On Cousins and Cosmic Mischief
In which Teófilo reminisces about his cousins, crazy expeditions, baseball, and a certain galactic movie.
Cousin Peter and I explore the backyard wilderness and the big city.
These years I had lots of fun with many of my brood of cousins. We would visit Tío Pin's family home in the countryside of the northern town of Carolina, or they would come to visit us. Papi would drive on the Autopista to the foothills of the Cayey Sierra. The Autopista was the interstate-grade tollroad then under construction. We would then cut across the sierra through its older, winding mountain roads. That would take us to the central town of Caguas where we would take PR-30, and off again at the town of Juncos. From there we would take more winding mountain roads to Tío Pin's.
Tío Pin's home sat by the side of PR-853 in the Barrazas Ward of Carolina. A public elementary school stood on one side. There were neighbors across the road and a Catholic chapel was within its sights.
Behind the house there was a steep down slope leading to a creek. My cousin Peter and I would explore the creek despite fears of bilharzia or some weird illness. We would play, skip stones on the water, use our imaginations, and tell our secrets to each other. If we did mischief we kept it to ourselves, our parents non-the-wiser. Mom would restrict me to a single room of their house if I didn't as she'd wanted to break my will. It never worked.
By the time I hit my teenage years my eating hang ups came to an end, as I developed a voracious appetite. Though not a gourmet eater, my new indifference to whatever was on the plate ended this sad chapter of my life. Several fears and insecurities also ended with the arrival of my teenage appetite.
My Scout membership and my interest in science led me to model rocketry as a hobby. Like it happened often, I got my cousin Peter embroiled in my new hobby. It was then when I concocted a plan to get to Plaza Las Américas, Puerto Rico's first and then largest shopping mall, to buy us some model rockets. I don't recall how we got to the bus depot in Carolina's downtown from Tío Pin's. But once there we took a bus to the Medical Center in Río Piedras. Then I proposed to walk on the margins of Expreso Las Américas - an 8-lane throughway - toward Plaza.
It looked good on the map. But it was sheer madness. We went through people's yards, jumping fences and barriers, on the long walk toward Plaza. Once we got there, we went to various stores but found no model rockets to buy. Someone told us we would find them at another mall in Bayamón, several miles away. We ended up calling Tío Pin to pick us up and take us San Patricio Plaza in Bayamón. He did so good in a good mood. We bought our rockets. Mission accomplished. I built my multi-stage rocket and launched from the open ground behind my Ponce home upon return. But on its first launch the second stage failed to ignite. The rocket died on its inaugural flight.
Cousin Peter and I left the pigs out
Papi once took Peter and I for a visit to the countryside in Jayuya’s La Pica (lah PEE-kah) ward. There, Papi’s cousin Ramón kept a coffee plantation, a toaster and milk, and numerous farm animals. Peter and I decided to visit the pigsty. As we entered we left the gate open. The pigs, smart animals that they are noticed it and decided to leave en masse. By the time we could shut the door about two thirds of the pigs had left. We whistled our way out back to the manor house and stayed put nearby the rest of the day. We left without anyone being the wiser.
Ten years or so later I coincided with Cousin Ramón at a family celebration. There, I fessed up and told him what we did. He looked at me with a spark in his hazel eyes and a half-smile, and said:
So you were the son of the whore (hijo de puta) who did that?
We laughed. I asked for no further details.
Cousin Danny and I braved the whirlwind and the Force was with us.
Danny and his siblings lived walking distance from my home. I loved going to his place because his father who was also my godfather, always gave me $5. I timed the visits so as not to exploit him too much. It felt good to have some change in my wallet. I used the money to buy plastic models of combat ships, airplanes, and spacecrafts that I would then assemble with increasing skill. I would then display the models on shelves Angelito help me mount in my room. Sometimes I would "deploy" them on our empty marquesina and would play wargames.
In 1977 George Lucas' movie Episode 4 Star Wars landed in Ponce. This was the first movie of the first trilogy. Danny and I decided to go watch it on the worst possible day. We set out from his home and could tell a thunderstorm was brewing. We started running but no sooner we started running I saw this whirlwind coming right at us. We took refuge on the porch of a United Church of Christ neighborhood church as the deluge started. We got tired of waiting and started running toward the movie house about a mile away. Danny was the better runner so he got there first. We joined the waiting line only to find out the wind had removed a roofing plank from the movie house. Water has leaked into the projection room. The movie would have to wait.
I made it back home on my own. I remember finding my neighborhood's streets flooded with the rainwater. I got home soaked, and dispirited.
I went by myself the following weekend and watched the movie. Without realizing it I'd seen the dawn of a new way of science fiction storytelling still told today.
But I had even more cousins…
Mom also took to visit her maternal aunt, Benedicta, who we all used to call Nén (NEHN) Titi Nén. At the time she lived in an apartment at a recently built public housing complex in the El Yeso section of town. The whole place was clean and well organized. I liked going because the complex rose over an old quarry and I was fond of the different quartzes I found in its yellow, calcite rocks. Mom would visit with both my brother and I because Titi Nén always lent a sympathetic ear to Mom. I liked to visit because both in her appearance and her voice Titi Nén resembled my beloved Mamá Ana, her sister.
Mom would also visit Titi Nén’s oldest daughter, María Isabel, known as Isabelita and her husband Héctor, nicknamed Papo (PAH-poh). They lived in the Río Canas suburban development in Ponce. Isabel had four children, three girls and a boy, Pedro Javier (hah-BIEHR) Muñoz. He played baseball since he was a little boy. Since I was the nerdy older cousin Pedro Javier and I didn’t have much in common. Pedro Javier excelled at baseball so much he went on to play in the Big Leagues, as an outfielder for the Minnesota Twins and also for the Leones de Ponce, a team in Puerto Rico’s professional winter league. Needless to say, I’m mighty proud of him.
We would also visit Mom’s half-brother César in the El Tuque (TOOH-keh) ward of town. He and his wife, Titi Glady, would also provide Mom with a sympathetic ear. Mom was very versatile in communicating her story and viewpoints as incontrovertible facts. Later on, Mom’s stories and believability would prove detrimental to both my Mercie and me. At the time, however, I welcomed the change in scenery and spending time with my pretty, older cousins, Miriam and Gerardita.
We also visited a paternal cousin named, I want to say, Ada. I’ve never been able to determine the connection between her and Mom. In fact, didn’t share much with paternal relatives until I became an adult and was free from Mom’s disdain for them.
Thank you, Lord, for all my cousins, the one’s I’ve met and the one’s I’m still to meet. We’re plants from the same trunk. Please, Lord, bless them all. Keep them all in the palms of your hands.