12.30.2013

Jibaro Lifestyle: Puerto Rico's New Generation of Eco-Farmers

Puerto Rico’s Eco-Farmers Go Back To The Land

"A new generation of eco-farmers in Puerto Rico are working to bring pride back to the jíbaro lifestyle. Young people all over Puerto Rico are heading back to the land and starting organic farms up in the mountains, growing everything from coffee to kale." 


12.26.2013

Puerto Rico's Projected 2100 Population Minus 1 Million to 2.8 Million

According to UN data, Puerto Rico's population will fall to 2.8 million by 2010. That's a loss of 1 million people from its high of 3.8 million in 2000. The island's population slide is also in sharp contrast to predicted increases in US, hemispheric and global totals.


Population Pyramids of the World 1950-2100

12.22.2013

Melissa Mark Viverito: NYC's Next City Council President



Melissa Mark Viverito is on the verge of becoming New York City's next Council President. She has the backing of mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio, SEIU and 30 or so of her peers on the City Council. If victorious in the January 8th election, Mark Viverito -- who's Puerto Rican -- becomes the first person of Latino heritage to hold the powerful post.

As City Council President, Mark Viverito would be on a trajectory to higher office. NYC's 1st woman mayor? 

11.17.2013

Rhode Island's Tavares and Elorza

Followers of US Latino electoral politics should watch Rhode Island! 

A year from now its leading political executives could be Latino: Angel Tavares, 43 year old mayor of Providence, is running to become the state's next governor; and law professor and former housing judge, Jorge Elorza, 36, is seeking to follow Tavares to the Providence mayoralty. 

Harvard Law School graduates -- Tavares is of Dominican and Elorza of Guatemalan heritage. The state's small size, changing demographics -- along w/the Ivy League launch pad available to a select few -- are combining to fast-track the Rhode Island Latino political ascent.

Jorge Elorza (Credit: Brown Daily Herald)

8.12.2013

El Grupo Ecos Borincanos: Keeping Jibaro Music Alive!
















El Grupo Ecos Borincanos played at this past weekend's Puerto Rican Festival in Rochester, NY; next, Market Street Park, Auburn New York, 6 pm!

Here's a clip of their rendition of Preciosa.


8.11.2013

Zainnia Vegas and Her Lakota Grandmother Blackwolfe

Photo: Me and my Grandma Blackwolfe!  <3 this woman to the end of the world and back!  A TRUE Lakota warrior woman!
Zainnia Vegas (left) is with beloved Lakota grandmother Blackwolfe on the prairie in South Dakota. Born to Irish/Blackfoot and Puerto Rican parents, Zainnia traces her Borikua heritage on her mother's side to the early migrations of Puerto Rican farmworkers and merchant marines to California and Hawaii -- where she still has family. She's never been to Boriken, but Ziannia is very proud of her Taino heritage.

Big John Astacio -- A fiercely proud Taino in Seneca Country




Mercedes Vazquez Simmons and son at the Rochester PR Festival for the Ruben Blades Concert

Photo: My son and I at the festival

The lovely Mercedes Vazquez Simmons takes a break from her role as Founder & CEO of Pretty Girl Productions- Boxing Pretty Girl Promotions to enjoy the music of Ruben Blades with her son Taylor at yesterday's Puerto Rican Festival in Rochester, New York. 

7.18.2013

Latina Converts to Islam Growing in Number

Zainab-Ismail-praying-at-a-mosque-Istanbul-Turkey

Among the reasons for the growing number of Latino converts to Islam in the US is this curious suggestion by Ahmad Akhar, the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic studies at American University:

[By converting to Islam, some Latinos may also feel as if they're connecting to their Spanish roots, which are embedded for 800 years in Islamic history in Spain's southeast population centers of Granada, Cordova, Seville and Andalusia.] 

See the full article.

Also -- 

4.01.2013

Your Spanish Ancestors Were North Africans

Were your 'Spanish' ancestors European as most Puerto Ricans believe, or African -- North African, to be precise? 

It's an intriguing question. 

