Know The Man:
Don Jibaro

Interview by Les Rivera
One of his quotes from his jibaros.com reads: “A Puerto Rican shall not be boring.” so, to describe Don Jibaro as anything less than riveting would be an understatement of his own philosophy. Don Jibaro is the owner/operator of some of the world’s busiest Puerto Rican websites, Over the years, Orlando (his real name) has also left a legacy of volunteer work in the Los Angeles area...
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Star Wars Episode VII

...is an upcoming American epic space opera film and the seventh film in the Star Wars film series. The film features an ensemble cast that includes John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson and Max von Sydow, with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker reprising their roles from previous films. It is intended to be the first part of the planned third trilogy of Star Wars films, following chronologically in the series 35 years after 1983's Return of the Jedi. It will be the first Star Wars film produced since The Walt Disney Company acquired ownership of Lucasfilm.

J. J. Abrams is attached to direct the film based on a screenplay written by himself and Lawrence Kasdan, who acted as co-writer on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Originally, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt was attached to pen the screenplay after writing a 40–50 page treatment. Arndt has since dropped out of the production, and did not receive production credit. Producers include Kathleen Kennedy and Abrams' long-time collaborator Bryan Burk. Star Wars creator George Lucas will act as creative consultant on Episode VII (and other new Star Wars films). Second-unit filming began in April 2014, with principal photography scheduled to begin in May at Pinewood Studios in London, England.

Don Jibaro's Daughter
Frances' Missionary
Trip to Cuba

(Update by Don Jíbaro)
When my daughter Frances told me that she was going to be part of  a Missionary Trip to Cuba, I though of the sinister dangers and urban legends that has turned Cuba into the "don't go there" place. The case of the Cuban people is a most impacting one... as we have all seen and read what goes on there... how the arrogant pride of the affluent Executive leadership keep the populace virtually in squalor poverty. Enter Frances' Team from the Light and Life church of Downey, California...
►READ MORE

Breeding  Boricuanism in USAricans
By Irene F. Vázquez

When I saw the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, I realized how other cultures can identify with it. A group of people can immigrate to another country and still bring their culture with them, bring up the next generation, their kids to be like them… loving the food, the language and marrying into their own race.

Now, those who’ve seen the movie, know that the parents seemed to overdo their culture by ignoring the ways of the land that they live in or looking at the other ethnic groups in a negative way. The heroine of the movie seemed to look into the American way of life wistfully rather than into her Greek’s family’s. Yet, she recognized and understood the traditions … she spoke the language and ate the food. She knew the folkloric ways that identified them. She marries a non-Greek who embraces her culture, seeing the uniqueness of it and makes it his own.
  READ MORE

The Best on What's Next in the World

Ode to Daddy
by Raquel M. Vázquez — February 2011 
Don Jibaro's Note:
My eldest daughter Raquel, a student of the University Of Maryland, is a very independent person... She's a leader, not a follower; a strong-willed gal that earns peer respect by who she is; not by what she appears to be. She has always maintained a certain degree of admiration for me because she likes our intellectual exchange. What she wrote below, however, blew my mind to Alpha Centauri, because how she expressed things I never knew existed. I am deeply honored to receive this form of mesmerizing accolade... it's like a Grand Birthday Gift. READ Ode Here

Cinco Siglos
de Historia
Book Review by Don Jíbaro

About 10 yrs ago I visited La Universidad de Puerto Rico. At their bookstore I asked for the BEST book in Puerto Rican history they had. "Cinco Siglos de Historia" inSpanish, by Francisco Scarano from Fajardo now teaching at the Univ. of Wiconsin-Madison)...I own it... I READ IT, loved it, now my brother in law asks me "What's good in PR Hist?"  --- HEY, DON'T LET THE PRICE FOOL YOU,there's none BETTER, in real Academic SPANISH" Read for yourself  
►GO HERE

