We spent the rest of the time sightseeing around the Island and meeting all kinds of relatives for the first time. There was only one thing that bothered me, and that was the remarks some people made about our Spanish. “Why don’t your children speak Spanish, Rosa?” I was sick to death of that question, but the worst was a couple of times when some of the other kids called us Nuyoricans. One day when we were all at the beach visiting Aunt Julia and Uncle Mario, our cousins José and Tony kept on getting on my brothers’ case about the way they mispronounced words in Spanish. We had spread out a blanket and put out the beach chairs. The grown-ups were busy setting up cold drinks and food. José and Tony wouldn’t let up.
“So what do you think about the Chicago Cubs this year?” José asked Johnny.
“I don’t think they stand a chance,” Johnny said in Spanish.
“Why don’t you explain what you mean, Johnny? You make a statement then you don’t explain yourself,” said Tony. I could see that Johnny was getting nervous on account of his having to speak in Spanish.
“Well”—Johnny switched to speaking English—“the way I see it, compared to the Pirates, they don’t stand a chance. Especially with the number of games they still got to play before the season ends. You know what I mean?”
José looked at Tony and winked. “No, Johnny, I don’t understand what you said. Why can’t you tell us in Spanish so we know what you’re talking about?”
From like nowhere Tito jumped right in between José and Johnny. “Because he can‘t, sucker! And we can’t! Understand? Why don’t you try us out in English? I’ll bet your English sucks! Go on, say something in English, punk!”
“We are Puerto Ricans,” said Tony, coming up to Tito. “That’s why. Not Nuyoricans!”
Tito turned and faced Tony. “Well, we are Nuyoricans and proud of it!” he said. Then he leapt up at Tony and pushed him so hard that Tony practically went flying as he fell down on the sand. “Why don’t you shove it, freak! Come on, Tony, show me how good you are with your fists instead of your girlie mouth! ... Show me!”
Tony just lay there looking up at Tito in a state of shock. “You wanna start something, wise-ass?” yelled Tito. “Come on. Get up!” Then Johnny ran over to Tito and pushed him back. “Cut it out, Tito. We ain’t supposed to be fighting. Quit it.”
“What’s happening here?” shouted Papi as all the grown-ups came running over. “Tito, what are you up to now? Are you starting trouble?”
Tony stood up real quick. “It’s nothing, Tio Alberto,” he said. “We were just playing around, trying out some karate moves, and Tito got the best of me. That’s all. Honest.”
“José, Tony, are you starting trouble with your cousins?” asked Uncle Mario. All the boys shook their heads. “I don’t want to hear that you are fighting with your family. If I hear or see another incident that looks like a fight, it will go badly for both of you, Tony and José.”
After the grown-ups left, José spoke first. “Hey you guys, let’s go in for a swim. Come on.”
Tony went over to my brothers. “Come on, Tito, Johnny, let’s have some fun. I got a great surfboard I want you to try.” They all left, acting pretty friendly. Of course, nobody invited me to come along, right? I’m only a girl. Man, I never saw such boys! They act like you don’t exist. Well, I didn’t care. Who wanted to be with a bunch of jerks who fought all the time?
I stood by the shore and watched the waves hit my feet, then I plunged into the cool water, floated on my back, and looked up at the clear blue sky. In just two days I was going up into the mountains to stay with Tio Jorge. I hadn’t given that much thought. Actually I had been having such a good time that I hadn’t thought much about anything. But soon my parents and brothers were going home and I would be staying in a place I didn’t even know with people I’d never even met. The whole idea made me feel uneasy, and part of me wished I was going home too.
That evening I decided to write to my friends. I sent Consuela a card showing the beach and lots of palm trees and Gigi a card that had four different scenes of Old San Juan. Then since I knew how much Vinny liked adventure stories, I sent him a card showing the old fortress in San Juan complete with cannons. I hoped he still liked me as much as I liked him. I wrote him that as soon as I got settled, I would give him my address. Tomorrow I was gonna mail out the cards. Actually just writing to my friends and remembering them had made me feel better.
