On the occasion to celebrating El Día de Juan Pablo Duarte (January 26) I would like to touch on the Dominican people, and why I am a staunch admirer of such rarest of men, Duarte, Sanchez y Mella, the founders of the Dominican Republic:
Immigration, like religion, has become one of the most seething, contentious, polemical issues today. True, USA, like Latin America, is made-up of immigrants, but I don't wish the country of Thomas Jefferson to end up like the current Dominican Republic, because, whether we like it or not, the latter is succumbing to anarchy.
Gangster and thieves are running amok in La Hispaniola, and it is difficult to say whether any economic development has improved the over-all quality of life for the average Dominican person?
True, there is a handful of Dominican millionaires, but when I last visited the island (1999), and I stayed in my hometown, I had already intuited the rising insurgence of the poor, downtrodden masses once oppressed by the grim policy of dictator Trujillo, may have resented this society as still haunted by the hideous crimes of el Jefe.
European xenophobia was not exclusive to Haiti, new generations of Dominicans, erroneously, conflate the rich Mediterranean Culture, which owes much to the dark-skinned Moors in Spain, to the racist sins of the dictator.
Though times have changed, the goblin of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo has never left our backyard, but who would dare exhume the carcasses of a dreadful time still smacking of death, genocide, rape, and every conceivable form of human sacrifice on the altar of power, greed, debauchery, gluttony and corruption.
Trujillo, like Hitler, has become a two-headed monster lumbering in the graveyard of our history, because for some Dominicans, he was perhaps the embodiment of the Antichrist, but for other countrymen, he was simply an awful creature, "a griffin," spawned from the unconscious collective psyche of our hapless ancestors, still recovering from the nightmare of the Haitian invaders.
It is generally believed that Trujillo's grandmother was of Haitian descent, but as far as I know, he rarely spoke of his ancestry, and such claim may border on the realm of the speculative. But it is, nonetheless, very probable that Trujillo was a hybrid of interracial marriage, because, as recorded by our trustworthy historic documents, Haiti held sway over the entire Island for more than two decades. Therefore, interracial couplings may have become commonplace in the Dominican Republic.
Gangster and thieves are running amok in La Hispaniola, and it is difficult to say whether any economic development has improved the over-all quality of life for the average Dominican person?
True, there is a handful of Dominican millionaires, but when I last visited the island (1999), and I stayed in my hometown, I had already intuited the rising insurgence of the poor, downtrodden masses once oppressed by the grim policy of dictator Trujillo, may have resented this society as still haunted by the hideous crimes of el Jefe.
European xenophobia was not exclusive to Haiti, new generations of Dominicans, erroneously, conflate the rich Mediterranean Culture, which owes much to the dark-skinned Moors in Spain, to the racist sins of the dictator.
Though times have changed, the goblin of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo has never left our backyard, but who would dare exhume the carcasses of a dreadful time still smacking of death, genocide, rape, and every conceivable form of human sacrifice on the altar of power, greed, debauchery, gluttony and corruption.
Trujillo, like Hitler, has become a two-headed monster lumbering in the graveyard of our history, because for some Dominicans, he was perhaps the embodiment of the Antichrist, but for other countrymen, he was simply an awful creature, "a griffin," spawned from the unconscious collective psyche of our hapless ancestors, still recovering from the nightmare of the Haitian invaders.
It is generally believed that Trujillo's grandmother was of Haitian descent, but as far as I know, he rarely spoke of his ancestry, and such claim may border on the realm of the speculative. But it is, nonetheless, very probable that Trujillo was a hybrid of interracial marriage, because, as recorded by our trustworthy historic documents, Haiti held sway over the entire Island for more than two decades. Therefore, interracial couplings may have become commonplace in the Dominican Republic.
As the old saying goes, there is a kernel of truth when some Dominican people assert the fact that we have a Haitian relative behind our ear (which is to say behind a Spanish). And if you scratch the brown skin of a Dominican, a Haitian cousin would scurry back into the swampy gene-pool of our common sires: a black man.
The truth is that people of Spanish descent, as I witnessed in my own hometown, were fond of the beautiful black skin, but with the invasion of Haiti over DR, resentments, xenophobia, and fear, aroused out of sufferings than on the justification or collision for racial tension, because more than half of our population, as evinced in Washington Heights and Inwood (Manhattan), are said to be of African descent.
Unlike countless Dominicans who may hate their brothers, I have found good reasons to promoting a lesser known aspect of my ancestry, because it is a well-known fact that we were, first, and foremost, Catholic, which means universal, a friend of humanity. Dominican friars were Catholic missionaries from Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Accordingly, Dominican chauvinism is a contradiction in the broader sense of the word, because the first immigrants who ever settled in La Hispaniola, as molded by a most agreeable naturalism and splendid resorts, held themselves but as children of a far greater humanity.
It is worth reminding ourselves that Christopher Columbus reached the shorelines of La Hispaniola during the Renaissance in Italy (1492), and countless Arabic texts, the rich culture of the Moors, were translated into Latin.
A Spirit of Universality held sway over the Spanish Conquistadores, and though we cannot deny the well-reported bloody massacre of the indigenous people, incompatible religious practices (human sacrifice), could have distorted our high regards for the aborigines, but as a people fond of abominable practices, witchcraft and alucinógenos. The accusation of racism has no bearing when you consider how racially-mixed is Latin America today.
In my country, which is racially mixed, Taina women, like blond from Norway or Switzerland, were much sought after as exotic creatures of fabulous fatherlands, and this may explain why these beautiful people became an extinct species in the flux of time.