Chances are they were African. Here's why: 

1) The indigenous of the Canary Islands -- Guanche -- are genetically Berber, i.e., North African. Berber bloodlines predominate among the people of today's West North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). Spain's Canary Islands lie off the coast of North West Africa and are geographically part of the continent of Africa. Recent genetic studies found a high percentage of Berber (upwards of 72%) mtDNA [direct maternal] lineages among Canary Islanders.

2) Records show the migration of Canary Islanders to Puerto Rico in successive waves beginning with Columbus' 2nd voyage in 1493 and continuing to the Spanish American War, 1898. Actually, the first Guanche to Puerto Rico were brought forcibly as slaves to replace the devastated Tainos. The later waves of Canary Islanders arrived as poor, rural Spanish colonial 'subjects' who migrated to Puerto Rico's agricultural regions in search of a better life. It is their music, food, dialect, community life and olive skins that make-up the "Spanish" component of the island's Jibaro culture.

3) Recent DNA sampling in Puerto Rico found strong evidence of mtDNA matches for Guanche genetics. In some sampled communities 55% of the residents contain the markers, while in others, particularly in the Western portion of the island, it's as high as 82%.

Tinguaro was a Guanche leader who defeated the Spanish conquistadors at a battle in the hills of Acentejo, Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The area is now called La Matanza de Acentejo because the Spanish returned and slaughtered all of the local Guanche people.

3.28.2013

Puerto Rico's Canary Islands Connection

Canary Islanders contributions to the history and culture of Puerto Rico is vast. For example, Puerto Rican Spanish was shaped by the dialect of the Canary Islander migrants. The Tiple and Puerto Rico's beloved Jibaro culture's "Spanish" contribution trace back to Canarios (also known as Isleños).

Furthermore, DNA sampling in Puerto Rico found strong evidence of mtDNA matches for Canary Islannds genetics. In some communities, 55% of the residents contain the markers, while in others, particularly in the Western portion of the island, it's as high as 82%. 

Even the name Puerto Rico is from the Canary Islands, i.e, the port in San Juan was named after GrandCanary's Puerto Rico. And many of the island's cities were founded by Canarios. 

Photo: NUESTRO RICO MUNDO

-Gracias a Francis Sorses para RICO PUERTO RICO

<<Es relativamente frecuente encontrar textos en los que nos hacen saber las influencias que ha recibido el singular español hablado en Canarias. El texto que les presentamos hoy, en cambio, nos sugiere las influencias que ha tenido nuestra modalidad lingüística en el español hablado en la isla de Puerto Rico.

Llegaron desde sus tierras españolas con mirada hacia el poniente a las nuestras, de un archipiélago montañoso de formación volcánica a otro de características similares. Arribaron en oleadas, la primera de las cuales fue para el 1536; llegando otra de mayor fuerza para el 1695. Se ubicaron en tierras antillanas: en la hermana República Dominicana, sirvieron de freno a la ocupación francesa y se dedicaron al ganado y al tabaco; en Puerto Rico, realizaron su primer poblamiento en Río Piedras, trasladaron a estas tierras el culto a La Candelaria y fueron los pioneros del trabajo de la caña. Nos dejaron toponimia como el denominar los lugares como altos o bajos: Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Vega Alta, Vega Baja; Hatillo, Aguadilla, Quebradillas… Fundamentalmente concentrados en el norte, un poco hacia el centro y hacia el oeste de nuestra isla grande -Puerto Rico-, nos dejaron también apellidos: Amador, Chávez, Acosta, Aguiar, Borges, Dones, Fragoso, Jiménez, Machado, Marrero, Silva, Sosa…

De latín canis -perro- proviene el nombre para este archipiélago ubicado en el Océano Atlántico a 60 millas al noroeste de África. Su nombre surge por la abundancia de perros en estas islas en épocas antiguas y está compuesto por Fuerteventura, La Gomera, Gran Canaria, El Hierro, Lanzarote, La Palma y Tenerife. Estas islas constituyen a su vez dos provincias de España denominadas Santa Cruz de Tenerife y Las Palmas, y dos capitales que reciben los nombres de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria y Santa Cruz de Tenerife. El conjunto de estas islas da nombre a las aves conocidas como canarios y a la flor que comúnmente identificamos en Puerto Rico como canaria.

