Yo Soy Boricua

Translation: I am Puerto Rican

My brother called me up a couple of weeks ago to tell me that he is engaged. Awesome! One nice perk is that they've decided to get married in Puerto Rico next June, so that means we'll have a reason to fly there next year.

I always get really psyched whenever I get a chance to go back to the island. It's where I was born and I've spent more than a few summers there while I was growing up. For me, it's a time when I get a chance to visit my relatives and get back to my roots.

One thing that always bugged me while I was growing up was that I never really felt Puerto Rican. The linchpins to my argument were (1) I barely spoke/understood Spanish and (2) I didn't necessarily look Puerto Rican. No matter how much my mother and sister tried to convince me, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was different from other Puerto Ricans. The killer happened about 5 years ago was when my niece said to me "you're not Puerto Rican, you're too white to be Puerto Rican". I was dumbstruck, I couldn't say anything...she hit the nail on the head, it was the fear that I had lived with for all my life; stated out loud, in broad daylight in Durand Eastman park, in a 12-year-old's voice. I was too white to be Puerto Rican.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I finally resolved this dilemma. It was my brother's 40th birthday and I decided to fly down so that we could celebrate his birthday together. His favorite place to visit in Puerto Rico is a small town called Boqueron. Boqueron is on the South-West corner of the island, about as far away as you can get from San Juan. As we were driving to Boqueron, I kept hearing a song over and over again on the radio. At first I didn't like it, it was kind of slow and sounded a little sappy to me. I stated this opinion and all hell broke loose in the car. The song was Preciosa by Marc Anthony. This version of the song is basically the unofficial national anthem for Puerto Rico. My brother and sister spent the rest of the drive explaining to me the meaning of the song. As embarrassing as that was, it was one of the first times that someone actually spent some time to explain to me the finer points of my own culture. It's a car ride I'll never forget.

For the rest of the time in Boqueron, I kept hearing the song over and over again wherever I went, you could depend on hearing it at least 2 times a night when out at the bar. As I listened to the song more, I started to catch some more of the lyrics, and get a feeling of what the song meant to me. About halfway through the song, there is a distinct change in the tempo and the beat. I found out later that the original song was written in 1947 by Rafael Hernández and that this extra section at the end was an added update to the song. However, it's this part that spoke to me the most, here is a rough translation of the particular lyrics which really hit me:

Because it's now that I understand
that regardless of what happens
I will always be Puerto Rican
Because wherever I walk
Because I carry it in my blood
Because of my parent's heritage
And with pride I repeat
I love you Puerto Rico

I finally understood. It didn't matter that I hadn't lived in Puerto Rico for most of my life, it didn't matter that I looked white, it didn't matter that I spoke Spanish with an American accent, none of it mattered. There are parts of me that make me different from the people around me in suburbia: I am Puerto Rican and I always have been. The part that floored me was when I realized, specifically because these lyrics had been put into the song, other Puerto Ricans have the same doubts that I do about "feeling Puerto Rican". There are a lot of us who have moved off island, who don't speak Spanish well, whose friends may not even know that they are Puerto Rican. Finally, I'm not the only one.

It's been a couple of years since that epiphany. Whenever I start to get doubts about myself all I have to do is put on this song and sing along as loud as I can. I usually will do this 2 or 3 times in a row. My favorite part is singing the lines "Yo te quiero Puerto Rico". I can't wait to be able to go back and do this with other people.

Here is Preciosa, one of my favorite all-time songs:
Preciosa by Marc Anthony

By the way, part of "going back to my roots" is that I now go by the proper pronunciation of my name. It's Luis as in the name of the city "San Luis Obispo, CA" and not Louis as in "St. Louis".

A Sweet Book

Just got finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It's an Orwellian novel set in 2010 with a high-school senior as the protagonist. Let's just say the novel rings very true for this day and age.

The best part, you don't even have to go out and buy the book in order to check it out. Cory Doctorow is so uber-cool that he has the book available for free on his website. I read the first couple of pages and drove right down to Barnes & Noble to get my own copy. Follow the link for the free version.

Enjoying the outdoors

Sunday was a beautiful day so we packed up the kids and went over to the Air Force Academy for a hike up the Stanley Canyon trail. It's a really neat 2-mile trail that quickly gains a lot of elevation and then levels out and ends up at a lake. We got about halfway up the trail and then turned around since the full thing would have been too much for the kids. We all had a great time. It's nice to be able to get outdoors again.

Follow the link to see some more pics.

Let's Give a Shout Out to the Nerds!

And by Nerds, I am using the best possible connotation. I consider myself one and I'm happy to say that my nephew, Tony, is one.

Today Tony and 3 of his friends are flying from Puerto Rico to Denver in order participate in a national math competition. This competition consists of verbal and oral tests in mathematics taken over this weekend. The top 4 7th-9th grade students from every state are invited to attend the national competition.

Here's a sample problem that I posed to Tony which he answered without any problems:
One side of a right triangle has a length of 13. If the other side and the hypotenuse are whole numbers, what is the perimeter of the triangle?

You can try and plug and chug it, but it will take you a very long time since the other sides are very large number. The other way to do it is algebraically. He sent me a very elegant method of solving this problem which was cleaner than the method I used. Can you tell that I'm proud of him?

Please join me in wishing the Puerto Rican team (and Tony) luck in this week's MathCounts competition! (Tony is the one in the white hoodie and brown pants)

To Do On This Blog

Don't have enough time to write anything of length. Things I want to write about and hope to get to after I'm done with school:
- Tony and Mathcounts (have to do this one today, but make it quick)
- Comment on Ryan's post about facebook contacts and also expound about places I've been thrown rather than lockers I've been shoved into
- Eddie's engagement and Puerto Rico/being Puerto Rican
- Bass Playing (or lack thereof)
- Living in the Mecca for Evangelical Christians

Just one more week

Just a little over one more week before my class is over and then I don't have to stay up until 1 AM finishing my homework.