DJ's GIMME SOME O' DAT LOVE DEPT.
What Is Love?
We make mistakes we make us 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

Hypocrisy:  Why Hate 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.- fake - sham - forgery

Many 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

Boricuanism in USAricans
By Irene F. Vázquez
eeing 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

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

Basic Terminology of Puerto Rican Cuisine
Purloined and Edited by Don Jibaro
uerto Rican Cuisine demands that we make sure  not to embarrass ourselves in front or our guests. Consequently we will try to be the BEST possible cooks we can be... full of experience and class. Well, we at JIBAROS, have finally purloined a collection of terms that will give you enough enlightenment to make your guests believe that you know what you're doing!. Study it well and dish it out with authority. Good Luck....!!! ►SEE HERE

Hole In The Tongue Dept. Part 2
peak Americano
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 Puerto Rican Jesus
by Don Jíbaro
Is Jesus Christ really part of the Puerto Rican Culture
or is He just an Icon at Easter and Christmas?

have always said that a Boricua born in the North Pole is NOT an Esquimo... he's still a Boricua. The place of birth only makes you a citizen of that place, nothing more and nothing less. I'm proud of Jesus... whether He had been born in Puerto Rico or the North Pole. ...but God wanted Him in Israel. Me? I was born in 60 years ago in San Juan but was raised in Bayamón, when Bayamón was little, not the Metropolis that it is today. No, Clark Kent doesn't live there. READ MORE

CLICK ►HERE◄ to see enlarged
 ►See Photo Journal Here◄

Don Jíbaro's Note:
ome 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. . 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.  DJ --- There's nothing as sad someone dying alone on a hospital bed —DJ -

ANGEL SANTIAGO sez: "It is written as "decima espinela", which have its origin in Andalucia during the 16th century and came to the new world shortly after. It is the basis for our "seis" and "aguinaldo" (which uses the "decima" and "decimilla" respectively), but is also found in the music and literature of most latin american countries, Canary Islands and the south west of the US. The "decima" came to the new world around the end of the 16th century and have been in used in Puerto Rican "seis" since the 17th century making it part of the real Puerto Rican music."

READ SAD TALE HERE