Hoy quedan claros reductos de su fuerte presencia en nuestra formación como nación, los que se perciben en nuestra modalidad boricua del habla que, como ha afirmado el aiboniteño Manuel Álvarez Nazario, no difiere apenas del habla cotidiana de los canarios:

"El hijo de nuestro país que recorre los caminos de Gran Canaria y Tenerife, por ejemplo, oye un habla de entonación tan cercana a la suya, apoyada además en rasgos fonéticos, gramaticales y léxicos de tantas coincidencias, con lo íntimo particular de su isla, que llega a tener por momentos la impresión de no haber salido de su propia tierra."

Coincidencias de pronunciación tales como la sustitución de i en lugar de la e como en nochi, por noche; vinagri o lechi por vinagre o leche; sustitución de u por o como en amarillitu por amarillito y toditu por todito; el decir bíhne por virgen. También se dan tendencias sintácticas y preferencias de tiempos verbales que son de claro influjo canario. Pero donde más se aprecia su presencia es en nuestras particularidades léxicas, aunque muchas de ellas igualmente se dan en la Península Ibérica, pero según los estudios lingüísticos parecen arrancar y llegar a Puerto Rico directamente de las Islas Canarias.

En nuestro vocabulario cotidiano se percibe la presencia canaria en voces tales como chubasco -súbita caída de lluvia-, de donde deriva el acto de enchumbarse, virazón-barrunto -mal tiempo, precursor de lluvia-. Se aprecia igualmente en el denominar a una mata pequeña como matojo, al molusco gelatinoso como aguaviva y al niño inquieto como jiribilla. Son señaladas también como canarias, por parte de Álvarez Nazario en su Historia de la lengua española en Puerto Rico, palabras tales como atacuñarse -llenarse de comida-, ajumarse -emborracharse-, trancar la puerta -por cerrarla-. El llamar pileta al lavadero, fósforo a la cerilla, chiquero a la pocilga, apelar a una persona mediante el uso de voces como cristiano o maestro, aludir al recado como mandado, a la boda como casorio, llamar chinchal al tenducho y purruchada a la gran cantidad de dinero... son también influencias canarias en el habla cotidiana boricua, según el citado lingüista. Nos dejaron también otras voces de trazo despectivo tales como gallito para el hombre peleón, mamalón, parejero y parejería, bambalán, cerrero…

Los guanches y las guanchas, como se conoce a los canarios, dejaron su influjo en nuestra fraseología cotidiana de las que se recogen muchas en el libro de Álvarez Nazario tales como estar vivito y coleando, estar grueso y colora’o, caerse las alas del corazón, hacerse el loco, no levantar los pies del suelo, el toma y daca, del tingo al tango, como el que no quiere la cosa, no ser muy allá, pegar a trabajar, el ¿noverdá?, y a mí que me parta un rayo.

Como síntesis a su capítulo dedicado a la aportación dialectal de los canarios en tierras boricuas, señala Álvarez Nazario que puede apreciarse en los estudios lingüísticos la clara influencia del español llamado meridional que arranca de la región andaluza traducido y tamizado a través del habla canaria para conformar un habla regional boricua con fundamento isleño canario, influjos que nos llegan precisamente en el momento cuando desarrolla y consolida sus perfiles de permanencia la sociedad puertorriqueña, siendo, pues, lo canario, junto a lo taíno y lo africano, un componente más en el crisol de forja de la Nación Puertorriqueña.

Este texto ha sido previamente publicado en el Semanario Claridad, de San Juan de Puerto Rico.>>

-Gracias a Francis Sorses para RICO PUERTO RICO

http://www.bienmesabe.org/noticia/2008/Noviembre/hablemos-espanol-migraciones-canarias

Imagen: Gran Canaria - discoverworld
Mountains of Gran Canary. 

Los Canarios de Puerto Rico (documentary film in Spanish)

3.27.2013

Taino in the Southeast US pre-1492

[Taino Indians lived at least as far north as the Smoky Mountains. ¿Como? ¿Puertorriqueños en América del Norte antes de que Cristóbal Colón? ¡Por seguro! Forensic geologists and Native American scholars are opening the flood gates of new knowledge about North America’s past.]

The petroglyphs from Arecibo, PR and Atlanta, GA both portray a Taino guardian spirit.
The petroglyphs from Arecibo, PR and Atlanta, GA both portray a Taino guardian spirit.

