California 2 Puerto Rico » Culture

Elections in Puerto Rico are LOUD!

Stefan — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:10:27 +0000

For the past few months, the local politicians (along with the Presidential ones) have really been stepping up their advertising and marketing trying get every potential voter aware of their policies. As we get closer to the election here in Puerto Rico, one of the main ways they do that (for those of us without television) is by driving around with gigantic loud speakers on the roofs of their cars and trucks blasting audio loops promoting their candidate.

Loud music is just a part of the culture here. Because all of the windows are always open at the house, we just get used to cars cruising by the road with their Reggaeton blasting. Last Christmas morning, one of the local candidates for this election started his announcements at 7:00am which simply said, Merry Christmas and God Bless from the family of insert politician name here. Now, with elections drawing close, the music and announcement cars/trucks are increasing to a few times a day.

Yesterday, Summer and I went down to the Econ to get a few things for dinner and there was a giant parade going on. There was no marching band, no local high school sports teams, no floats, just loud music promoting the candidate, cars peeling out all up and down the road, people hanging out of sun roofs, sitting in trunks, on top of dump trucks and lots and lots of Medalla. Everyone supporting the candidate that had any kind of muscle car or motorcycle was revving their engines, blowing their car horns, air horns, screaming and drinking. It was a very interesting cultural experience that I have never seen before in that capacity. There were cops directing traffic everywhere, but they weren’t bothered by the dangerous things going on (drinking and driving, peeling out with only 10 feet of space before the next car, driving on the wrong side of the road). The parade must have been 10 miles long, all locals in their vehicles supporting their favorite politician.

I made a ringtone for my iPhone that sounds like a Puerto Rican political rally of cars. For those of you who are reading the blog from far, this may bring back some good memories. All you have to do is ‘right click’ on the link and and choose ’save as’: PR Political Parade Sound Ringtone

Here are a few of the pics I took from my iPhone while we were at the grocery store (they don’t do it justice, there was so much energy in the air):

Littering in Puerto Rico

Stefan — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:01:39 +0000

Littering is not that big of a deal to many Puerto Ricans, which might sound bad, but compared to California, where littering is a social sin that carries a minimum $1000 fine, there is definately a difference.

Flick a cigarette butt out of your car in CA, automatic $1000 fine. If someone sees you littering in CA, you might as well be stabbing a puppy with the looks of disgust and anger that you will get. Puerto Rico? Not so much.

So, I thought it was cute that someone handpainted a bunch of pretty “No Tire Basura” signs and put them up all around Rincon. Each sign is handpainted with a pretty sunset background and each one says something slightly different, but all along the lines of “No Littering”. I was driving past the cemetery today and saw one of these signs posted at the entrance:

On closer inspection, it is definately the funniest “No Littering” sign I’ve seen. It says: “No Tire Basura. Noooooooooooooo!”

I guess they really wanted to drive the point home that they do not want you to litter in the cemetery.

Our Driveway, 4WD and the Mayor

Stefan — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:00:44 +0000

The daily rain still hasn’t begun, but we have had a few great downpours in the afternoon that our plants love! Every time the rain comes, I am reminded of how slippery and muddy our unpaved driveway gets. Five out of ten times leaving the driveway when it is raining, Summer and I have to engage four-wheel drive. I don’t really mind it too much, but it sure is awkward when friends come over and can’t pull into our driveway. Instead, they are forced to carefully walk down our slippery slide of a driveway. It can’t be done without getting your shoes covered in mud (unless you are a ninja of course).

This is not our driveway getting paved, but it could be!

One of our friends down here that we play poker with (he has been forced to walk the driveway) offered to go down to city hall and talk to the mayor about paving our driveway with us. Everyone in our neighborhood understands that we haven’t been able to pave the driveway, but they are sick of our mud tracks and splatters all over the first 500 feet of the road. So, with that said, it is also an election year and everyone in our neighborhood (including me) will be voting for a Mayor in November. In essence, with the power of our vote alone, we are going to try to get the city to pave our driveway.

St. Patrick’s Day in Puerto Rico

Stefan — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:36:19 +0000

Does anyone know if Puerto Rico celebrates the ‘non-religious’ side of St. Patrick’s day? Just to clarify that, I know that it is celebrated in the churches here, but do local Puerto Rican bars (not tourist bars) dye the beer green, hang four leaf clovers and discount Bushmills and Jameson shots?

You Are Here! (John F. Kennedy Airport)

Stefan — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:27:53 +0000

Summer and I packed up all of our stuff (that we are brining to California) and headed to the airport this morning. Eddie and his two girls are watching the house, the two dogs, the cat (name to be announced momentarily), the lawn, the new plants, the Bronco and the Toyota. Along with the above mentioned family we left in Puerto Rico, we will also be adding to our family the following: Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Squash, Potatoes, sunflowers, more grass and 8 meters of topsoil. Eddie loves plants and has a HUGE green thumb. We are so stoked.

I haven’t been out of Puerto Rico (aside from a short trip in June to California for court) since I moved down at the end of April. It feels a little weird to leave the island. Half of me would rather be going on a surf trip somewhere to relax than back to California, but Summer and I have tons of stuff we have to take care of in San Diego and she is getting me more and more excited with her talk of restaurants that have Non-Fried options on the menu, Whole Foods Grocery Store and Trader Joe’s.

Speaking of Food, I was told by the second rudest employee of Jet Blue I have ever met that Puerto Rican food is actually Spanish and that all Puerto Ricans are Spanish. She went on to denounce her being a Puerto Rican and claimed that she was Spanish because Puerto Rico speaks “Espanol”. This rude behavior is so typical of a NY flight attendant that hates her job. Summer said I should have asked her if Mexicans were Spanish too, after all, they speak Espanol. If I weren’t such a happy guy, I may have proverbially bitch slapped this grumpy Jet Blue Flight Attendant, but instead I let it go, plotting a new blog question to our readers…here goes:

If you were born and raised in Puerto Rico, are you Puerto Rican or Spanish?

Merry Christmas from Puerto Rico!

Summer — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:57:02 +0000

Feliz Navidad!

Green Shirt + Thursday = Gay

Summer — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:04:05 +0000

In Puerto Rico, if you wear a green shirt on a Thursday, that is a supposed to be a symbol of your gay pride. At least that is what we’ve heard from a few Puerto Ricans.

I certainly noticed an abundance of gay guys in San Juan, when we stayed at the El San Juan hotel. I was not expecting to see so many gay Puerto Ricans, maybe because I’m used to Mexico, which is very machismo.