national Hispanic month

Las Puertoricanas dancing

and dancing

and singing, accompanied by three drummers

Did you know that September 15 - October 15 was National Hispanic Month? I didn't. And it is a bit weird, ya know, that we get 1/2 of one month and 1/2 of another, although that fits in some ways, at least me. Ethan is always busting my chops that I identify as "Cuban". He says "your at least 1/2 Puerto Rican also". Which is totally true, we are. But as I almost always reply, "well yes, we are, but culturally, we're Cuban".

So last Wednesday we went to the monthly Jacksonville Art Walk, a downtown event with artist and arts all over the place! It was so awesome to be downtown with our buddies Mandy and Henry who we don't get to see nearly enough these days, and be in this hullabaloo with vendors and artists and folks everywhere.

I spot a woman with what look like Flamenco shoes on and say, are you going to dance? Do you dance Flamenco? To which she replied, not Flamenco, she said something like Ballet Folklorica, which I remember from NM, and she said they were dancing at 6:30. So off we went to watch the dancing, which was ok but really the Puerto Ricans took the cake! They were live! Live with drums! Dancing and singing and totally heating up the crowd. The women were so gorgeous, wearing plaid skirts and matching head scarves, they were all heart. And the drums, well, how can you dance without live drums?

Ethan would have been proud, as would have been Titi Feli, Tata Tita Isabel, and my Nana Lydia, all from Puerto Rico, when the leader of the group opened up by saying, "Are there any Puerto Ricans out there?" and up shot my hand, and I raised Magdalena's and Augustus's also, saying, we are!