Puertoricans came to North America before Columbus, March 12, 2013, Examiner.com 





3.08.2013

Luz Suarez de Highfield

Luz Suarez de Highfield is a St Croix native and bilingual teacher who serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the US Virgin Islands University.

2.10.2013

Winters by the Lake


I grew up near what was Glacial Lake Iroquois and is still Seneca country. 100+ inches of snow per season, blinding blizzards, 20 foot snow mountains erected by plows, cavernous snow forts and endless snowball wars were common. Big snow just wasn't a big deal and the storms were never named. It's what we knew and expected in winter: 100 day seasons of bone-chilling air, house length icicles, sledding and tobogganing, ice skating, snow angels, frozen fingers and toes. This storm -- Nemo -- brings me back to those wintry days of joy near the lake.

The Farm Worker...

Ruzena Maribel Santamaría Mamani: Bolivia's new ambassador to Ecuador

1.14.2013

60 Minutes: Justice Sotomayor prefers "Sonia from the Bronx"

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an interview on "60 Minutes" (credit: CBS 2)

Interviews with Supreme Court justices are rare. But tonight even more so because in 223 years, there has never been a justice like Sonia Sotomayor. 

Among other things, she's the first Hispanic on the Court, she's the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants who settled in the Bronx -- that New York melting pot that pours out streetwise kids and American success stories.

Sotomayor, now 58 years old, calls the streets of her childhood, "My Beloved World," and that's the name of her new memoir. In her first broadcast interview, she told us that the neighborhood gave a poor girl, with a serious illness, a chance to serve and an opportunity to become one of the most powerful women in America.

Scott Pelley: This is where you grew up?

Sonia Sotomayor: In a public housing project. I lived in this one on the corner. Hold on.

Sonia Sotomayor (in Spanish)Hello. How are you?

Neighbor: Welcome to your old neighborhood.

Sonia Sotomayor (in Spanish): Thank you.]

You could believe she never left. They remember and she's never forgotten. Seems the only difference is the security detail which she really never needed in the Bronx.

Scott Pelley: You know, your brother told us that more than once in this neighborhood he got beaten up.

Sonia Sotomayor: Yep. And more than once I beat up the person who beat him up.

Scott Pelley: You stood up for your brother.

Sonia Sotomayor: Oh, you asked me the other day if I was a tough cookie, and---

A tough cookie who never crumbled at a setback.

Sonia Sotomayor: I am the most obstinate person you will ever meet. I have a streak of stubbornness in me that I think is what has accounted for some of my success in life. There is some personal need to persevere, to fight the fight. And if you just try and be stubborn about trying you can do what you set your mind to.

Sonia Sotomayor set her mind to being a judge at the age of 10. And three presidents agreed. Appointed to a federal court by the first George Bush, she was promoted to the Appeals Court by Bill Clinton. And in 2009 selected for the Supreme Court by President Obama.

Scott Pelley: Your first day working here: terrifying?

Sonia Sotomayor: Overwhelmingly terrifying. I was so anxiety ridden. I was so nervous that day that my knees knocked. And I thought everybody in the courtroom could hear them knocking.

Scott Pelley: Well, come on. You'd been a federal judge for more than 15 years at that point.

Sonia Sotomayor: I had not been a Supreme Court justice. It's a very different stage.

On this stage she's one of the most vocal questioners. And her vote most often falls on the liberal side. She helped uphold the Health Care Act and strike down tough illegal immigration statues. Back in the Bronx as a girl, she set her heart on being a cop --inspired by Nancy Drew novels and TV. But by the age of 8, the plot of her life was rewritten by diabetes.

Scott Pelley: The doctors told you because of your Type 1 diabetes--

Sonia Sotomayor: --Type 1 diabetes. At any rate--

Scott Pelley: --you couldn't be a cop.

Sonia Sotomayor: Yes, I couldn't be a cop. I figured out very quickly, watching "Perry Mason," that I could do some of the same things by being a lawyer.

[Perry Mason: Objection]

Scott Pelley: So, we are sitting in the Supreme Court today because you read "Nancy Drew" and watched "Perry Mason" on TV? CBS 60 Minute Interview (12:00 minute video)