San Juan Review (jun 1964)

San Juan Review ['J'..1±,<U.'~

A NOTE F ROM THE EDITORS The Only Tenable Position For many years, the people or the island of Vieques lived a tranquil ahnost paradisiacal existence, safe from the turbid currents or international strife. Thenf just over t,,•o decades ago, a distant war drastically disrupted their lives. This month, the Rcvic,\' devotes ten of its pages to \iieques and its tragic situation. The article is highly opinionated. But there iJ a right and wrong in the case of \ ' ieques. And, after an exhaustive investigation of all the facts, the Rcvie,,• has chosen the only position which seems tenable: there is no cause ,·alid enough 10 justify the destruction of a coin,nunity of human beings.

In other articles, William Hurst takes us on a jaunt to lovely Guadeloupe and F'lor:\ngel Cardenas gives us a close.up vic,v of the crucial Septenlber election, in Chile. Lovers of fine food ,,..ill salivate over the epicurean feast described and pictured in "A ~{cal ,o Re1nc1nbcr."

As for fiction, Willia1n Kennedy's uTbc Concept of Being T,,·enty-T,vo" is a quietly tcrrifying tale about two couples who spend a holiday weekend in Vieques ~ and En1ilio S. BeJaval's Monsona Quintana's Purple Child" is a stirring J>OrtraiL of the stoic Puerto Rican jibara.

1n the departments, Juan Luis i\<larquez offers his expert assayal of the recent Puerto Rico Theatre Fcstival1 James Lc,vis rcvicvvs an alfresco concert by our Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Mathe,vs provides a rnordant analysis of one of the ne\\'CSt books about Puerto Rico. You'll also find cornn1entaries and valuable in· fonr1ation on art, Hlins, the press, radio-TV and nightlife.

Read on. \\'hen you're finished, \\'C think you'll agn:.-c that this fifth issue of the San J uan Review offers a bonanza of fascinating, though,-provoking reading.

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Are you a subscriber to the Review? To insure getting your copy each month, fill out and mail the attached postcard. We'll gladly bill you later.

BANK WITH THE BANK WHOSE BUSINESS IS PUERTO RICO At Banco Popular our business is hel pi ng you to bui ld for the future , and hel ping to build the future of our communi ty through thoughtful, farsighted and dependabl e service. .•. Yes, you can depend on the bank that knows Puerto Rico best

BANCO POPULAR DE PUERTO RICO MEMBER F EDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATIO N

JUNE

1964

VoluIDe 1 Number 5

San Juan Review PUERT O AICO•S E N GLISH•LAN GUAG IE M O N T H LY M A G AZIN E

A R T ICLES CHILE: MARXISM WITHOUT REVOLUTION?, Flor6ngel C6rdenas .. .. ........ 4 VIEQUES : TRAGIC ISLAND ................................................... 7 GUAOELOUPE : A FRENCH EXPERIENCE, William Hurst ... . .. . ... . ......... 21 A MEAL TO REMEMBER: ALMOST SINFULLY PLEASURABLE ..............24

F ICTION THE CONCEPT OF BEING TWENTY-TWO, Wiiiiam Kennedy ................ 18 MONSONA QUINTANA'S PURPLE CHILD, Emilio S. Belaval ................ 30

DEPARTMENTS DATEBDOK .. . ............................................... Inside Front Cover A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS .............................................. . . l LETTERS .. . .. . • .. . .. • . .. • . .. . .. • . .. • . .. . • .. .. .. . . . . .. . . .. .. . . .. . .. .. .. • . .. • .. 2 BOOKS : The Dark-Skinned Puerto Ricans, Thomas Mathews ................33

PRESS: A Geography Lesson .................................................35 ART: Jazzin' it up ................... . .. . ....................... . .............31 MUSIC: Our Symphony Orchestra. James Lewis ............................. 39 THEATRE : The Thealre Festival, Juan Luis M6rquez ................... ...... 41 NIGHT LIFE ........................ . ...... , .. , ...... , , ................. . .. . . . 45 FILMS: Poor Tom Jones ....... , .............. . ............................... 46 RADIO: Fighting City Hall ................................................. . .. 48

Editors: Ausu~to font •nd Kai Wagenheim

THE SAN JUAN REVIEW, June 1964. Vol. I, No. S Published monthly and dislributed by the San Juan Review Publishing Corp., Box 2689, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Phone 723,1373. Printed by Talleres Grlficos lnteramericanos, Inc. in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, P. R. Single copy 50 cents.

