Category: Spanish

Music…

Rueda Mi Mente

Sasha

Sasha Sokol

and Words

Rueda mi mente
No se detiene

Casi no te conozco y no te dejo de pensar
Rondas en mis palabras
Rueda mi mente a donde estas
Casi no te conozco y no te dejo de pensar

¿Dicen tus ojos algo?
Muero de curiosidad
¿Cómo mirarte siempre?
¿Cómo saber a donde vas?
¿Dicen tus ojos algo?

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

I first studied English in Catholic school in Rio Piedras; I failed that class.  Years later, we moved to Florida, and I needed to learn English.  Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I learned English through an intensive language program.  Though my sisters continued to embrace speaking Spanish, I didn’t.  I subsequently stopped speaking Spanish, and other than speaking Cantonese with my mom, I spoke English almost exclusively.

I can’t tell you precisely why I effectively expunged Spanish from my brain, but I did.  It might’ve been because I had more to learn after failing my English class.  It might’ve been because boys bullied me (and boys’ bullying is more physical than girls’), and I therefore tried to assimilate as quickly as possible.  While I won’t tell you I feared for my life, I did occasionally fear for my safety.

Continue reading “My head is spinning” →

Music…

Un Gato en la Oscuridad

Un Gato en la Oscuridad

Robert Carlos

and Words

Cuando era un chiquillo, qué alegría
Jugando a la guerra, noche y día
Saltando una verja, verte a ti y así
En tus ojos, algo nuevo descubrir

Las rosas decían que eras mía
Y un gato me hacía compañía
Desde que me dejaste, yo no sé por qué
La ventana es más grande sin tu amor

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Tonight, I’m filled with nostalgia; I’m living a memory.  My dad stops by the side of the road off the Puerto Rican beach near a vendor selling food.  They sell chicken roasted on the spit right on the beach.  Furthermore, they reconfigured their old modified van to grind long stalks of sugar cane into a nectar called guarapo. I fill my mouth with chunks of chicken, washed down with that strangely sweet drink.  The aroma of that simple food and the unmistakable smell of the sea capture that moment better than a photograph.

The soft sounds of the palm trees rustling in the wind and waves crashing into the sandy shore perk my ears.  The bright light of the tropical sun bleaches nearly everything in sight; that same sun reflects off the sand and shimmering water.  As that wind blows, it tickles the skin, though the warmth of the sun feels like a caring embrace.  I can barely believe that was decades ago.

Continue reading “An ode to that cat in the darkness” →

Music…

La Bamba

La Bamba Soundtrack

Los Lobos

and Words

Para bailar la bamba
Para bailar la bamba se necesita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia y otra cosita
Arriba y arriba
Ay, arriba y arriba, y arriba iré

Así se canta La Bamba
Así se canta La Bamba
En East LA, en East LA, en East LA

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

A few months ago, we replaced our 24-year-old daily driver.  Truthfully, trading that car saddened me.  It served us faithfully, but small things started to fail.  We may endure the idiosyncrasies or pay to get them addressed.  Each such issue became a debate and a compromise.  We leaped and got a new daily driver.  The new wheels were similar, but different.  New features included a backup camera, side mirrors with blind spot detection, heated seats, and an entertainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

With the integration of this new technology, I created an online playlist for music to play in our new car.  First, I seeded that playlist with a modest set of songs that I thought we’d both enjoy.  Next, I opened that playlist so that she may also add songs.  Finally, we’d just play songs from that online as we zipped around town.  After years of tolerating the radio or looking at the labels on the cassette tapes in the car, this felt transformative.  That’s right, I said cassette tapes.

Continue reading “An old tune establishing new traditions” →

Music…

Corazón A La Deriva

Cuéntame

Lucerito

and Words

Noto cómo cambia tu voz
Cada vez que me confiesas: “te quiero”
Somos mundos en aproximación
Orbitando con el mismo fin

Choque ciego de universos de amor
Con caricias rotatorias y lentas
Que nos pone el corazón en la boca
Y transforma el aire en elíxir

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a quiet weekend night, we browse through movies on Netflix.  We cycle through many tiles and previews.  Eventually, we land on a sci-fi romantic comedy, called “Our Times”.  The plot centers around a married couple of physicists in 1966 who invent the means to time travel… and land, right here in 2025.  The preview features actors we do not immediately recognize, though that’s not entirely uncommon.

As we start the film, the credits roll.  While Netflix obviously produced the film, the credits roll in Spanish.  We’ve watched several foreign films (and shows) and even a handful that were dubbed.  Sure, the lips move out of synchronicity with the words, but this isn’t a deal-breaker.

Continue reading “My heart no longer adrift” →

Music…

Se Parece a Mi Mamá

Canciones para las Madres

Palito Ortega

and Words

Esa flor que está naciendo
Ese Sol que brilla más
Todo eso se parecen
Se parecen a mi mamá

Ese pájaro que canta
Ese río que se va
Todo eso se parecen
Se parecen a mi mamá

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a dark day in 1977, my father passed away.  I was only nine years old and that seemingly simple event changed the trajectory of my life.  Within a year we moved from Puerto Rico to Florida, transitioned from a Catholic school to public school, and switched from speaking mostly Spanish to predominantly English.  Everything in life changed.  I stood in quicksand or during an earthquake.  We lived without an anchor.

Save one.  The lot of us, my two sisters and I, had one source of stability:  my mom.  She spoke little Spanish and practically no English.  She had less than a high school education.  Subsequently, we moved to Florida at the end of that school year and abandoned everything we knew.  My mom, less than five feet in stature, spearheaded a new life, in a foreign land, without knowing the language, with three children in tow.  We had a handful of friends and no family.