As a Dominican, I promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, Edward Elgar, Beethoven, Mozart, and the music of humanities which has neither boundary, nor race, nor barrier for those connected to a higher spirituality.
Yes! I grew up listening to great music, the best! And I was not mainly nourished on platain, banana or bachata, but had a greater scope of social mobility, nay mental emancipation, in the unfettered paths of music, fresh air and culture in my hometown, Moca.
My ancestors built me a humongous church: the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón de Jesus) is a marvel of architectural feat, and a standing testament to the ethos of my past with Juan Pablo Duarte, founder of the Dominican Republic.
When I am approached by an American person, or a German, or a British inquisitor, I often try to project the best of my culture, my values, my history, and thus would present the other face of my ancestors who shed blood for me (Moca, Dominican Republic, nineteenth century during Haitian occupancy).
To betray my ancestors would justify Donald Trump for calling us names, because the mogul of real estate even risks his wealth to fighting those he deems interlopers, but among my people where are the philanthropists, where the new leaders who would bravely defend the widow, the orphan, the destitute?
Back in the eighties, I do remember many wonderful kids, like me, they could not find a future in a country overrun with mentally-retarded politicos, morons and opportunists. These folks, by the way, of very cheap plumage, could care less about the future of their own people. They don't suffer seeing their kind being treated like gypsies, like dogs in Europe.
Now, I must admit a pathetic lack of unanimity among some people of Dominican descent, because, as I was told by an honest Dominican Catholic, a man of honor and letters, La Hispaniola has inherited an incomprehensible legacy of serfdom and lordship, and this may explain why it is so difficult to speak in terms of solidarity, humanities and mutual respect for the definition of personhood.
The impression is that we are always in a duel with the semantics of respect, dignity and civility.
It is heartbreaking to see with what condescension would a Dominican person speak to another in a lower level of status, this is most evident among some women whom, unlike the Jewish or White Anglo-Saxon, are known to disowning their own people for those of other nations.
The result is that Dominican people's adhesive glue, "a nation-character," is not as strong so as to confronting those witty foreigners, profiteers and pirates, ever duping Indians in the serious business of existence: cheap mirrors for gold. Los Alemanes, Españoles, y Canadiense, nos ven como indígenas.
A quien culpar?
What strikes me most about some upper-crusty Dominicans is this self-conscious sense of status, caste from colonial times, and one would think them coming from a royal lineage, blue blood-line pedigree, perhaps descendants from the Rothschild family (maybe), or perhaps their high positions do not allow them to empathize with those less fortunate.
Fortunately, today, some great Dominicans, as those who once brought their values and Mediterranean culture to La Quisqueya Isle (a.k.a., Hispaniola), are finally coming together to fighting those devils in human form, those políticos, "upper-crusty bachateros," who have finally drown the Island of Christopher of Columbus in a sea crimes, corruption, and mendacity. Hence, today many hard-working Dominican people could not return to their country.
Eventually, I would like to go back to my hometown, Moca, and live there in safety.
Is it possible?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-impeachment-vote-place-president-205905037.html
People like me are an extinct species, because our governments are incompetent, "mentally-retarded," defective and a shame for the founding fathers: Duarte, Sanchez y Mella.
As it is the century-old problem with electricity...we are still trying to get our heads out of colonial medievalism: 2/3 of the Dominican population live under the poverty-line: $5 dollars a day.
I should be playing the organ at my hometown, Moca, but we have a lot, a lot of problems, and many bad, bad, bad people, of poor plumaje, who have been spawned, nourished and fed on benighted materialism, greed and head-racking stupidity.
Las injusticias de mi país ha llevado a cantidades de estudiantes a la delincuencia y al robo.
Some people believe it is too late to reversing the situation of the Dominican Republic.
Are you telling me these people, after all these years, are still listening the same monotonous tune?
You better believe it. Para los gringos somos unos "bachateros ad infinitum."
From having full-orchestra música, as the ideal sistema for Juan Pablo Duarte (El Himno Nacional), we end up living in fear for our own lives.
The truth is we live in USA as stranded expatriates, or as hapless survivors from an island being sunk into the bottomless pit of hell: el Canal de La Mona?
The Dominican Republic has no safety, and, all the time, you must carry a gun with you, because thieves and gangsters are running amok in the once beautiful island of La Hispaniola.
P. S. If Donald Trump calls my country a shit-hole, "una mierda," I would feel devastated, because the implications are far-reaching and futuristic: we could end up being chased like dogs or gypsies among other nations.
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Uno vive en los Estados Unidos como un Salta Monte.
Who is to blame?
Once again, it is indeed a shame for Juan Pablo Duarte, Sanchez y Mella.
Más adelante, con motivo del día de Juan Pablo Duarte, fundador de la República Dominicana, me gustaría grabar algo de Santo Domingo para YouTube.
Es muy posible que me grabe tocando el Himno Nacional (Quisqueyanos) en órgano, pero no es seguro, porque no soy muy político, y estos temas patrióticos ya no gozan del espíritu de solidaridad de nuestros antepasados.
***************************************
Los Conquistadores and Their Offspring Today
by Ed. Beato
The truth is that people of Spanish descent, as I witnessed in my own hometown, were fond of the beautiful black skin, but with the invasion of Haiti over DR, resentments, xenophobia, and fear, aroused out of sufferings than on the justification or collision for racial tension, because more than half of our population, as evinced in Washington Heights and Inwood (Manhattan), are said to be of African descent.