Subscriptions: One year, $4; Two years, $7. Advertising r.,tes upon request. Sub«rib<HS desiring change of address should notify at least five weeks in advanc,,, including old and new address.

The editors welcome contributions from writers, artists and photographers, but all unsolicited material should be accompanied by return postage. Copyright (c) by the San Juan Review Publishing Corp, All rights reserved. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at San Juan,

2

Ttte SA.s JUAN Rl!.vuiw

Cover to Cover \Ve wish to express our appreciation for the splendid i.s!luc of your Review for Marth 1964 and herewith enclose our check for a subscription. Mr. Davies and 1 new from San Francisco to San Juan to sail on the Nor'\"cgian Meteor and the only magazine , ..·c had on boatd for the cruise ,..,a_, this issue. J am certain it i, Lhc only magazine on record to have been read literally from 'cover to cover' and we thought it ,..,as exceptionally well edited.

Further, though it was our first trip LO Puerto Rico, it ,..,ill alway1t be a memo· rablc one for we visited the Institute or Culture and have a very exciting Botello Bronte on our terrace - than.ks to the San Juan Review!

We had no idea what w.3$ in .store for us in visiting San Juan. This is a magnil'icent land about whic.b Californians know all too Jittlc. We arc anxious lO learn more from the Review.

Elizabeth Banning (Mrs. Charles P. Davies) Novato, Cali(omia

GiVrng The Stor Hell 1-lerc is one reader who eagerly a,vaits the new column you promise for next month - "The Press!' Hopefully you will not be lOO lenient toward I.he: San Juan Siar. The Slot purporcs to be a news-paper; but, for the commercial interc:su it editorially serves with such devotion, it func· tions more or less as a house organ. Or a throw.away. ~foday, May 8, 1964, for example, out of a total of 56 pages, the S,ar is carrying eight full pages of com· mercial di.splay advertising, three full pages or government advertising re: electoral district revision, and almost four full pages of clas,ificd advertising - aJI in all, approximately 25% of the tou,1 .space. This rough figuring does not take into account Lhe numerous pages whose 14-0 column inches are given over mainly to advertising, e.g., pages 8, about 90 inches; page 10, 60 inches; and page 15, 125 inches! Other pages vary -higher and lowei-in the amount or advertising they contain. Some advertising serves a u.scful purpose, or course, but the San Juan Star probably prints a higher per· ccntagc or advcrLislng than it does cdit0rial matc.tial, which is not the (unction or a newspaper.

And the content or the editorial material? Much of that is at

j

A11K l• te Ed it or: Pedro Ju•n SOio

Art Dlr•ctor: Ernie Potvin Advetlit,lng: Haf'l'y McQulre Clrc ulatlon: Ricardo Totres

Puerto Rico.

LETTERS

CREDITS: Cover photo by Manuel Reyes. Photos for Chile article from AP Feature Service. Vieques photos by Manuel Reyes, Luis Conde and U. S. Navy. Illust ration for Emilio S. Betaval's story by Carlos Raquel Rivera. Illustration for William Kennedy's story by Max Frye. Photo of "A Meal To Rem ember" by William Chan.

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If

the level of high school journalism, e.g., page 34 gives 40 inches to a report on the diet of Burl Ives. Then there arc the fillers such as the report that some Omaha rabbi is also a lawyer (p. G). rfhc "fca·

tures" the astrology column, the bridge colu1nn, the •'canned" movie reviews aod book reviews, Ann Landers. Take it as a whole, the San Juan Star is vulgarly m.i.s,.scrving its readers. On aJmost every P"SC it reveals the philosophy that justifies its own vulgarity by asserting thal it gives the public \\!hat it \VantS. Do not Jct the $t()r fall back on the excuse that it is no ,,·orsc than other ncY..-spapcn.

