I Remember…

I Remember or Me Acuerdo

I remember living in The Idenwald Projects in the Bronx. It was the 1950s and we had a flat on the first floor. We had a modern bathroom with toilet, bathtub and sink. I felt like we were rich, but of course we were far from it. My school was across the street and you could see it from our living room window. I was around 6 or 7 when Mama let me go to school by myself. She could watch me through the window.

I remember my dad working at the Art Steel Company somewhere in the Bronx. It was far from where we were living and far from my grandmother, Abuelita, Papa’s mom.

I remember getting athletes feet and my mom dumping hydrogen peroxide on my toes. The bubbling scared me, and it stung.

I remember watching The movie One Touch of Venus with Ava Gardner, and I just loved her beauty and the movie, of course…

I remember the time I visited my dad in the hospital after gall bladder surgery. I appeared with a poster in my hand. It was about the revolutionary Albizu Campos who was the leader of the independent movement for Puerto Rico. My visit to my father was around 1969. It was my second year at the university, and I had been exposed to revoluntionary ideas while there. I showed my father the poster and we began having a discussion which soon began to be very animated. He did not support the independence and I said how could you believe that when you enlisted during WW2, they put you in the ‘colored’ section. I then said to him the unthinkable. Papi you are just an Uncle Tom. He knew what I meant. At which point I knew I went too far. He said he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I gave him a kiss and asked him for the blessing. He did, then turned away from me and I left.

My Dad and me, Mi Papi y yo…