Unlike countless Dominicans who may hate their brothers, I have found good reasons to promoting a lesser known aspect of my ancestry, because it is a well-known fact that we were, first, and foremost, Catholic, which means universal, a friend of humanity. Dominican friars were Catholic missionaries from Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Accordingly, Dominican chauvinism is a contradiction in the broader sense of the word, because the first immigrants who ever settled in La Hispaniola, as molded by a most agreeable naturalism and splendid resorts, held themselves but as children of a far greater humanity.
It is worth reminding ourselves that Christopher Columbus reached the shorelines of La Hispaniola during the Renaissance in Italy (1492), and countless Arabic texts, the rich culture of the Moors, were translated into Latin.
A Spirit of Universality held sway over the Spanish Conquistadores, and though we cannot deny the well-reported bloody massacre of the indigenous people, incompatible religious practices (human sacrifice), could have distorted our high regards for the aborigines, but as a people fond of abominable practices, witchcraft and alucinógenos. The accusation of racism has no bearing when you consider how racially-mixed is Latin America today.
In my country, which is racially mixed, Taina women, like blond from Norway or Switzerland, were much sought after as exotic creatures of fabulous fatherlands, and this may explain why these beautiful people became an extinct species in the flux of time.
As a Dominican, I promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Handel, Edward Elgar, Beethoven, Mozart, and the music of humanities which has neither boundary, nor race, nor barrier for those connected to a higher spirituality.
Yes! I grew up listening to great music, the best! And I was not mainly nourished on platain, banana or bachata, but had a greater scope of social mobility, nay mental emancipation, in the unfettered paths of music, fresh air and culture in my hometown, Moca.
My ancestors built me a humongous church: the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sagrado Corazón de Jesus) is a marvel of architectural feat, and a standing testament to the ethos of my past with Juan Pablo Duarte, founder of the Dominican Republic.
When I am approached by an American person, or a German, or a British inquisitor, I often try to project the best of my culture, my values, my history, and thus would present the other face of my ancestors who shed blood for me (Moca, Dominican Republic, nineteenth century during Haitian occupancy).
To betray my ancestors would justify Donald Trump for calling us names, because the mogul of real estate even risks his wealth to fighting those he deems interlopers, but among my people where are the philanthropists, where the new leaders who would bravely defend the widow, the orphan, the destitute?
Back in the eighties, I do remember many wonderful kids, like me, they could not find a future in a country overrun with mentally-retarded politicos, morons and opportunists. These folks, by the way, of very cheap plumage, could care less about the future of their own people. They don't suffer seeing their kind being treated like gypsies, like dogs in Europe.
Now, I must admit a pathetic lack of unanimity among some people of Dominican descent, because, as I was told by an honest Dominican Catholic, a man of honor and letters, La Hispaniola has inherited an incomprehensible legacy of serfdom and lordship, and this may explain why it is so difficult to speak in terms of solidarity, humanities and mutual respect for the definition of personhood.
The impression is that we are always in a duel with the semantics of respect, dignity and civility.
It is heartbreaking to see with what condescension would a Dominican person speak to another in a lower level of status, this is most evident among some women whom, unlike the Jewish or White Anglo-Saxon, are known to disowning their own people for those of other nations.
The result is that Dominican people's adhesive glue, "a nation-character," is not as strong so as to confronting those witty foreigners, profiteers and pirates, ever duping Indians in the serious business of existence: cheap mirrors for gold. Los Alemanes, Españoles, y Canadiense, nos ven como indígenas.
A quien culpar?
What strikes me most about some upper-crusty Dominicans is this self-conscious sense of status, caste from colonial times, and one would think them coming from a royal lineage, blue blood-line pedigree, perhaps descendants from the Rothschild family (maybe), or perhaps their high positions do not allow them to empathize with those less fortunate.
Fortunately, today, some great Dominicans, as those who once brought their values and Mediterranean culture to La Quisqueya Isle (a.k.a., Hispaniola), are finally coming together to fighting those devils in human form, those políticos, "upper-crusty bachateros," who have finally drown the Island of Christopher of Columbus in a sea crimes, corruption, and mendacity. Hence, today many hard-working Dominican people could not return to their country.
Eventually, I would like to go back to my hometown, Moca, and live there in safety.
Is it possible?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-impeachment-vote-place-president-205905037.html
People like me are an extinct species, because our governments are incompetent, "mentally-retarded," defective and a shame for the founding fathers: Duarte, Sanchez y Mella.
As it is the century-old problem with electricity...we are still trying to get our heads out of colonial medievalism: 2/3 of the Dominican population live under the poverty-line: $5 dollars a day.
I should be playing the organ at my hometown, Moca, but we have a lot, a lot of problems, and many bad, bad, bad people, of poor plumaje, who have been spawned, nourished and fed on benighted materialism, greed and head-racking stupidity.
Las injusticias de mi país ha llevado a cantidades de estudiantes a la delincuencia y al robo.
Some people believe it is too late to reversing the situation of the Dominican Republic.
Are you telling me these people, after all these years, are still listening the same monotonous tune?
You better believe it. Para los gringos somos unos "bachateros ad infinitum."
From having full-orchestra música, as the ideal sistema for Juan Pablo Duarte (El Himno Nacional), we end up living in fear for our own lives.
The truth is we live in USA as stranded expatriates, or as hapless survivors from an island being sunk into the bottomless pit of hell: el Canal de La Mona?
The Dominican Republic has no safety, and, all the time, you must carry a gun with you, because thieves and gangsters are running amok in the once beautiful island of La Hispaniola.
