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Suki,
Well when you mentioned the Ghetto and vulgar language etc. It made me think of Stanley's thread that Letty erased. Stanley said I was a ghetto lowlife and etc. I found it funny. I mean first I am a burguesa and then I am a lumpen from el caserio. Lol. He is all confused.
Now, domestic violence is part and parcel of people feeling powerless and exploited at their work places. But not only that. It is also a symptom of losing control. You mentioned your Dad taking you out to the woodshed and beating the tar out of you as was the custom and how he grew up to discipline you. These parenting classes we have to attend...my husband and I, they talk about all these issues. Me, I can count on one hand the amount of times I was spanked by my parents. My mother only ever hit my sister and I.....once....one time. And I remember it clear as a bell because it was the rarest thing in the world. I bet she does not remember. But, my sis and I were fighting in Puerto Rico in the back of the volky and mom was driving us to the grocery store. I must have been 4 and my sister almost 7 years old. And we were bickering loudly and hitting each other in the back seat (I don't remember what the issue of contention was), but mami kept saying "Callense, que me estan volviendo loca con tanta gritaera." She told us to stop fighting three times. On the fourth she did not say anything....she pulled the volky over and took my sister and I's heads and then banged them together and we both started crying and she said, "Ahora si tienen algo pa estar llorando y gritando je!! Con el chichon en la cabeza van a poder dejar de gritar." Alma got into more trouble than me usually. Era mas traviesa. But corporal punishment was so rare Eddie. And light. Two smacks on the bottom and a regano y mas nada. And a while later, all was ok again. It was very rare that Papi would use that and only when we were little and what he said was the stage of 'lack of reason'. Lol.
I have many more good memories. So many. He used to like my salads that I would proudly present to him for him to eat...when I was six years old or so. I would make them colorful with red beets, and yellow corn, and peas, and carrots and lettuce and tomato...and the reddest red vinegar and olive oil....I loved the color of it all. And he would sit there and say, "Que ensalada mas preciosa Vida. Lo hicistes todo por mi verdad?" and I would say, "Si, todo para ti Papi." And he would eat it all. My mom would read me stories of Hector and Achilles and the battle of Troy and Sparta....she would make it so interesting....and bring me books to color the characters in. I would ask why the males in the Roman times wore dresses and she would explain they weren't dresses but Togas. And how nice the Mediterranean climate was, and that would lead to questions about geography...and so on. In the parenting class....people that start talking about so many sad things....unknown fathers. Drug addicted mothers. So much struggle. I experienced some pain and things. But I was so fortunate Eddie. So fortunate.
My parents grew up dirt poor. And in ghettos. My father by his widowed mom...and his brothers were at least twenty or so years older than he. He was el regalon sorpresa at the end. But both had insatiable desire to learn and do something to better the community. That social consciousness spark and motivation. I see that in you too Eddie. They studied. And worked. And never were class conscious, how could they be? Si ellos eran pobres siempre. Pero pobres con educacion...Eddie. Y con inteligencia y espiritu de lucha. That is a threatening thing in this society. Poor people with experience of poverty, working class identities and educations and knowledge and a thirst for social justice. Also something I see in you too. The rich and the middle class....they just want to keep the status quo. And they suck up to whoever. But the proletariat with experiences and education and consciencia. They are the ones that make things happen. That is my opinion.
Hey, fascism. Germany was ripe historically for what happened. Too much neglected sectors there. After losing in WWI and the German economy in shambles, and Germany not having the siphoned off wealth and colonial exploitation histories of Imperial countries of Europe like England, Spain and France....and the German working class thirsty for justice of some sort.....manipulation again of feelings of nationalism, and of being 'kicked around' by the victor countries in WWI....plus many other things. I know Hitler went after the Communists with a vengeance....for they were the voice of reason, organization and would never have gone for the wholesale genocide and for state sponsored capitalism and priveleges and Master Race theories of his.
Hitler, though, was efficient, organized and since he was Commander and Chief, and he ruled fascist style. No voices of dissent. And kill off the opposition. Many thoughts I have of him....I think he was an opportunist. Not brilliant but clever. And no single person causes the murder of millions. It is done as a society with the consent of many. That is what many don't get.
I think the Red Army with their sacrifices stopped that German madness. And I am deeply grateful they did. It was a terrible price to pay. I hope the future generations make better choices and honor their deaths.
I love talking to you like this Eddie.
C ya later too brigadista
Suki
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