Because the Siar makes no aucmpt to be better. I hope that uTbc Press" gives the Star hell, not just ror the sake of giving it hell, but for the sake of gctllng its o,'-'Uus and managers to iinprove it.

Lee Robinson El Monte Apartments Hato Rey

Why? Co1\ccrning the article uThe Miracle of S6.bana Grande" by Margaret Stagg,, and other cases of this type which have happened previously, \Yhy is it that the one \\'ho appears i, always the Virgin Mary and never, as far 35 I kno,v, our Lord and only Saviour J csus Christ, except for the time He appeared before Marta Magdalena and later before the disciples?

J.

Melendez Contreras Santurce

All rithl,

u., titv up.

Why.'-Ed.

A Social Sickness I am glad a magazine such as youn has come up. I hope lhe public who lb.inks and 1-nalt.CrS wiU realize what it

means to have a magazine such as this on.e. I also hope ihcy ~'lll help it whsi!n by buying it persevcrandy. I bought the first edition in San Juan during Eastcr-

and I brought thi, edition IO lhc College campus in Mayagucz. All those ,...ho care were rc.jqiccd.

There arc talented people in this isJand, people that have something to say and don't have ,.,here to say it- there arc people or literary importance who labour

darkly in their incognito role ~iety has imposed upon them- some give up Faith in the proc~ss, others don't- [ have kept my Faith- but I am afraid someday I 1night lose iL Faith is a substance, an essence, and the ever present magnitude of i.odirtcrcJ\c:e and "asphaltitis" plus the materialistic brainwash may give its theme and tone to our l>uerto Rican society - ,\lhich has forgouc11 how t0 lhinkand has adopted the "prc.·fabricatcd" in all aspeeis.

Our society needs a severe criticism, or else it wiJI perish spiritually. Right no,v it is suffering shipwreck- and the story on "El Fanguito" which may arouse in· dignant replies (poses) is a bulls eye pointing a malignant spot, it is the medical diagnosis or a social sickness.

Thanking you for your eloquent truthfulness, [ remain, Clara L. Cucvas Mayagucz

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C"ribair has more than 24 Oights daily to the U.S. Virgin Tslands. Only 37 minutes to S1. Croix, 24 minutes to St. Thomas.

Come. no,v, ::lt Carnival time on St. Thoinn< ( April 26th-May 2nd), and spend exciting. colorful days with your good Virgin Islands neighbors. You'll really enjoy yourself)

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CH ILE

e •

by Florangel Cordenas MARXISM WITHOUT REVOLUTION •..

A drastic change in Chilean politics is due in the September elections.

HILE, a South American republic of 7.5 million inhabitants and 286,369 square miles, might becon1e, within the nc......:t Lhree 1nonths, the second Social.ist Republic in Latin America. I\ United Nations official, comrnenting recently on the Chilean political situation, said: "Chile will be the first country in the world to freely elect a Marxist gov-

C

ernment.,,

Since 1818, when Chile won its political independence from Spain. the country has lived in relative peace and prosperity. Presently in the midst of the ,vorst economic crisis in its

history, Chile is on the brink or radically changing the social and economic system under which it has lived

country since independence. 1L is a significant fact that although 82% of Chile's exports are derived fron, n1injng activities, it is the old, land-holding aristocracy, grouped around the Conservative and Liberal Political Parties, which have held political control over the past 150 years. Today these two political parties stand in the right wing of Chile's political Sp<,'Ctrum.

Both the Conservative and Liberal Parties \YCre established a short time after the country achieved political sovereignty. The differences between the l\,'0 stem frorn the European 1nove1nents after ,vhich they ,vcre modeled. The Conservative Party follows the pattern of the old Spanish Conservative Catholjc Party. The liberal Party attempts to parallel 19th century French anti-clerical, rational liheralism. ln coalition with the Radical Party, and under the title of Democratic Front, they control the present Chilean government.