Chapter 7
When it was time to leave for Jorge’s village, Papi rented a car to drive us there. We stayed on a superhighway for a long time. “This highway wasn’t here when I was a kid. In fact,” Papi said, “it used to take us about two days instead of two hours to get to and from San Juan.” After a while all the large factories and apartment buildings disappeared, and we were in the countryside.
Papi turned off the highway and started up a country road. The flamboyan trees that my abuelita had always told me about were all in full bloom. The flowers were such a brilliant red that when the sun shone on them, it looked like parts of the countryside were on fire. Papi had to drive slowly because there were so many sharp turns and deep drops in the narrow road that it felt like a rollar coaster ride. All of us were getting a little nervous as we looked over the sides of the steep mountains into the valley far below. There were houses built right on the edge of the road, and when we least expected it, some chickens or goats would come running in front of the car. A couple of times Papi had to swerve the car so that he wouldn’t crash into them.
“Now, this still reminds me of my childhood”—Papi was laughing—“all the animals running loose. Look at that rude goat—he doesn’t care who gets in his way!”
“Please, Alberto, please be careful!” Mami was getting very upset. “You might hit one of those animals. Watch it!”
“So, we hit an animal, and then what, eh? Rosa, can you still remember how to cook goat stew? Or maybe we can have rice and chicken tonight.” I could see that Papi was enjoying himself teasing Mami.
“Stop being so silly, Alberto! Just watch the road before you miss a turn and we all become human hamburgers.” We continued to climb higher and higher into the mountains.
“You are being very quiet, Miss Felita,” said Papi, “are you okay?”
“Sure.” Actually I was feeling kind of sad thinking about how much I was gonna miss everybody.
“Hey, Felita, I got a great idea. Why don’t we change places?” Tito asked, as if he had read my mind. “This way I’ll stay here and you can go back home.”
“Never mind, Tito.” I wasn’t all that sad.
“See?” Tito grinned at me. “You know a good thing when you see it, girl!”
“Felita, you are gonna have a wonderful summer,” said Mami. “And it will also be good for Tio to have you here. This way he won’t be so lonely without the family.”
“Besides, didn’t we all have a good time this trip? What do you kids say?”
“Terrific time, Papi,” Johnny said.
“Great,” said Tito. “In fact I’d like to stay away longer. I’m serious. I met me some nice people. Man, I never knew we had so many relatives! Only one thing that I didn’t like, and that’s the way some of them got on our case about speaking Spanish. I really didn’t like José and Tony calling us Nuyoricans and acting like we were ignorant or something.”
“Yeah,” agreed Johnny, “they kept on correcting me until it got on my nerves. They only called me gringito once, though, because I really told them to shove it!”
“All right!” Tito said. “And I told them, ‘Look, if I’m a Nuyorican from New York, then what happens if somebody comes from Chicago, or Boston or Philadelphia? Are they Chicagoricans or Bostonricans or Phillyricans, or what? Because if so, you’re all nothing but a bunch of dumbricans born in P.R.’ ” Even Mami and Papi had to laugh this time. “Man, I can’t wait for that José and Tony to visit us at home, because me and Johnny are gonna get on their case about the way they speak English. Like watch out! We’ll fix
em! Right, bro?”
“Right!” Johnny slapped Tito’s open palm.
“You will not do any such thing,” Mami said. “I won’t have it.”
Tito, who was sitting next to me, gave me a poke. “Oh, sure, Mami, we will treat them just like the sweet little gentlemens they are.”
“Never mind your nonsense, Tito. Maybe now when you and your brother get back to school, you’ll take your Spanish more seriously,” said Mami.
“Do you boys think you learned how to speak Spanish a little better than before you got here?” Papi asked.
“No, I didn’t learn how to speak any better because they all made me feel too self-conscious. But I know that I understand more now,” said Johnny.
“I agree,” said Tito. “I understand a lot more too.” We went on driving through the narrow roads, passing lots of houses.
“Papi, are we going to the same village you were born in?” asked Johnny.