P. S. If Donald Trump calls my country a shit-hole, "una mierda," I would feel devastated, because the implications are far-reaching and futuristic: we could end up being chased like dogs or gypsies among other nations.
*************************************
Uno vive en los Estados Unidos como un Salta Monte.
Who is to blame?
Once again, it is indeed a shame for Juan Pablo Duarte, Sanchez y Mella.
Más adelante, con motivo del día de Juan Pablo Duarte, fundador de la República Dominicana, me gustaría grabar algo de Santo Domingo para YouTube.
Es muy posible que me grabe tocando el Himno Nacional (Quisqueyanos) en órgano, pero no es seguro, porque no soy muy político, y estos temas patrióticos ya no gozan del espíritu de solidaridad de nuestros antepasados.
***************************************
Los Conquistadores and Their Offspring Today
by Ed. Beato
I herein would like to touch upon the fragile sinews of solidarity among Latino people today, how sectarianism, religious denominations, more than ethnicity or race, has become the single most divisive force to stunting the offspring of los Conquistadores in the latter ripples of history.
For many Latino people, the Catholic Church is no longer the Mother Madonna embosoming her children in the glorious past of Ancient Greece and Rome.
These new children have been conquered by the spirit of the North in the Protestant religion. (Please, peruse George Santayana's insights into these and other religious differences for such people).
Latino people in USA, as today, are a divided community into various religious denominations, and the Spanish culture has lost proselytes in the cultivation of character and aesthetic sensibilities.
Though the Spanish culture is much admired by those who love history, many Latino immigrants seem to be oblivious to their glorious past, and often the finest gems from Spain are relegated to oblivion.
Those who have visited the Hispanic American Society in Manhattan, the finest building ever constructed in Washington Heights, could vouch my views on this total neglect of our once glorious past.
True, the Spanish language continues to be spoken as the main language of Latin America, but in USA, a nation traditionally known to be hostile towards any Latinization, at least in the unkempt frowsy aspect of this new immigrant by the seashore, may further split into new demographics along the marginal lines of language, culture and ethnicity.
I express my views tactfully, always keeping an eye on the ever brewing soup of immigration, but also carefully skimming above the simmering bubbles of discrimination and racism: the oldest cousins in the history of humanity.
When approaching the social cultural make-up of the Hispanic people, one could only wish that such differences could be abridged by the power of solidarity, fraternity, religion, humanity and the power of politics. Alas, this is a thankless task.
As I said in a previous e-mail, the weakness of any group of people, as observed by Miguel Cervantes in his masterpiece, La Fuerza de la Sangre, is their visceral divisions and sectarianism.
Speaking of the binding power of our kin in the spirit of our ancestry, I would like to quote this passage on Santayana's unswerving allegiance to his Spanish Heritage:
"...Remarkably, George Santayana achieved this stature in American thought without being an American citizen. He proudly retained his Spanish citizenship throughout his life.
Yet, as he readily admitted, it is as an American that his philosophical and literary corpuses are to be judged. Using contemporary classifications, Santayana is the first and foremost Hispanic-American philosopher."
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/santayana
The Dominican people, the oldest stock of mixed people from colonial times, are fragmented into countless capsules of religious sects --could split the spleens of any people-- thus thwarting the most common bound that binds a people together: La Fuerza de la Sangre.
Here and there, we may meet the offspring of Los Conquistadores, los Fundadores de Patrias.
500 years of history has not yet obliterated the keen insights of Miguel Cervantes, La Fuerza de la Sangre: the Skein of Destiny is often untangled through the mysterious unfolding chapters of our blood: kin and kith.
Overtime, one may meet this fishy scaly creature, un primo ( distant cousin, kin and kith), a sea-otter from colonial times, sticking its head out of the oceanic surprises of yesteryears: the offspring of Los Conquistadores.
It is to be observed that Jewish people, during the Spanish inquisition, may have become part of the gene-pool of the Dominicans and Puerto Rican people, hence this contiguous amicability in the neighborhood of Inwood, Washington Heights, Manhattan, and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Cubans, like Argentines, are said to be a proud Latino people, and at times, some may judge them as the puffed-up "caballeros" of Latin America, but it is not an easy task to tiptoe the lands of Los Gringos without losing the glossy varnish of our Spanish ancestry in the writings of Baltasar Gracián --especially if you live in El Barrio, Manhattan.
Back in the 90s, Argentinian tourists bearing Spanish last names Rodriguez, Jimenez, Beato, et. al., would soon become aware of their distant cousins living as stranded immigrants in New York.
This tree-lined genealogy, branching-off into every direction, could make them nervous, but Tito Puente has placed some Puerto Ricans in the high venues of culture and prestige. Therefore, mi amigo del alma, don't fret, don't panic if your last name happens to be Lopez, Diaz, Polanco, Fuente, Rodriguez, Ramirez, Gomez, and so on and so forth.
Speaking of Cuban immigrants, some brave cousins may share much in common with our Dominican heritage, and so we are in the most amicable terms with Haitians, Jamaicans, Cubans, because it is a genealogical truth when we call a Mexican immigrant, or a Haitian relative, "un primo." In the last analysis, we are part of the family of humanity.
What is striking about our Dominican people's heritage is the ironic twists of History in the unpredictable Skein of Destiny: today some progeny, direct offspring of the proud founders of the Dominican Republic could be found in Venezuela, Cuba, Espana, and perhaps even in Washington Heights, Inwoods, Corona Queens.
Today, some cousins, hijos de gente noble del siglo dieciocho, are toiling hard through the drudgery of immigration and all kinds of clashes with Los Gringos.