The Radicals

through last March 15th when the Den1ocratic front's Presidential Can· didatc, Julio Duran Neumann. sorfercd a devastating defeat in a byelection in Curic6, a s1nall agricultural region approximately 120 miles from Chile's capital, Santiago. Following the defeat, the leadership of the Radical Party ordered its rnc,nbers to resign from the posts they held in the coalition govcmrncnt. /\ltl,ough Curic6 holds only I. l % of Chile's total electorate, the contest ,vas given a national poll character by tl1c repeated statements of the presidential candidates 10 the effect that the resulL< of that by-election would prophesy the outcome of the presidential elections scheduled for

The Radical Party, the third mem·

her of the governing coa]ition, \Yas organized in the rnicldle 1850's by nouve..'\u richc 111lncrs as a protest against the political hegemony of the land holcling aristocracy. The Radical Party first achieved national prominence in 1938 ,•,hen. in coalition ,\•ith the Socialist and Con11nunist Parties, it ,, on the national eleclions. In the 1916 Presidential elections ( held every 6 years in Chjlc) the Socialist Party \,•ithdre\,• £ro1n the coalition. The Radical Pal'ty, hO\\'Cvcr, allied '"ith only the Com1nunists. ,,,as again vie· torious in the elections. ,\ yea)" later the Radicals broke with the Co111n1unist Party, "'hich it then declared illegal, jailing its principal leaders.

It was during the period between 1946 and 1947 thnt the first violent clashes between the Socialist and Communist Parties took place. Socialist leaders at the time claimed that if they had not taken utmost precautions, lhc Co1nn1unists ,vould have shattered their 1noven1ent. (n 1958, Lhis tin1e n1nning \\'ilh the Conservative and Liberal Parties. the Radical Party again rose to govcmrncntal po,,•cr. Their n1cn1bership in this coalition govern1ncnt continued 1

Eduardo Frei Morttah'<l

and proopered during the last 150 years.

Why? What motivates a people 10 believe in a socio-political system which only yesterday was unknown in the Western Hemisphere? Is it the result of the Cuban Revolution? Is

it the consequence of the nation's internal situation? ls it the result of Communist infiltration? Is it a cornbination of these factors? Or is it, perhaps, a scream of protest; a ,-varning to the Latin An1crican oligarchic.-s which have so far refused to implcn1ent. t.he vast changes and refom1s needed in the majority of their countries? l\lthough most Chileans will deny the existence of social castes in their country, most of them will readily accept that, \,•iLh very fe\v exceptions, the same families have ruled their

Salvador Al/(nde Gossen

next September. Twenty-four hours a(ter the votes \Yere cast in CuricO, Duran resigned as the Presidential Candidate for the Democratic Front - his movement had lost 16% of ,he votes it had acquired in the previous ch...,c;.tion there. I~ater, al the re· ,,uest of the Radical Party'• National Directorate, he re·cntcred the race. l--lo,vcvcr, no,v Duran is running as the !>residential Candidate for only his party.

With Duran's recent dcfc.-:u, and continued vacillation. only L,vo can· didatcs remain running (or Chile's Presidency: Eduardo Frei Montalva.

Lhe Christian Dc111ocrat candidate for President: and Salvador Allende Gossen, ,,·inner of the Curic6 by.e1cction, and Presidential Candidate for the 1farxist, lcft.,ving, Populnr ,\ction Front ( P.A.F.) .

l

The Christian Democratic Party rose rrom the ashes of the Conserv-

WALL STREET COMES TOP. R.

ative Party's youth rnovcmcnt in the

1930's. Its political outlook, as in the other Christian Democratic n1oven1cnts in Latin An1crica and Europe,

RICHARD J. BUCK & CO. INTERNATIONAL, S. A. Affiliate of

has been derived ( ron1 the social

RICHAUD J, B UCK & CO.

justice doctrines of the Catholic Church. It is said to appeal to both the aspirations and fear tO\vard radical change of the Chilean middle class. Its platfonn favors a planned econo1nic transrom"lation as advocated by the Alliance for Progress. Although its rnc1nbcrs aren't in complete agree·