“That’s right. But remember, I left with my mother and Tio for the States right after my father died when I was just a boy.”
“How does it look to you now?” Tito asked.
“Different and yet a lot the same. I mean there are so many more people living in these here parts today. When I was a boy, you could see open country for miles. There wasn’t a house in sight.”
“I hope Tio will be happy here,” said Mami.
“I think he will, Rosa. He has his two acres of land. Okay, there’s no house yet, but he’s going to build one. You should see how excited he is, talking to the contractors and the architect. Right now he’s renting a small house next to my cousin Manuel.”
We saw a sign saying BARRIO ANTULIO. Papi drove over a bridge. Underneath we saw a narrow river. The main part of town was just a paved road with several stores, a garage, a restaurant, and a few houses.
“We’re going farther up,” said Papi, “where Tio is, about less than a mile outside the village.”
“Some village! There ain’t even a movie or a plaza or nothing!” Tito looked disappointed.
We drove steadily uphill on a winding road and then Papi slowed down.
“Here we are, folks.” He stopped the car in front of a small house that was painted pink with a blue trim. When we got out of the car, a rooster came over and stood across the road, looking at us.
“There’s Tio Manuel’s rooster, Yayo. Isn’t he handsome?” said Papi. Yayo was handsome all right. He had a brilliant red comb and long shiny black feathers sprinkled with red tips and specks of dark green. It looked like he sparkled in the sunshine.
“Oh, Papi, he’s so beautiful! Here, Yayo!” I called out to him. Yayo bobbed his head up and down, scratched his claws on the ground, and then came running toward me.
Quickly Papi jumped in front of Yayo, blocking him. “Don’t—don’t pet him, Felita! These roosters can be mean. He might snap at you.” Papi lifted his arms and shooed Yayo away.
“Hello!” Tio rushed out, greeting us. “How wonderful to see all of you.” He took us inside. “Isn’t this a nice little house? It’s small but it has everything we need. Rosa, Alberto, and Felita, you will be sleeping in this room. The boys will be sleeping next door with Manuel and Maria, since they got lots of room. Oh, yes, we are expected there for lunch, which is right now. So why don’t we eat first and walk around later.”
I was surprised to see Tio Jorge talking so much. He’s not usually like that. For the first time all day I remembered that I was gonna stay here and live with him and not the rest of my family. It gave me this sinking feeling right down to my stomach.
Everything was happening so fast. Tio took us next door and introduced us to Tio Manuel and Tia Maria. They had a big color T.V. in the living room. All the furniture had plastic covers. Shelves on the wall held religious pictures and statues. But there was one wall that was covered with old photographs. There were pictures of me and my brothers when we were real little and pictures of Papi when he was a boy. One very old picture showed a pretty girl smiling, and I knew it was my abuelita because she had her same smile even back then.
When we sat down to lunch, Tito was the first one to go for some food.
“Tito!” Tia Maria shook her finger at him. “This is a religious household. Here we don’t eat unless we first thank the Lord for our food.”
Tito got so embarrassed that he turned pink. We all lowered our heads as Tia Maria said grace. But Tio Manuel looked at me smiled and winked. I got the feeling he wasn’t as religious as Tia Maria. After we had finished eating she took me aside. “You know, Felita,” she said, “it’s quiet around these here parts. The neighborhood hasn’t any youngsters; there are mostly retired folks. But all the children, who are Catholic, of course, get together at our church. We have a youth center there with summer activities. After your parents and brothers leave, we’ll take you over so that you can make friends.
“Also I want you to know that you will be treated here as if you were my very own child. You can come to me for anything that you need, anything at all. Understand?”
Oh, great, I thought, now I have to go to church to have fun. Boy, was I in an exciting place! But, no matter what I thought, I knew I had to be polite, so I said, “Thank you, Tia.” After hearing that speech and putting together what I had already seen of Tia Maria, she is the last person I’d want to come to for anything, anything at all!