My Incredible Tío Genaro
“Yo conozco el Buey Que Faja
y La Víbora Que Pica.”
Everyone has an uncle or member of the extended family that stands out from the rest. Whether it’s the “barrigón” bachelor uncle who drinks a lot of beer or the church going purist aunt who doesn’t shave her legs, we all have one. Well, I have one, too! And if you allow me say it, my uncle Genaro is very special. Read on…

The memories of my Uncle Genaro go back to 1956, when I was eight years old living in El Barrio La Cambija in the town of Bayamón. His name was Genaro Reyes Vázquez and he was blind, but he wasn’t always blind. Before suffering glaucoma, the eye disease that blinded him, my uncle was a picturesque man that knew everyone in town and everyone knew him. He never got married. Instead he traveled about the island of Puerto Rico by bus or “pisicorre pública” (sort of station wagon taxi that many people share in one trip). He loved to go to the town’s “plaza” and watch the old timers play dominó… while holding his chin with one hand, elbow with the other hand and muttering “Mmmm” occasionally. He seldom played, but he knew a lot of “tranques” (blocks).  READ MORE

The Empty Bed
or The Fallacy of Friendship
A few years ago I was playing my guitar at home. I came upon this old tango my Dad used to quote... La Cama Vacía" (The Empty Bed). I remembered the lyrics and went on to sing it as I played. Half way through the song I began to weep. I didn't stop playing, and my singing became a cry of sadness.

With tears in my eyes, I stopped! The words were too sad, so sad that I had the image flashing in my head while my heart was pounding in my chest. I was "living" the story... the empty bed... I was so brokenhearted that I had to translate this tango into English and share it in my website. The sadness lies in "the fallacy of friendship" and the fact that the words of the song are so true... so moving that you can't avoid "living" the story. READMORE

You can answer a Muslim according to her folly
CEO Brigitte Gabriel gives FANTASTIC answer to a Muslim
woman claiming all Muslims are portrayed badly...

The Importance of Jesus Christ
by Don Jíbaro
Is Jesus Christ really part of our lives
or is He just an Icon at Easter and Christmas?

We "talk the talk" and more often than not, we "walk the walk."
 It's consequently and imperative that we get to know that part of our culture that our ancestors staked the essence of their existence on... their faith in The Lord Jesus! Read More

 

Politically Correctness...
is oftentimes bringing us more chaos than order. It is now fashionable to claim different ethnic roots. However, many are trying to define racial and ethnic groups without stepping into each others toes… a task that is becoming more difficult each time. As Puerto Ricans we are, of course, included in a whirlpool of confusion and struggle in a psychological hand-to-hand combat with our peers.

Everybody wants to have a somewhat aristocratic quality or flavor relating to their own gentry and no one desires to be identified by vulgarity or rudeness… However, maintaining or striving to maintain the appearance of superior or middle-class social status or respectability requires hard work as individuals as well as a community.

This work must be devoid of false delicacy, prudery, or affectation. It's so true that, while none no one wants to be classified as a phony, not too many care to abstain from behaving or doing the things that automatically will make you one... like promising something and not delivering it. We have learned that the greater proportion of the members of an ethnic group of people determines the group’s character. This tends to preserve ithe basic form of civilization and customs, arts and crafts, legends, traditions, and superstitions from generation to generation. Thus, we pass on what and who we are.

This is indisputably the case with Latin Americans (Con tu permiso, let’s call ourselves that for now for the sake of reference) whose unprecedented growth is rapidly changing the political, economic, and cultural panorama in many parts of the United States.

 

 

Roots of Puerto Rico… The Jíbaro!
By Les Rivera
“A Puerto Rican shall not be boring! To describe Don Jíbaro as anything less than riveting would be an understatement of his own philosophy”.