Continue reading “In loving memory of my mother” →

Music…

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Ojalá Que Llueva Café

Juan Luis Guerra 4.40

and Words

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Que caiga un aguacero de yuca y té
Del cielo una jarina de queso blanco
Y al sur una montaña de berro y miel, todo el mundo
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, ojalá que llueva café

Ojalá que llueva café en el campo
Peinar un alto cerro de trigo y mapuey
Bajar por la colina de arroz graneado
Y continuar el arado con tu querer
Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I closed the 1980’s, I spent it neck deep in engineering school.  To maximize my education dollar, I packed my semester as close to eighteen as I possibly could.  The University of Miami charged one flat rate for full-time student tuition, that ranged from twelve to eighteen credits.  I came to a conclusion when I arrived as a freshman.  They charged the same whether you take four classes or six, so I might as well take six.

Packing my semester this way had its own set of consequences.  Even as my local friends joked that Miami was ranked the number two party school, it was far from my experience.  I never attended a frat party, or any party actually on campus.  Only once did I step into a fraternity house, and that was to meet one of my classmates to work on a project.  Having endured bullying in middle and high school, I developed a figurative allergy for conformity, and even popularity.

Continue reading “Forget men, let it rain coffee” →

Music…

Prometimos No Llorar

Colección de Oro

Palito Ortega

and Words

Habíamos prometido no llorar
Perdóname
Quizás esta sea la última vez que nos sentamos a tomar un café juntos
Quizás es la última vez que nos vemos así que tratemos de estar bien por favor
Me quiero llevar como recuerdo una sonrisa
Por favor no llores más

Te acordás aquella tarde que nos conocimos
Fue muy lindo conocerte
Y fue muy lindo todo lo que pasó entre nosotros, pero
Ya pasó

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

As I lived in the sunny island of Puerto Rico, I first heard of Palito Ortega.  I watched him in a movie in our tiny black and white television.  This aired in the early 1970’s, so there was no means to record it to watch at a later time.  This movie moved me, and I remember vividly to this day.  Besides being an actor in this film, he also sang the title track to the soundtrack.  That said, I’ll reserve writing about that song and that movie for another post.

However, that movie started a trend of our listening to Spanish music in our home.  Subsequently, my older sister became fascinated with different artists and would buy the music for each artist.  This music was often in the form of records.  We collected these large two-dimensional square-foot boxes, filled with music, emotion, and now memories.  We played them through mechanical boxes with needles onto a tinny speaker.  The records, often marred with scratches, rendered the music with similar imperfections.

Continue reading “The profound sadness of one coffee” →

Music…

¿A Dónde Va Nuestro Amor?

20 Éxitos Originales

Angélica María

and Words

No sé exactamente qué pasó
Que todo de repente ya cambió
En nuestro diariamente, lo bonito
Tristemente terminó

¿A dónde va nuestro amor?
Si cada día
Se va muriendo la flor
De tu alegría

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

Like anyone else these days, I’ll chill out to movies or series on Netflix.  One of the latest shows that I’ve enjoyed is The Lincoln Lawyer.  The series follows the movie, both based on the Mickey Haller novels by Michael Connelly.  While I enjoyed them both, the movie had a much darker tone to it.  The story revolves around the lawyer that runs his law practice out of his Lincoln Town Car, hence the title.

As you might imagine, the show runs a little more upbeat than the movie.  Haller practices his law fairly fast and loose, though he is generally pretty principled.  They interject enough plot twists to keep it interesting, and I certainly looked forward to its returning for a second season.  Out of respect for those who have yet to watch it, I’ll omit any spoilers, since it’s still a recent show.

Continue reading “A fifty-year flashback” →

Music…

Veinte Millas

20 Millas

Flans

and Words

Me pides más
Después te vas
Indecisión, contradicción
Tus temores anclados en mi amor

No arriesgas nunca el corazón
Siempre adelante la razón
Robas mis fantasías con tu voz

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

On a typical afternoon, I sit on a wooden table in our library.  The Ritcher Library, the main library at the University of Miami, sits centrally on campus.  Mere minutes separate this library and our cluster of classrooms and the student union.  Most of us meet in The Zoo, the large meeting room just off the main entrance.  Two walls of this room are lined with windows to the exterior of the building.  Hence any student could glance into The Zoo and see if our friends had yet to arrive.  In the dark days of the late 80’s and early 90’s, e-mail and mobile phones were rare, so we relied on verbal coordination.

The second floor was reserved mostly for periodicals.  My friend Max, short for Marisela, worked at the periodical counter.  I met her in engineering school.  She is bright, soft-spoken, and funny.  She’s Mexican, and we often speak in Spanish.  A short distance from the periodicals sat a small computer lab, reserved mostly for word processing.  I’ll occasionally reboot the computer and run my programming tools instead (Turbo Pascal), finding an alternate place to accomplish my work.

Continue reading “My imperfect romance with language and culture” →

Music…

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

La Pandilla

and Words

Esta tarde escuché una música
Y he sentido nostalgia pensando el lugar
Donde yo nací, Puerto Rico.
Qué será de mi tierra y mis árboles
Qué será de mi casa cubierta de sol
Mi querido sol, viejo amigo.

Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.

The sun toasts the pavement on a Puerto Rico afternoon.  The heat and humidity turn the island into a sauna.  On a typical afternoon, my dad closes the doors to our restaurant for siesta.  A siesta is a tradition among Spanish folk where, they shut things down, often to take a nap.

Today, we’d pile into our blue Chevy Nova and go on a drive.  It’s the entire family: both my parents, my sisters, and I.  As the car builds up speed, I roll down the window and plant my face out the opening to enjoy the wind.  I must’ve looked like a dog with their head out the window.

Continue reading “My island beginnings” →