More on Parrandas in Puerto Rico and missing the island

A friend of mine posted this in her livejournal...

Quiero dar una parranda
sparkofcreation's daily Christmas Carol posts got me to thinking about my own Christmas traditions. It's amazing how the same holiday can be celebrated so differently in different countries. Christmas in the US is so different from Christmas in PR and the people to whom I say that here don't really seem to understand me when I try to explain. It's not that I don't like Christmas in the US, it's just that I'm so used to the upbeat Christmas celebrations of Puerto Rico that I feel like I'm missing something here. My parents have friends who own houses in the mountainous regions of PR and when I was younger, they'd always take my brother and me to the Christmas parties they'd throw. There was always all this wonderful traditional PR food there, and they'd hire a band to play traditional Christmas music from PR. Everyone would be dancing salsa or merengue and singing bomba y plena and trullas all over the place. And even though I usually found it a drag to go there because all the guests were always my parents' age and there was no one my own age to hang out with, I really do miss the atmosphere of the parties. So, for those of you who are unfamiliar with our Puerto Rican Christmas customs, or those of you who are Puerto Ricans living away from home and want to reminisce and feel somewhat nostalgic, these are some video clips I found on youtube of people playing parranda music:








I miss my home!

Another Article: Attacking Beauty Pageants

This is the big news right now.

I'm laughing a bit at this... I mean, it's kind of true, but... couldn't they have phrased it better?

"Beauty competitions in the U.S. Caribbean territory — which boasts five Miss Universe titles, second only to the U.S. — are fierce, drawing boisterous audiences and accusations of rigged results."

Word of the Week: Bendito

Another word vital to understanding Puerto Ricans is "bendito".

Bendito (or ¡Ay bendito!) is an expression to express empathy for just about anything. Too much homework? Bendiiiiiiiito. Your mother die? Same thing (okay, maybe with some other words in there though). You get the idea.

It also can be shorned to just dito.

Here is a passage from a book called "Panorama de la Cultura Puertorriqueña" by some María Teresa Babín from 1958 about the word "bendito". It's a bit exaggerated and also references religion a bit, but it still rings true. Keep in mind that bendito does NOT just pertain to religious circumstances; it's really an everyday word for any problem.

"Creemos sin hipérbole que la vieja frase para
representar gráficamente la verdadera manera de ser y
de sentir de nuestra gente es el ¡Ay, bendito! La
proferimos a cada vuelta de hoja, ya sea para mostrar
pena o para mostrar cariño y solidaridad. Somos capaces
de perdonar las injurias más graves si echamos mano de
este decir en el cual se concentran las virtudes cristianas
que llevamos en la sangre. ¡Ay, bendito! es el grito
conmovedor que nos desgarra el alma y nos nubla los
ojos de lágrimas ante la injusticia. Es también el perdón
y la conmiseración. Esa frase nos identifica con el
semejante que padece y la damos de consuelo sin tasa ni
medida al que necesita alivio. Tal vez el deje con que
pronunciamos ¡Ay, bendito! tenga un tinte de
impotencia ante los designios del Cielo, y esté ungido de
conformidad, pero al decirlo lo hacemos sin
desfallecimiento, sino con humildad y fe. Rafael
Hernández, cantor sin par de la tierra, ha llevado a una
melodía la clave identificadora del destierro: "Los que
dice... ¡Ay, bendito!... ésos sí, ésos sí" son boricanos
inconfundibles. Podemos reconocernos en cualquier
sition unos a otros si escuchamos la expresión definitiva
de nuestro espíritu auténtico. El ¡Ay, bendito! no debe
considerarse un gesto de flaqueza; al conrario, creo que
encierra la simiente pura de la verdadera caridad, flor
de convivencia sin prejuicios y alborozada sonrisa
fraternal, sin algarabía, tibia y honda en el abrazo.
Acompañamos la palabra con un movimiento mesurado
de cabeza, los ojos a medio cerrar, en actitud orante,
casi de rodillas ante Dios, como si imploráramos al
decirla la intervención Todopoderosa, temblorosos ante
el misterio. Somos creyentes y somos gente de buena
fe. Nuestros alardes violentos no pasan de ser gestos
desesperados sin consecuencia moral, pues sabemos de
antemano que la razón la tiene finalmente el que espera
mientras lucha, no el que espera ociosamente. Así vamos
viviendo, alertas y sosegados, desenredando la maraña
del vivir con paciencia y esperanza, aliviándonos de los
dolores que nos va propinando la suerte con el bálsamo y
filtro del ¡Ay, bendito!, cocimiento de yerbas buenas y
yerbas brujas que han crecido en el huerto boricano
desde antaño."

I'm not going to translate it because it's a little too long and artistic, but even if you can't understand everything I'm sure that you'll get an idea of what's going on.