Mcmbera: New York Stock Exchange

American SLoek Exchange Wa a.re pl~a,td to aff~ounce

th.at, 1i11-ce Februa.Tfl 3, 196-', a11d {07 the /ir,t time in Puerto Rico, the Nw, York Stock

ment as to ,vhat type of econornic

E%ch.an{1v Ticker Service ha.a

system would be favored by a Christian Dernocratic govern,nent, the rnajority of the party's leadership tends toward an American type people's

bun inatantaneou,ly recording all ,reported tt'a.naa:ct·ion, effected "" th• New York Stock Exchange direct to ouT Santurce office.

capitalisn,. Son1e ti1ne ago, ho,vever, a prominent party me111ber explained to ~1arxist ccono1nists that: "The

O!!ices: SAN TURCE

211 First Federal Savings Bldg.

Tel. 722-2135

Christian De1nocrats are anti-capitalists ; the

party believes in a

SO·

PONCE Edilicio Gonulez, Orrice 515 Tel. 842-9111

cialist economy. Our rear of this type of econorny is that it could evolve into a 'monster state' ,vhich ,vould even· tually destroy individual freedom.

'°""

Present day capitalism/' he concludcd1 "does not, of course, guarantee the

defense or survival of the basic hurnan righL~."

Largest Single Party The Chilean Christian Democratic Party is considered the most radical of such n1oven1ents in Latin America.

Nevertheless it was strongly backed by the Administration of the late President Kennedy. It is also receiving the full support of the Jesuit Order and of the majority of the country's young Catholic clergy. Its more radical members strongly back the "selfdctcrrnination" principle, and Lhcrerorc back Castro's Cuban government.

Within its top leadership the party has some of Chile's most brilliant

ST. THOMAS - ST. CROIX Tel. 774-1112 Tel 773-1111

Taste the things d>at happen lo smol<• filtered throuih cllarcoal eranufes

~1/;J

JlJ~llliUNI

Charles Dickens was an eminent patron

~··, : · · .-

'®-of Jus-terini & Brooks who have been parveyors of fine wines and spirits (or over two cenluries. Today this ®lcbrated house is famous for a standard of quality that oas llf'ought good cheer and good fellowship to every corner of the world. Try the famous J & B Rare Scotch, of Oavour uo.surpassed.

1?eo11ies more in ccst;

• . : ----- - - • -

WorldS' <ipart in quality

technicians, intellectuals and profes· siona1s. The party's youth n1ove1ncnt

controls Chile's Student Federation and the student governments of most

of the republic's universities. On the other hand, it has but few members among the labor and fann sectors. !LS atte1npts to ,,•rest control fro1n the Communists and Socialist Parties of the Only Workers Central have, thus far, failed. In Curic6 s election last .t-larch 15th the party increased the votes it had acquired in the previous election in the district by 6.2%.

Since the Curic6 by-election. the 1

Christian De1nocrats have been mak-

RARE

SCOTCH WHISKY 86 Proo! Blended Scotch Whislcy JUNE, 1964

5

ing increasingly daring moves to get associated with the Socialist Party (so far a member of the P.A.F.) for the September Presidential elections.

Pointing out that. in n1any European countries the Christian Democrats have joined the Socialists in a unit~-d front against their natural cne1nies, the Communists, the party is hoping to achieve t,,,o sitnultaneous develop-

ments; ( I) Force a break between the Socialists and the Conu11unisrs; and (2) Insure itself a position, even if secondary, in the nc.xt Chilean governn1ent.

The Ne xt President For the past 18 months both political experts and lay,pen in Chile have agreed tha, Chile's ncx< presidenl will be Senator Salvador Allende, the Popular Ac<ion Front's Presidential Candidate. 1'he P.A.F. is made up of the Chilean Communisr., Socialist, and National Democratic Parties. Since in 1he 1963 Parliamentary eleciions ,he P.A.F. was able to aurac< only 29.4% of the votes cast, Allende's elec<oral triumph next September hinges on

of grumng the larges, election bloc.

