ABOVE AND BEYOND THE INTERVIEW

GUEST STAR

camille matojo roldan soto

El Nuevo Dia

cmrs:  You have not been interviewed in quite some time,

is there any reason, why know?

AC:     I am not sure, but after four hundred issues one may repeat things consciously or vice versa, playing with my second language for the hell of it or not.  No one else does it, I was not in the mood earlier, now, I am. 

cmrs:  The story in the tittle?

AC: Simple.  I live in a zone 11 in case you wonder. 100 miles long, thirty five wide,  3.5 million people, 2 million cars, 150,000 abandoned dogs,

4 shitty newspapers, 4 TV channels, besides over 100 foreign cable ones, 4 mediocre beers local/imported, population is  about one half catholic/protestant, 40 percent unemployment on one hand.  Negros, coloreds and whites, the ethnic composition.

cmrs:  Can I proceed with the next question?

AC:    It is my show, allow me to finish.  The Discovery of America, celebrating the arrival of that great navigator, Cristoforo Colombo, evidences the ethnic preferences and national tilt...In elementary school, every child dresses up as  a conqueror from Spain or conquered Indian. But not a single slave.

cmrs: What is the big deal?

AC:   Lets move to other fronts.

cmrs: Why? You ve not answered.

AC:    And you are an idiot, a  mediocre journalist from El Nuevo Dia. I answered already that stupid one, I call the shots.

cmrs:  Fine, my apologies to you enlightened one.

AC:     D'accord. It was about time some one recognized the fact. At any rate, not one slave in the schools celebrations, however the news media, text books are always preaching about the good negroes, how they are intrinsic part of the culture, improved our national diet, MUSIC and RHYTHM, their endurance, innate brilliance for singing, dancing, playing ball.

cmrs:   What about intellectual skills?

AC:      What intellectual skills?  Who cares? In any culture with this kind of ethnic composition is the same thing. What matter is like USA,  baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.  Watch an NBA or NCCA basketball game to get the picture.

cmrs:  Are you sure, you bitter one?

AC:    You are invited to come by, do some tourism. Check the roads, highways, weeds, cracks, garbage, for a token, one button will do. I have the guts, dare to paint what I see with my eyes.

cmrs:   During these four/five years, I have noticed that you have avoided  politics, the window glass democratic games played in Puerto Rico every four years. Why is that?

AC:   Oh so you have been a fan all that time?  Bilingual one.  That is what places me above and beyond.  The super patriots, fire eaters, communists and socialist and the FOUR STRAY CATS, are no different from the rest.  The want to be FREE, not because it may/may not make sense. It is just

because everyone else seems to be, forgetting that as some segments throw it at their face: "Puerto Rico is the only colony exploiting the mother country".

cmrs:  Wow/guau, (bilingual) that is heavy. Are not you afraid the left may stone/flog you in public? 

AC:   The left and patriots can go an suck an egg, they are not worthy a hogs fart.  How can you allow a foreigner, to be the ONLY, spoke person on ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, from the SIERRA Club?  Among them fools NOT one writes about environmental issues as the situation demands.  Only when some PR/USA conflict shows up. Or are we going to drink/eat/consume freedom and liberty? Where is the patriotism in a real context?

cmrs:  Could you write/say something good about your country for once?

AC:   The place where one lives is fortuitous.  In nature, many, a lot of species migrate long distances for mating, foraging, spending the winter and such, what country they belong to?

They move back and forth. Patriotism, nationalism and religion are not good at all, for any one.

cmrs:  How is that?

AC:    Are you blind, ugly witch, with Hector Marcano's figure? Think Kurds, Shiites, Sunis, blowing themselves up, along the innocent and not so, in their countries where they were borne, with  the Allah Akbar chant five times a day!

cmrs:  So what, we are in Puerto Rico.

AC:  Exactly.  An island with half the population idle, blaming USA for our intellectual limitations, lack of will, 

baile, botella i baraja, lacking a culture, a tradition for systematic maintenance, thinking, analysis, should cut the freedom crap and start showing some skills to solve, create, imagine solutions to our problems now, with love or hate. It is immaterial. Improving with actions, not just thoughts of the moment or reacting.