Yo Te Adoro Puerto Rico....

After being gone from la isla for 8 whole years, I may have a chance to go back. As soon as I found out that it might be a possibility to go for my job...I started dreaming, and a torrent of memories tore through my mind on the hour-long commute home. The smell of overflowing sewage in el Paseo de Diego, pinchos con esa salsa hecha de que sé yo, Pollo Tropical, Cafetería Cabrera, Los Mexicanos (¿dónde estás Julito?) , Torre del Norte, dancing on the rooftop above a reggaeton concert with the crowd chanting "¡Culea! ¡Bellaca!" (at the time it was called Underground but it sho' has risen UP from under!) Isla Verde, Club Egipto, La Rumba en Calle San Sebastián, Bomba y Plena, canepas (un peso na' má, ¿tú tiene un chavito que me presta?) Medalla, Ocean Park, El Recinto de Río Piedras...you felt like you were going to a resort when you went to school! Los muchachos saliendo de la escuela en sus uniformes...it was damn hard to believe they were in high school...Ocho Blanco, the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten in my life, but don't you know I tripped out the first time I ordered Chinese food in Spanish and then the girl yells back to the cooks in Chinese....¿como fue? Diantre.... Manny Manuel was eating at the restaurant where I celebrated my 21st birthday, I have the pics to prove it! Most of all I remember becoming a woman in Borinquen. When I got there I was still a thugged out loca wearing baggy pants and sweatshirts; but you can't do that in PR. Nah....I went out and bought some booty shorts, minifaldas, and tacones plataformas real quick! My body, my soul, my bombazo...was set free. I learned not to get mad when men hollered...I learned to embrace it because Puerto Rico embraced me. I became one with myself, my sexuality. I was no longer afraid of what showing my legs would do to someone, I just did it. Things happen in Puerto Rico that just don't happen here like boys pulling alongside you in their car not to abduct you- just to offer you a rose. It was ridiculous! All along Avenida Muñoz Rivera.....I fell in love.