By the way, the Corona Family, and los Diaz de Sabana Iglesia, were the first Dominican immigrants to settle permanently in Queens, hence Corona Queens.
Of course, some offsprings have kept their noble lineage in the proud spirit of their ancestry: modest pride, dignity and respect in the struggle of existence.
It is just incredible how correct was Spaniard author Cervantes in his Magnus Opus: la Fuerza de La Sangre.
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Por las últimas tres semanas hemos hablado sobre el Latinismo y sus infortunios, expresado proféticamente en los versos de Carmina Burana, del compositor Alemán, Carl Orff: las páginas grises en las fuerzas de las circunstancias y la historia.
Lo irónico de todo esto es que los hombres más brillantes Estadounidenses, Thomas Jefferson, Henry D. Thoreau, Jorge Santayana, entre otros pensadores, tuvieron su fuente de inspiración en los escritos de autores Romanos.
http://classicallatin.org/the-roman-influences-on-american-government/
A penas hace ya un siglo, el Latin era el idioma de la gente culta. Yo, por desgracia, no hablo el idioma Latin, pero si fuese a buscar lo mejor de mis antepasados, tendría que considerar estos autores y genios cuyas obras y pensamientos son considerados la misma cúspide de nuestra cultural occidental.
Un persona Latina que no estudie estas páginas, ya grises por las cenizas del tiempo, "es una sombra tenebrosa," un fantasma desgraciado; un Don Nadie ya hecho tiras y remiendos por las orillas Del Río Hudson; un pobre emigrante azotado por los vientos fríos de despersonalización, sin entidad, deambulando por esos mundos... sin historia ni pasado.
Lo triste del Hispano, como es el caso de aquel viajero, "aquel forastero," que se pierde en un festín de perros pero sin rabos, es que los Gringos son más Latinos que esta grey que no valora la grandeza del Imperio Romano.
Cuanto leemos a Henry D. Thoreau, cuyos antecedentes eran Franceses, pues como no querer imitar los buenos modales de los Latinos del siglo XVIII?
El consejo que se le daría a nuestros amigos Latinos, es de buscar su dignidad y respeto en la Francia de Napoleón Bonaparte, porque como me decía un cubano erudito, Edmundo Lopez, la Raza Latina en Los Estados Unidos es huérfana de historia.
Más tarde, pensé en lo duro de estas palabras, pero después de tantos inviernos, que tan ciertos son estas palabras?
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José María Vargas Vila, el Controvertido Escritor de Colombia, Ante Los Bárbaros del Norte:
Sus ideas hostiles hacia los Estados Unidos, cuando las leemos desde los prismas de nuestros tiempos, podría decir que Latino América, hoy gimiendo en los llantos de Selena, deben culpar a sus hijos por traicionar su historia en las páginas grises de gobiernos corruptos, hombres insensatos y avaros, que simplemente no aman sus raíces ni sus antepasados.
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/descargaPdf/ante-los-barbaros-el-yanki-he-ahi-el-enemigo/
The United States of America has rather suffered the influx of hordes of Latin people straddling two lands, two worlds, viviendo en dos mundos, whose countries are often rife with corrupted politicians.
Blaming USA --as did Vargas Vila in his turgid writings-- for the deplorable economic conditions of Latin America, such as the current situation in Venezuela, could even argue his lack of honesty and objectivity when assessing the solemn verdicts of history.
Latin America's stagnant policies and botched economic systems, may be part of a larger global crisis affecting the new world order, including USA, but few would deny the fact that corruption, mendacity and money have the greater sway over the will of our people.
Note: Rarely, if ever, did Latin America enjoy such admirable well-balanced a government (a Capitolio) as that of Washington DC, whose unification and rulerships over its lands and people, for the most part solely through the rule of law, could override the disjointed policies and schism so imbedded in the rebellious children of colonialismo.
Los Latinos le dicen no a la madre España en su imperialismo, pero que se puede decir de estas naciones hoy día?
Debemos culpar a España?
When viewed from the stately pavilions of Ancient Rome, Latin America, may share much in common with USA, but the former, with their flawed economic systems and corrupted politicians, could scarcely deserve the designation of "free republics" as conceived by their founding fathers.
The condescending tone, cultural superiority once glossing the minds of our ancestry, and so characteristic of Spanish authors in the nineteenth century, was not just exclusive to Vargas Vila's acrimonious political ravings, for throughout history, the West could never be too civilized without the auspice of ancient Roman authors: from the Capitolio of USA, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the bedrock of our Western society has always been laid down upon the cornerstones of Ancient Rome.
Though the United States is mainly composed of Northern European people, the building blocks of this society are the quintessence of the ancient Roman Empire, and even the capital is designed and fashioned after the Ancient Roman Capitolio.
If you are an honest American person, but fail to recognize the ubiquitous influence of the ancient Roman Empire in your society, then you are simply ignoring the countless Latin Mottos and Phrases inscribed in the friezes of some of your most imposing buildings.
It is worth reminding the reader, that Vargas Vila, while sojourning through the lands of United States (at the end of the nineteenth century), spoke of New York, proletariat of America, as a decadent peroration of slaves.
Now, to call the Yankees barbarians would argue Vargas Vila's smattering knowledge of the American Society of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
The constitution of USA was drafted by a galaxy of statesmen, thoroughly schooled in the writings of French philosopher Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws. It is also worth noting that the Revolution of France in 1830, as forerunners to the civil war of the American people (1861-1865), and the writings of Thomas Paine, Common Sense, would lay down the framework for the constitution of USA: the inalienable rights of its free citizens and constituency.