When I wrote an article on Don Jíbaro a long time ago, I felt that his comment was perhaps the greatest way to describe what a Jíbaro was all about. And as far as Don Jíbaro himself is concerned, he is a native Puerto Rican, complete with all the humble peasantry and simple lifestyle, which surrounds someone who lives like a true Jíbaro! And, for the uninitiated, the term “Don” in Spanish can be translated as the English “Sir”. READ MORE

 

Hole In The Tongue Dept
How To Speak American
by Don Jibaro
English! ...Oh the pangs of it. The more I learn about phonetics and grammar, the more ignorant I feel. WHY? Simply put the rules change and nobody tells you about them... This is an example of the New Age Facebook English:

LOL — Laughing Out Loud -or- Lots of Love
,!!!! — talk to the hand
S2R — Send To Receive
WWJD — What Would Jesus Do?
WWSD — What Would Satan Do?
*$ — Starbucks
F2F — Face-to-Face
LMHO — Laughing My Head Off

So... To be understood in the USA of the 21st century, you gotta "kill" the words as you pronounce them. Today's lingo is not what we boomers learned in school. READ MORE

 

The history of a country
 is generally written by the conquerors. The "conquered" seldom writes a thing. Many things contribute to the correct and accurate depiction of historical data. Sponsorship by the wealthy was one of the favorite incentives. Such history tends to carry a partial or one-sided view of the facts.

It is, consequently, up to the passionate historian to do his or her own research to verify the facts. This leads to documentation which will totally eradicate any pre-conceived notion acquired during the student's whippersnapper elementary history education. Puerto Rico, more than perhaps any other nation, may fall victim to this phenomenon due to the simple fact that Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in the world today! Over 500 years, compadre! ... Yikes, sez me!

 

When I was a kid in the 50s, street funerals were common. Hearses were used by the wealthy. People walked all the way from the Funeral Home to the cemetery, men often taking turns carrying the coffin. This one is a smaller casket, probably a child.
See Photo History

The Incredible Dave Valentín!
DON JIBARO's NOTE: "As a professional musician for over 48 years, I don't get impressed easily... until I hear Dave. His remarkable talent and mastery of the instrument just blew me away! Period!"  Oh, the signing of Don Jibaro's cuatro… Dave and Don Jibaro hit it off like two long lost friends during the signing of the cuatro and Dave Valentin's autograph is now proudly embedded in the instrument!

READ MORE on DAVE

The Empty Bed
or The Fallacy of Friendship
few years ago I was playing my guitar at home. I came upon this old tango my Dad used to quote... La Cama Vacía" (The Empty Bed). I remembered the lyrics and went on to sing it as I played. Half way through the song I began to weep. I didn't stop playing, and my singing became a cry of sadness.

With tears in my eyes, I stopped! The words were too sad, so sad that I had the image flashing in my head while my heart was pounding in my chest. I was "living" the story... the empty bed... I was so brokenhearted that I had to translate this tango into English and share it in my website. The sadness lies in "the fallacy of friendship" and the fact that the words of the song are so true... so moving that you can't avoid "living" the story. Read More

"It's better dry bread in peace, than a
feast in a house full of fighting." Prov.17:1

Is Happiness For Real?
Edited by Don Jibaro

appiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.

While direct measurement of happiness presents challenges, tools such as The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire have been developed by researchers. Positive psychology researchers use theoretical models that include describing happiness as consisting of positive emotions and positive activities, or that describe three kinds of happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.  READ MORE
 

You Definitely Gotta See THIS Los Perros

Ask Don Jibaro Anything
Dear Mr. Jibaro:
Why is it that the most ladies bathrooms have a couch and a little vanity and some even have chairs and flowers and nice stuff, while in men's bathrooms all we have is a hole in the wall and maybe some soap and water? Isn't this reverse discrimination? I scream foul!
Regusted

