Yanquis en mi casa

This afternoon, after successfully navigating the D-Q-4-6 nexus amid a horde of Yanqui fans, pressing up against you in the sweaty spectacle of the subways, I got onto the Boricua energy wavelength. It was like those Sunday radio shows with Ojeda, a stinging soulful noise. Finally made it to 116 by edging past three generations of cuchifritos. The one thing I noticed alongside the testy NYPD was that row of low-riding bicycles. The one I liked best was the one with the Batman logo, because the whole hybridism thing (low-riding cars + bicycles + p.r. flag, which = cuba + u.s. + france + england + plus any other country mixing red and blue with "white" + BATMAN symbol!) Still there was the never-ending echo of hiphop. the postmodern remote server of rhythm, affecting the traditional hip-shaking imperative, as demonstrated by that yerbabuena show at the so-called feria de artesanía at the so-called marqueta. I actually only caught the very tail end of it, unfortunately delayed by my ineffective fiddling with a picture phone.

Yep, that's my thumb. Can you hear me now? There were so many Yanqui fans on that train going about their Yanqui business. Pointing me toward magnetic north--it's kind of obvious that my next big story lies somewhere in the Bronx. Southern Boulevard barbershop perhaps? It's the spliff that I lift up in hell. It ain't hard to tell.

It was a big day for the Cultural Corridor del Barrio. Carlito's was showing the Young Lords movie and De La Vega's case made NY1 three days after he was convicted. NY1: Story Will GWB take advantage of Repub Convention in New York and do a photo op outside De La's taller , echoing Jimmy Carter in the South Bronx, and promise no one will ever post grafitti again?.

"Gitmo" Makes Me Gag
Can the tabloids get a clue? Isn't "Gitmo" the most horrifically ugly word they have ever coined? I mean, this like, stoopid time-saving, redneck-sounding truncation applied to a beautiful Spanish name, Guantánamo, now code name for the huge fortress U.S. holds in supposedly enemy territory, the prototype for the torture exported to Bagdhad? A dry run for illegally sanctioned abuse, an experimental workshop just like Vieques was in the '80s for the invasion of Grenada. "Gitmo" rolls off the tongue like "gizmo," sounds like it's about "gitting" someone, maybe "Moe."

One last thing, this story I found paritcularly annoying: The New York Times > Week in Review > A Nation Divided? Who Says?
first of all, this comment about the book the article is based on, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America is a ridiculous metaphor:
The bulk of the American citizenry is somewhat in the position of the unfortunate citizens of some third-world countries who try to stay out of the cross-fire while Maoist guerrillas and right-wing death squads shoot at each other," the book concludes.
Then the article points to fusionist political positions by Protestant evangelicals softeining on abortion and African Americans turning against affirmative action. But isn't this what the Republican and Democratic parties have been doing all along anyway? Didn't LBJ escalate the Vietnam War, Nixon get behind black and Hispanic businessmen, Clinton eviscerate welfare? The worst thing about American politics today is its complete self-absorption, lack of international vision. It's the relentless outsourcing of social responsibility for the pursuit of an illusory elevated standard of living that
is trumpeted as our god-given right.

So I leave you with the words of my Boricua brothers and sisters, who have sent me this advisory:

We will politely and respectfully ask anyone whom we would see displaying Puerto Rican Flags with extraneous symbols on it to please hand it over to us for proper disposal of it. We will offer to replace it with a clean regulation flag along with a bookmark containing accurate information on the proper ways for displaying our national
symbol. During the past few years, foreign flag manufacturers have been marketing to the Puerto Rican Community by producing flags that contain degrading symbols and characters such as a male hip-hop cartoon character with the words “Boricua Thug” underneath it. There exist other less insulting images on flags currently manufactured and sold, nevertheless any symbol(s) being displayed on the flag desecrates it and should not be bought.

This Sunday, June 13th 2004, the New York Puerto Rican community will once again celebrate the outstanding contributions of the Puerto Rican people and embrace their own culture. Our purpose in stressing the need in banning the purchase of such flags would be to help memorialize the contributions of the historical figures that gave birth to the revolutionary spirit behind the symbol of the flag.

courtesy www.virtualboricua.com

Oddly enough I rode home on the 6 right across from the dancing woman pictured above, a proud grandma who wanted to tell everybody on the train about it. In the end all I can say is that this (temporarily) Brooklyn player-rhymer on an El Barrio field trip was feeling the explosion of white, white t-shirts, white African raiment, the use of white to reflect the sun as a survival mechanism, white as cultural signifier, black cultural signifier, on the dance floor that is areíto, as Victor would say. The purifying color confronting false purity. White like white on rice, beans, and the computer monitor, my mirror.
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