True, and has been pointed out by some sociologists, the broad base and racial make-up of early American society, was largely composed of Northern European peasants of very humble background. But this is true for most early settlements in Las Americas of yore.
Nevertheless, we all know that back in the seventeenth century, some of the most gifted minds settled in USA. Countless affluent people, merchants and traders, came to USA seeking greater freedom, and with this latter, the possibility of greater expansion and production at a larger scale, would give this country the upper-hand and prominence in the wealth of the nations.
The tidal waves of the industrial revolution in England would soon eke out for new seashores, new seaports in the expansive uncharted lands of the United States of America.
It is worth saying that Jose Ortega y Gasset, another Spanish writer of high caliber, whose Magnus Opus, the Revolt of the Masses, is one of the finest political treatises ever written on the crisis of our times, may betray a sense of self-unconscious superiority when deigning to speak of our times as "inverted barbarism."
Nevertheless, the Spaniard author, time and time again, may draw the line between the Yankee Hilly Joes, "the savages," "the white-trash," and those well-mannered Protestant immigrants, the Quakers, the Amish, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, among other bucolic people whose moral fabric proved to be very industrious, diligent and the progeny of a Mighty Nation: America.
The latter, when compared with the former, stand out as another breed of human species, "nobles," even peasants of loftiest sentiments, stand out so different as it is the wheat from the chaff, or as it is the luster of copper so dull when compared with the shining glint of pure gold.
That such obnoxious people, "la chusma" as it is called in Latin America, the rabble, are more likely to spawn from the lower strata of any society, may remind us on the subversive power of poverty.
Poverty degrades human beings, regardless of race or nationality, it simply makes us fugitive to our loaners, and thus we end up bargaining the highly-priced virtues of probity and honesty for those of treachery and worldly shrewdness.
********
Vargas Vila, unlike Jose Ortega y Gasset, was rather a men of letters. He was not a genuine philosopher. I would say he had one of the greatest prose writings of the nineteenth century, but his political rantings may suffer from myopic chauvinism, which, for the most part, seemed to affect his blinkered political analysis of other societies.
Obviously, Vargas Vila was not acquainted with the pragmatism of William James, or with British philosopher, Adam Smith: Inquiry On the Wealth of the Nations.
"....En 1891 Vargas Vila viajó a Estados Unidos y se ubicó en Nueva York. El Apóstol, al recordar una reunión con obreros, escribió: “El vehemente entusiasmo con que, sacados de sus asientos por ímpetu de amor, saludaron aquellos esclavos de América la peroración cadenciosa, inspirada, valentísima del colombiano José María Vargas Vila, que cuenta sus días ya gloriosos por las batallas afamadas de su palabra y de su pluma en pro de la libertad”.
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2007-08-05/el-diario-secreto-de-vargas-vila/
Ya hace dos semanas, me entenderé, por ciertos medios de prensa, que varios políticos Dominicanos, entre otros países de Latino América, enfrentan serios cargos de corrupción con una compañía de Brazil.
Should we blame the US government?
Now, these days, the economy has worsened for everybody, and the fetters of needs, servitude and serfdom with their feudal lords, landlords, IRS, etc., etc., once again, could plunge a goodly chunk of humanity into beasts of burden and necessities.
For many Latino people, the Catholic Church is no longer the Mother Madonna embosoming her children in the glorious past of Ancient Greece and Rome.
These new children have been conquered by the spirit of the North in the Protestant religion. (Please, peruse George Santayana's insights into these and other religious differences for such people).
Latino people in USA, as today, are a divided community into various religious denominations, and the Spanish culture has lost proselytes in the cultivation of character and aesthetic sensibilities.
Though the Spanish culture is much admired by those who love history, many Latino immigrants seem to be oblivious to their glorious past, and often the finest gems from Spain are relegated to oblivion.
Those who have visited the Hispanic American Society in Manhattan, the finest building ever constructed in Washington Heights, could vouch my views on this total neglect of our once glorious past.
True, the Spanish language continues to be spoken as the main language of Latin America, but in USA, a nation traditionally known to be hostile towards any Latinization, at least in the unkempt frowsy aspect of this new immigrant by the seashore, may further split into new demographics along the marginal lines of language, culture and ethnicity.
I express my views tactfully, always keeping an eye on the ever brewing soup of immigration, but also carefully skimming above the simmering bubbles of discrimination and racism: the oldest cousins in the history of humanity.
When approaching the social cultural make-up of the Hispanic people, one could only wish that such differences could be abridged by the power of solidarity, fraternity, religion, humanity and the power of politics. Alas, this is a thankless task.
As I said in a previous e-mail, the weakness of any group of people, as observed by Miguel Cervantes in his masterpiece, La Fuerza de la Sangre, is their visceral divisions and sectarianism.
Speaking of the binding power of our kin in the spirit of our ancestry, I would like to quote this passage on Santayana's unswerving allegiance to his Spanish Heritage:
"...Remarkably, George Santayana achieved this stature in American thought without being an American citizen. He proudly retained his Spanish citizenship throughout his life.
Yet, as he readily admitted, it is as an American that his philosophical and literary corpuses are to be judged. Using contemporary classifications, Santayana is the first and foremost Hispanic-American philosopher."
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/santayana
The Dominican people, the oldest stock of mixed people from colonial times, are fragmented into countless capsules of religious sects --could split the spleens of any people-- thus thwarting the most common bound that binds a people together: La Fuerza de la Sangre.
Here and there, we may meet the offspring of Los Conquistadores, los Fundadores de Patrias.