That evening as darkness was setting in, I lay on a cot next to my parents, trying to sleep. The noises were so loud that I kept jumping up. Here the coquis, the tiny green frogs that sing all over the Island, were almost drowned out by what sounded like a parrot talking in a weird language. Every couple of seconds it would stop and then begin laughing hysterically. Crickets were blasting away like they were having an argument and wanted to outshout each other. Bull-frogs were singing duets with what sounded like crows. At first I thought I’d never get to sleep, but soon I got used to the harsh noises and after a while it sounded like an orchestra was playing me a lullaby.
But the next day when I went to take my shower, I saw this huge brown bug flying right at me. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was a cockroach with wings. When it flapped its wings it sounded like whispers, whifft ... whiffttt! Ugh! It was horrible! Then I looked up and thought I would faint. Over the shower a whole bunch of them were clinging to the ceiling. They looked absolutely disgusting. I ran out screaming with fear and told Mami there was no way I’d go into that shower.
“There’s nothing to worry about.” Mami tried to calm me down by telling me the bugs were completely harmless. “They don’t bite or do you any harm. They only come out like that in the summer. We used to have them in the city when I was a girl, before Abuelo put screens and modern bathrooms in his house.”
So now I’d have to live with these huge, ugly, disgusting flying cockroaches on top of everything else. I mean first there are no kids my own age around here to play with, then Tia Maria keeps talking about religion all the time ... and of course Tio Jorge hardly talks at all.
At least back in San Juan there were a lot of people around and all kinds of places to visit and things to see. Here there wasn’t anything I could look forward to. I was real tempted to ask Mami if I could go back home with them. But I felt too embarrassed to say I wanted to leave, so I took a deep breath, looked at Mami, and said, “Either they go or I go. I’m not staying here with those cockroaches. I mean it!”
“Don’t worry, Felita, Tio Jorge will spray the bathroom today and Papi will seal up all the cracks so that they can’t get in, okay?”
“I hope so.”
“It will be all right. I promise you that Tio Jorge will spray every day from now on.”
Late that afternoon things started looking up. Tio had invited some people over to meet us and among them were two girls around my own age.
“Felita, this is Provi and Gladys,” said Tia Maria, introducing us. Me and the girls went out in back and sat down on the small patio.
“My mother says you’re gonna be he
re all summer. Is that right?” Provi asked me.
“Right. I’m staying with my granduncle.”
“Is this your first visit to Puerto Rico?” Gladys asked.
“Yes, we just finished visiting with my other relatives on my mother’s side in San Juan.”
“How do you like it so far?” asked Provi.
“I like it. We had such a great time ... we went all over the Island and took in the sights.”
“They told me you’re from New York City,” Gladys said. I nodded. “Well, this is even different from San Juan, or any other city. It’s real quiet. But we like it.”
“My grandmother was born here. She used to tell me all about this village and what it was like when she was a girl. Even though she lived in New York for many years, she always talked about her life here.”
“Is she still alive?” Provi asked.
“No, she died two years ago. She’s my Tio Jorge’s sister. I mean she was.”
“It would be nice if you would join our youth center over at Santa Teresa’s, our church,” said Provi. “It’s Catholic. Are you Catholic?”
“Yes, I am. Tia Maria told me about it. I’m going with her this Friday.”
“Oh, good!” Provi looked pleased. “You’ll like it. We got lots of activities and play games and all. Besides, there’s not much else to do here in the summer, so joining the center is a good idea.”
“Felita! Felita!” I heard Tio Jorge calling me. “There are some guests who want to say good-bye to you.” Finally, after I said good-bye to most of the people, I said good-bye to the girls.
“We’ll see you Friday, Felita, at the church. It’ll be nice.”
At last I had something to look forward to.
That evening Mami made a long list of all the things she thought Tio Jorge and me would need.
“Rosa, we don’t need half of these things.” Tio was annoyed at her. “What are we supposed to do with more juice containers or dish towels? Or any of this junk? We got all we need and we’ll be taking most of our meals over at Maria’s. I don’t see why you like to waste money!”
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