Dear Regusted:
You can scream until you're blue in the face and that won't change things. Don't you know? Men are pigs! Women are swans. At least THAT'S THE STEREOTYPE. After all, unfortunately, we all go by stereotypes. But seriously, the reason the gals have the couch, etc. is mainly to have a place to lay down for "ladies who are expecting," y'now... the "p" word, in case of fainting or emergency delivery, etc. The guys all they need is a hole in the wall and maybe some soap and water. By the way... the name is Don... Don Jibaro and don't you forget it !!!
►ask Qs here donjibaro@gmail.com

Watch this Puerto Rico Historical video
If you have an extra 90 min to spare

The Ponce Massacre of 1937
was a police slaughtering over a peaceful civilian march, taking place in 21 March 1937 at 3:15 pm, in Palm Sunday, Ponce, Puerto Rico, that killed 19 people and wounded over 200 others. It is the largest massacre in Puerto Rican history. The march had been organized by the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico by the governing Spanish National Assembly in 1873. The march was also protesting the U.S. government's imprisonment of the party's leader, Pedro Albizu Campos, on alleged sedition charges.

An investigation by the Hays Commission put the blame squarely on the U.S.-appointed Governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship. Further criticism by members of the U.S. Congress led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to remove Winship in 1939 as governor. Governor Winship was never prosecuted for the massacre. No one under his chain of command - including the police who took part in the event, and admitted to the mass shooting - was ever prosecuted or reprimanded. READ MORE

TOMATO SALSA DEPT.
Two of the most remarkable classical pieces in music history have been converted into salsa by the genius of Sverre Indris Joner... Wait! These are the Symphonies like you never heard them before. Pay attention to the syncopation and the relationship between two or more melodies that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent. WoW!

Air in G -  Air Bach

Beto's Fifth (not Don Q Gold)

 

 Who in The World Was Juan Tizol?
Juan Tizol, The Puerto Rican Trombonist
that Made up Duke Ellington's Band

Duke Ellington - piano, composer - Fred Guy - banjo - Wellman Braud - double bass - Sonny Greer - drums - Arthur Whetsol, Cootie Williams, Freddy Jenkins - trumpets - Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton - trombone, Juan Tizol - valve trombone (behind the bass) - Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Barney Bigard - reeds - Freddie Washington - dancer READ Juan Tizol Story

Being Positive @ Anytime
eeling good and being positive isn’t about saying your affirmations or looking at cute animal pics on the internet for 10 minutes—especially when your intent is to shift your dominant vibration (although that’s certainly a good start). It’s really about what you’re thinking and feeling, how you’re responding to your Now experience in the other 23 hours and 50 minutes of your day. It’s a lifestyle. READ MORE

The Biggest Cuatro in the World
(video is in Spanish)
  

Hypocrisy: Them Phonies
by Don Jibaro
• Pho·ny/fōnē/ Adjective: Not genuine; fraudulent.
Noun: A fraudulent person or thing.
• Synonyms: adjective. phoney - false - spurious - sham - counterfeit - bogus -- noun. phoney - fake - sham - forgery

any Puerto Ricans who are born outside of Puerto Rico get a real thrill when they finally get to visit the island for the first time. It's like "seeing the bride that you've been betrothed to all your life."
READ MORE

 

 

 

DJ's GIMME SOME O' DAT
What Love Is Not
We all make mistakes and then we HURT inside; pain that we cause ourselves by not knowing how to LOVE one another. YES, not knowing. You might say, "Nonsense".... but what I might not know in practice, I do know in theory. Love is the gracious (unmerited to others) self-giving of ourselves as unselfish human care. NO debate needed. Love is not sex, friendship, nor displays of affection... love is giving without expecting anything in return... and that's not easy, not for you, me or anybody. That's what makes it so volatile and fragile. We expect, we don't get, we get mad and hold grudges because of it. We all have failed to be patient and kind; we all have become jealous, conceited and proud to the point of being ill-mannered, selfish, irritable, and often-times curse at each other. READ LOVE

 

donjibaro@gmail.com
 

“Let's live in such a way that no one blames the rest of
us nor  finds fault with our work.” --(2 Corinthians 6:3)