500 years of history has not yet obliterated the keen insights of Miguel Cervantes, La Fuerza de la Sangre: the Skein of Destiny is often untangled through the mysterious unfolding chapters of our blood: kin and kith.
Overtime, one may meet this fishy scaly creature, un primo ( distant cousin, kin and kith), a sea-otter from colonial times, sticking its head out of the oceanic surprises of yesteryears: the offspring of Los Conquistadores.
It is to be observed that Jewish people, during the Spanish inquisition, may have become part of the gene-pool of the Dominicans and Puerto Rican people, hence this contiguous amicability in the neighborhood of Inwood, Washington Heights, Manhattan, and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Cubans, like Argentines, are said to be a proud Latino people, and at times, some may judge them as the puffed-up "caballeros" of Latin America, but it is not an easy task to tiptoe the lands of Los Gringos without losing the glossy varnish of our Spanish ancestry in the writings of Baltasar Gracián --especially if you live in El Barrio, Manhattan.
Back in the 90s, Argentinian tourists bearing Spanish last names Rodriguez, Jimenez, Beato, et. al., would soon become aware of their distant cousins living as stranded immigrants in New York.
This tree-lined genealogy, branching-off into every direction, could make them nervous, but Tito Puente has placed some Puerto Ricans in the high venues of culture and prestige. Therefore, mi amigo del alma, don't fret, don't panic if your last name happens to be Lopez, Diaz, Polanco, Fuente, Rodriguez, Ramirez, Gomez, and so on and so forth.
Speaking of Cuban immigrants, some brave cousins may share much in common with our Dominican heritage, and so we are in the most amicable terms with Haitians, Jamaicans, Cubans, because it is a genealogical truth when we call a Mexican immigrant, or a Haitian relative, "un primo." In the last analysis, we are part of the family of humanity.
What is striking about our Dominican people's heritage is the ironic twists of History in the unpredictable Skein of Destiny: today some progeny, direct offspring of the proud founders of the Dominican Republic could be found in Venezuela, Cuba, Espana, and perhaps even in Washington Heights, Inwoods, Corona Queens.
Today, some cousins, hijos de gente noble del siglo dieciocho, are toiling hard through the drudgery of immigration and all kinds of clashes with Los Gringos.
By the way, the Corona Family, and los Diaz de Sabana Iglesia, were the first Dominican immigrants to settle permanently in Queens, hence Corona Queens.
Of course, some offsprings have kept their noble lineage in the proud spirit of their ancestry: modest pride, dignity and respect in the struggle of existence.
It is just incredible how correct was Spaniard author Cervantes in his Magnus Opus: la Fuerza de La Sangre.
*****************************************
Por las últimas tres semanas hemos hablado sobre el Latinismo y sus infortunios, expresado proféticamente en los versos de Carmina Burana, del compositor Alemán, Carl Orff: las páginas grises en las fuerzas de las circunstancias y la historia.
Lo irónico de todo esto es que los hombres más brillantes Estadounidenses, Thomas Jefferson, Henry D. Thoreau, Jorge Santayana, entre otros pensadores, tuvieron su fuente de inspiración en los escritos de autores Romanos.
http://classicallatin.org/the-roman-influences-on-american-government/
A penas hace ya un siglo, el Latin era el idioma de la gente culta. Yo, por desgracia, no hablo el idioma Latin, pero si fuese a buscar lo mejor de mis antepasados, tendría que considerar estos autores y genios cuyas obras y pensamientos son considerados la misma cúspide de nuestra cultural occidental.
Un persona Latina que no estudie estas páginas, ya grises por las cenizas del tiempo, "es una sombra tenebrosa," un fantasma desgraciado; un Don Nadie ya hecho tiras y remiendos por las orillas Del Río Hudson; un pobre emigrante azotado por los vientos fríos de despersonalización, sin entidad, deambulando por esos mundos... sin historia ni pasado.
Lo triste del Hispano, como es el caso de aquel viajero, "aquel forastero," que se pierde en un festín de perros pero sin rabos, es que los Gringos son más Latinos que esta grey que no valora la grandeza del Imperio Romano.
Cuanto leemos a Henry D. Thoreau, cuyos antecedentes eran Franceses, pues como no querer imitar los buenos modales de los Latinos del siglo XVIII?
El consejo que se le daría a nuestros amigos Latinos, es de buscar su dignidad y respeto en la Francia de Napoleón Bonaparte, porque como me decía un cubano erudito, Edmundo Lopez, la Raza Latina en Los Estados Unidos es huérfana de historia.
Más tarde, pensé en lo duro de estas palabras, pero después de tantos inviernos, que tan ciertos son estas palabras?
***************************************
José María Vargas Vila, el Controvertido Escritor de Colombia, Ante Los Bárbaros del Norte:
Sus ideas hostiles hacia los Estados Unidos, cuando las leemos desde los prismas de nuestros tiempos, podría decir que Latino América, hoy gimiendo en los llantos de Selena, deben culpar a sus hijos por traicionar su historia en las páginas grises de gobiernos corruptos, hombres insensatos y avaros, que simplemente no aman sus raíces ni sus antepasados.
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/descargaPdf/ante-los-barbaros-el-yanki-he-ahi-el-enemigo/
The United States of America has rather suffered the influx of hordes of Latin people straddling two lands, two worlds, viviendo en dos mundos, whose countries are often rife with corrupted politicians.
Blaming USA --as did Vargas Vila in his turgid writings-- for the deplorable economic conditions of Latin America, such as the current situation in Venezuela, could even argue his lack of honesty and objectivity when assessing the solemn verdicts of history.
