Musings

As we reach the final days until the election this one unlike other elections, the stress level is phenomenal. The thought with all of us who support Luis and his team is what if we lose or worse, not lose but have the election stolen. What is our alternative. Even though I have options which make my leaving the to the mainland very plausible. I also have moral obligations which make my leaving hard. I am old school in many ways. One of the reasons I came back to the island was to spend and enjoy time with my parents. For close to 25 years I was part of the economic diaspora that left Puerto Rico during the PPD administrations of the late 70's. As time went by, the visits from my parents were not really about spending time but fulfilling a commitment. A few days here, a vacation there, a gathering for lunch. I was losing touch and my daughters were at times strangers to there grandparents.
A dear friend from PR who was with me during those years had a frightening experience which we all want to avoid. The dreaded call his mother was hospitalized with an unknown diagnosis. And there he was trying to get a flight and having to wait. After this event I convinced myself I did not want to go through that experience and started to make plans to return.
I arrived during the last years of the Rossello boom. Fast forward Sila Calderon and Anibal Acevedo Vila and at times I wonder what was I thinking. Well, I was thinking of being able to get in my car at any time and visit my parents. Of being able to share with friends and family. To call my Uncle and go sailing, share an afternoon with him, my kid brother, my father, spend an evening with my cousin just listening to music, kibitz with Mom in the kitchen. Family. La Familia. At the end of the day it's all we have and all we want and crave. Yeah, the MasterCard moments, they are priceless. And it hurts to have to chose, because I also have an obligation to my daughters and my wife, to give them a quality of life where they are safe, have a future, not have to live under constant fear. A fear where I hide under a pen name because I do not know what repercussion I may face for expressing my opinion against the dictatorship of the Populares.
I will not leave my parents, family and friends the question becomes whether I will leave Puerto Rico. Will I disassociate myself from the island. Do we give up. Thousands of Puerto Ricans have and do give up every day. How ironic, during the tenure of the Populares, Puerto Rico has undergone its greatest diaspora. It is not easy, eventually we acclimate, but this emigration should never have to take place.