and the Royals. These boxes are earmarked, by me, for my walk - a modified journey to visualizations;

 just another aspect of my alembicated pilgrimage. 

 

(Rose): the rose covered tin box was a gift I received from good friends in Portugal last summer.  Happily, this karmatic gift came with a key attached to a lucky owl key-ring. No doubt,this box will store well guarded thoughts/secrets and maybe some euros, if I am lucky.

(Paula): The shiny wooden box was a Christmas present from a long time friend and co-worker.  It is fire branded with Paula Deen's seal of approval at it's bottom. This box is a salt and pepper flapped container with a southern drawl.  She has been officially re-purposed for my cause- y'all. This unit will be the steamy dreaming big box. 

(The Royals): This august token tea tin with Prince William and Kate Middleton's  likeness is now empty and ready to serve 'barmy ole me' as a dream catcher. In addition, I will fill it up with personal successes, intellectual pursuits and doses of codswallup.

If I don't faff around, each container will be charged with a different set of stored visuals that will be a reminder of endless possibilities that will race past Homeland security and dock at my port one fine Florida day.

I remain optimistic. According to Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization is the art of using mental imagery and affirmation to produce positive changes in your life. 

Other visualists, and there are many quarterbacks to this school of thought, such as Dr. Lee Pulos noted for, "conscious creating desired outcomes in your life," and Dr. Norman Peale author of 'The Power of Positive Thinking', to name just two, believe that while mental imaging terminology differs
the concept is the same.

Typically, visualists create power posters or scrapbooks to further sensitize their dreams.
I, however, although unconventional, have enlisted visual muscle by employing Rose, Paula and the Royals to this cause. 

Sounds fairly simple. Experts indicate that this process is three fold.

- Begin with a relaxed state of mind
- Focus on a specific image
- Repetition, repetition, repetition

I believe this exercise might be a fun way to jump start the baby new year.
On this day, January 2, 2013, my boxes and I concur with these free thinkers and behavioral psychologists:

Visualization is the complimentary skill to vision.

Together with Rose, Paula and the Royals, I will meander my way to the clarity needed to fulfill my dreams...

What is in your box?

Buen Camino!

*Heads up! The good news is anyone can incorporate this practice into daily living and it just doesn't take a lot of training.

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Joyeux Reveillon 2013!

 

Reveillon 

Désoler pour cette longue, voir très longue absence (encore une fois...)

 

Ehe-emm, pour les fêtes j'ai travaillée en peu et plus des repas en famille ...

 

...donc je n'ai pas vraiment eu le temps de m'occuper du Blog. Je vous poste, comme promis mais avec un peu de retard  un article pour vous montrer les cadeaux que j'ai eu pour Noël - my new box!

 

Ah, yes, you guessed it - another year's resolution; this time to recover my long forgotten high school french.

Je ne m'en souviens plus! C'est triste!

An ambitious addition to an already misguided list  of bucket do's.

 

I will soon write about my Pandora's Box 'cadeaux box" of goodies in the New Year!

 

In the meantime: 

Bonne soirée & Bonne nuit à tous et à toutes !

 

 "Bon Chemin et 

 JOYEUSES FETES DE FIN D'ANNEE "



 

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A Happy Everything wish for you...

This year's hug..

You have come to the right place. 

Welcome to my place for the ordinary !

Ah, my fears are luckily unfounded...I now have your attention!

Disclaimer: I confess I did not want to risk any distort by a  brief and passing verbal delivery, so I threw in a few good end of the year wishes for you below...    

 

I WISH FOR YOU:

 Peace in times of unrest;

A peaceful and agitated Holiday Isle repose - on the way to Key West - our  favorite get away.

Smiles especially in those moments whereby a smile may feel like hard work;

Alexis my niece and I  -  sprained arm and foot and on her way to Machu Picchu, Peru  one day later...

Imagination so that you can allow yourself to drift away inside your very own rainbow - 

p.r.n. - as needed;

Photograph courtesy of Herminia Diaz - Immaculate Conception Church

 Laughter the kind that makes your belly hurt and your eyes tear up;

My longtime friend Patty P. who  is a friend to laughter  ... N'est pa?!

 Sunsets they just cannot be ignored. Sunsets are free and they are one of many miraculous (shut my mouth) gifts from God;

Weekend at Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beachn on the Intra-coastal with Patty P.

 Friendships the sort that remain a staple through life's journey - treasured companions that tinker on down the lane next to you, first on a dirt road paved for tricycles and later on a non-slippery tiled geriatric porch ready for rockers - hopefully seaside;

  

Faith so that nothing shakes you because you know with certainty all things are as they should be;

At Fatima, Portugal 2012

 Confidence so that you can be kind and forgiving to yourself;

At 'Sobe' with Ali and Tony - cruising expedition  one fine summer evening...

Gratitude because the list is...

'B.C' .foto ( before 'their' children) Photos by Jenise

Endless....and it is framed by  faith,  family and hope...

Circa 1960 - last portrait before our life changed radically and we became political refugees

And most of all Love...

because it is Just NOT over rated! 

Imagine a clam or a turtle without an inhabitant; an empty shell. Yes?

Without love, we are just a shell that only exists.

'Com certeza absoluta'! 

No doubt! 

Best to be a crustacean with a heart! I WISH YOU LOVE!

Still loving life  and each other  - the disparages of culture have made us better people over the years -
Photos by http://photosbyjenise.smugmug.com/

A tip from Oprah:

Live your Best Life!

From our family to yours:

Follow what is sweet, delicious and calling!

Buen Camino, Happy Everything y Muchas Cosas Buenas de todo corazon!

Don't be a stranger; I plan to remain TINKERING in this place for the ordinary; extra-ordinary!



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