Latin America's stagnant policies and botched economic systems, may be part of a larger global crisis affecting the new world order, including USA, but few would deny the fact that corruption, mendacity and money have the greater sway over the will of our people.
Note: Rarely, if ever, did Latin America enjoy such admirable well-balanced a government (a Capitolio) as that of Washington DC, whose unification and rulerships over its lands and people, for the most part solely through the rule of law, could override the disjointed policies and schism so imbedded in the rebellious children of colonialismo.
Los Latinos le dicen no a la madre España en su imperialismo, pero que se puede decir de estas naciones hoy día?
Debemos culpar a España?
When viewed from the stately pavilions of Ancient Rome, Latin America, may share much in common with USA, but the former, with their flawed economic systems and corrupted politicians, could scarcely deserve the designation of "free republics" as conceived by their founding fathers.
The condescending tone, cultural superiority once glossing the minds of our ancestry, and so characteristic of Spanish authors in the nineteenth century, was not just exclusive to Vargas Vila's acrimonious political ravings, for throughout history, the West could never be too civilized without the auspice of ancient Roman authors: from the Capitolio of USA, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the bedrock of our Western society has always been laid down upon the cornerstones of Ancient Rome.
Though the United States is mainly composed of Northern European people, the building blocks of this society are the quintessence of the ancient Roman Empire, and even the capital is designed and fashioned after the Ancient Roman Capitolio.
If you are an honest American person, but fail to recognize the ubiquitous influence of the ancient Roman Empire in your society, then you are simply ignoring the countless Latin Mottos and Phrases inscribed in the friezes of some of your most imposing buildings.
It is worth reminding the reader, that Vargas Vila, while sojourning through the lands of United States (at the end of the nineteenth century), spoke of New York, proletariat of America, as a decadent peroration of slaves.
Now, to call the Yankees barbarians would argue Vargas Vila's smattering knowledge of the American Society of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
The constitution of USA was drafted by a galaxy of statesmen, thoroughly schooled in the writings of French philosopher Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws. It is also worth noting that the Revolution of France in 1830, as forerunners to the civil war of the American people (1861-1865), and the writings of Thomas Paine, Common Sense, would lay down the framework for the constitution of USA: the inalienable rights of its free citizens and constituency.
True, and has been pointed out by some sociologists, the broad base and racial make-up of early American society, was largely composed of Northern European peasants of very humble background. But this is true for most early settlements in Las Americas of yore.
Nevertheless, we all know that back in the seventeenth century, some of the most gifted minds settled in USA. Countless affluent people, merchants and traders, came to USA seeking greater freedom, and with this latter, the possibility of greater expansion and production at a larger scale, would give this country the upper-hand and prominence in the wealth of the nations.
The tidal waves of the industrial revolution in England would soon eke out for new seashores, new seaports in the expansive uncharted lands of the United States of America.
It is worth saying that Jose Ortega y Gasset, another Spanish writer of high caliber, whose Magnus Opus, the Revolt of the Masses, is one of the finest political treatises ever written on the crisis of our times, may betray a sense of self-unconscious superiority when deigning to speak of our times as "inverted barbarism."
Nevertheless, the Spaniard author, time and time again, may draw the line between the Yankee Hilly Joes, "the savages," "the white-trash," and those well-mannered Protestant immigrants, the Quakers, the Amish, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, among other bucolic people whose moral fabric proved to be very industrious, diligent and the progeny of a Mighty Nation: America.
The latter, when compared with the former, stand out as another breed of human species, "nobles," even peasants of loftiest sentiments, stand out so different as it is the wheat from the chaff, or as it is the luster of copper so dull when compared with the shining glint of pure gold.
That such obnoxious people, "la chusma" as it is called in Latin America, the rabble, are more likely to spawn from the lower strata of any society, may remind us on the subversive power of poverty.
Poverty degrades human beings, regardless of race or nationality, it simply makes us fugitive to our loaners, and thus we end up bargaining the highly-priced virtues of probity and honesty for those of treachery and worldly shrewdness.
********
Vargas Vila, unlike Jose Ortega y Gasset, was rather a men of letters. He was not a genuine philosopher. I would say he had one of the greatest prose writings of the nineteenth century, but his political rantings may suffer from myopic chauvinism, which, for the most part, seemed to affect his blinkered political analysis of other societies.
Obviously, Vargas Vila was not acquainted with the pragmatism of William James, or with British philosopher, Adam Smith: Inquiry On the Wealth of the Nations.
"....En 1891 Vargas Vila viajó a Estados Unidos y se ubicó en Nueva York. El Apóstol, al recordar una reunión con obreros, escribió: “El vehemente entusiasmo con que, sacados de sus asientos por ímpetu de amor, saludaron aquellos esclavos de América la peroración cadenciosa, inspirada, valentísima del colombiano José María Vargas Vila, que cuenta sus días ya gloriosos por las batallas afamadas de su palabra y de su pluma en pro de la libertad”.
http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2007-08-05/el-diario-secreto-de-vargas-vila/
Ya hace dos semanas, me entenderé, por ciertos medios de prensa, que varios políticos Dominicanos, entre otros países de Latino América, enfrentan serios cargos de corrupción con una compañía de Brazil.
Should we blame the US government?
Now, these days, the economy has worsened for everybody, and the fetters of needs, servitude and serfdom with their feudal lords, landlords, IRS, etc., etc., once again, could plunge a goodly chunk of humanity into beasts of burden and necessities.