It's time for us to reclaim
our freedom of thought to have a more personal relationship with
that which we love.
Know The Man:
Don Jibaro Interview by Les Rivera One of his quotes from 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... READ MORE
Les Rivera
is a freelance writer, covering New York-Puerto Rico-Cuba style
salsa/mambo music, and the sport of boxing.
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
hen 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
LP
Flag Mini Conga...
Compact at 11" high... ►Buy
it◄
Chulerías
ASCII
(ext. chars.)
HOLD ALT and enter codes in the number pad right of
keyboard... then release ALT
YOU KNOW You're
Puerto Rican IF. . . Represent?
It gives us the "good" pride... but, have you measured up
lately to see if you walk the walk? Let's see...
YOU KNOW You're Puerto
Rican IF... You have been spanked with "chancletas" You know your mom is sneaking up on you cause
you can hear her "chancletas" flapping on the linoleum
floor. Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to
summon you to dinner and you only live in a one bedroom
apartment. You have ever called linoleum floor a "rug" You can get to your house blindfolded by the
smell of the "chuletas" You say "Vamo' pa' encima" instead of "Let's
get started" You get scared whenever someone mentions "el
CUUUCO"!!! You remember every Christmas those "aguinaldos"
that abuela used to sing for you.
MORE
HERE
The Best on What's Next in the World
LP
Flag
Mini Conga...
Compact at 11" high... ►Buy
it◄
Ode
to Daddy
by Raquel M. Vázquez — February 2011
Don Jibaro's Note: y
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
Puerto
Rico National Guard begins cleanup work on Vieques
(JAN 23) FINALLY... A group of 30 experienced Puerto Rico
National Guard engineers has launched a cleanup effort
focused on areas of ecological and tourist interest on the
island of Vieques, which the U.S. Navy used as a bombing
range for more than 40 years.
Lt. Col. Ruth Diaz Calderon, spokeswoman for that military
force, a component of the U.S. National Guard, told Efe that
the group of experts began working Tuesday on the project
and that their goal is to establish an eco-tourism project
in a 393-hectare (970-acre) area of the island-municipality.
"Our goal is to improve quality of life and help with this
project. We want the residents of that island to know that
we want to restore its splendor" as a tourist attraction,
Diaz said of the small island, located just east of the
mainland of the U.S. commonwealth. Brig. Gen. Juan Medina
Lamela hailed the cleanup effort, saying that Vieques'
residents "deserve the best quality of life" and that the
National Guard's support would help restore an area with
great eco-tourism potential.
The U.S. Navy used much of Vieques and the nearby island of
Culebra as a bombing range for nearly 40 years until May
2003, and it also leased those areas to other countries for
their own military live-fire training exercises. The four
decades of military maneuvers left munitions debris in
waters off the island, an area of great ecological value.
Local groups say the high incidence of diseases and
conditions such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and
respiratory ailments on Vieques relative to mainland Puerto
Rico is attributable to the U.S. military activity. The U.S.
Navy, however, says there is a lack of objective studies to
link the health problems to the military exercises.
My
Incredible
Tío Genaro “Yo conozco el Buey Que Faja
y La Víbora Que Pica.” veryone 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
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...
On July 25, 1898, during the Spanish–American War,
the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at Guánica. As an
outcome of the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the
Philippines and Guam for $20 million ($400 million today), then
under Spanish dictatorship, to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris.
The Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved by a Constitutional
Convention on February 6, 1952, and 82% of the voters in a March
referendum. It was modified and ratified by the U.S. Congress,
approved by President Truman on July 3 of that year, and proclaimed
by Gov. Muñoz Marín on July 25, 1952, on the anniversary of the July
25, 1898, landing of U.S. troops in the Puerto Rican Campaign of the
Spanish–American War, until then an annual Puerto Rico holiday.
The United States and Puerto Rico began a long-standing
metropolis-colony relationship. In the early 20th century, Puerto
Rico was ruled by the military, with officials including the
governor appointed by the President of the United States. The
Foraker Act of 1900 gave Puerto Rico a certain amount of civilian
popular government, including a popularly elected House of
Representatives. (The upper house and governor were appointed by the
United States; at the time, the US did not have popular election of
senators. Until passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, most
US senators were elected by their respective state legislatures.)
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!
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
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.
The film is scheduled for release on December 18,
2015.
You Definitely Gotta See THIS Los Perros
"It's better dry bread in peace, than
a
feast in a house full of fighting." Prov.17:1
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)
JUST CULTURE DEPT.
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 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◄
The Biggest Cuatro in the World (video is in Spanish)
"It's better dry bread in peace, than a feast
in a house
full of fighting." Prov.17:1
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
hen 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. 
►
◄
You have been spanked with "chancletas"
y
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 
Politically
Correctness... 
Roots
of Puerto Rico… The Jíbaro!
Hole In The Tongue Dept
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. 
Edited
by Don Jibaro
Star
Wars Episode VII 
Dear
Mr. Jibaro:
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.
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.
Hypocrisy:
Them Phonies 
DJ's GIMME SOME O' DAT