During the last fifteen months the cost-of-living index in Chile has risen 62%. Salaries and wages have remained static during the same period.

The exchange rate for the Chilean Prso has set a new record; 3,500 pesos for one U.S. Dollar. Unemployment has oscillated between 15 and 20% of the labor force. The lack of classroom space has left approximately I00,000 children outside the elementa· ry school system, a fact making the country's 18% illiteracy ever 1nore poignant. Such developn1ents, di rcct-

ly affecting the lives or most Chileans, are C."J"'Cted to give Senator Allende the country's Presidency next September.

Senator Allende has publicly announced his 111oven1ent's plans to establish a Ma.t:xist govern111CHL \\'ilh

dependent Chilean. In <he 1958 presidential elections tJ,e P.A.!'., although receiving less Lhan 50% of the pop-

a socialist economy when and if he co1nes to po\vcr.

The Chilean Communist Party is, as or 1958, the largest member of the Popular Action Front (255,000 voles vs. 230,000 for the Socialist Party) . The Chilean Communist Party, organized by nitrate roine workers in the I920's, has always found its largest following among the

ular vote,

country's 1niners. Originally an un-

the votes or the uncommitcd, in-

C..'ln1e

,,•ithin 30,000 votes

derground movc1nent_, the party can1e

out in the open for the 1938 cleclions ,vhcn, in victorious coalition \Vith the

Socialist and Radical Parties, it formed part of the government. National lln1>0rtance, ho,vcvcr, did not come

to the party until the 19·16 ckctions hen- after the Socialists ,vithdre,v from tJ1e coalition- it was able to share an electoral victory with only the Radical Party. Made illegal in 1947, the party remained under that status until 1956. In 1958 it joined the , ,1

Socialist and National Democratic Parties to fom1 the Popular 1\ction

Front. The Chilean Cornmunist Party strongly follows the pattern of the Conununist

I ntcrnational,

and

al-

though it is still to take sides in Lhe ~1osco,v-Peking controversy, it is reported to favor the Soviet's position.

So111e or Chile's most respected intellectuals, like Pablo Neruda ( probably Latin An1erica's best Jiving poet) are

members or the party.

The Socialist Party is the second largcsl political organlzation in Chile's P.A.F. Unlike the Communist Party, the Socialists are characterized by a na1.ionalist econo,nic policy, and its strong bcli#ef that the country's laborers and fanncrs should have a

(Continiud on page 36)

PUERTO R I CO'S PIONEER ENGLISH LANGUAGE STATION

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[M]lliJ~~® &~Lill ~~w~ WlliJ~[L~ Yl®lliJ W@OOfil @00 [P[LroYi

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

TRAGIC ISLAND What the press called "a victory" was, in fact, another defeat for the people of Vieques.

"WE ARE DOOMED ii something isn't done," say the citizens of Vieques. Only the light-colored sector on the map of their island (20% of the total land area) is in civilian hands. The remaining 26,000 out of 33,000 acres have been held by the U.S. Navy since 1942. Vieques Mayor Antonio Rivera (third from right) has said:

"We gave up almost the entire island when the nation was in danger, hopeful that in peacetime we were to be compensated and treated fairly. But unfortunately in peacetime we have received a worse deal than the one received by the Japanese when they were invaded and occupied." continued nut Pitt

VIEQUES:

( Vieques, a,i offshore mu,iicipality of P·uerto Rico, is a 5/-Jquare-niile island which lies six tniles southeast of the Co,nnionlvealth at a juucturr of the Caribbean Sea at1tl Atlantic Ocean.)

HE LIFE is oo-,ing out of Viequcs, drop by drop. Twemytwo years ago, the U.S. Navy expr<>· priated 26,000 of the island's 33,000

T

acres and Vicqucs ha.Ii been unable to recover £ro111 so great an amputation.

There ,vas so,ne jo>' in Vicques a fe"' ,,·eeks ago, ,vhen 1hc Navy de·

cided not 10 take an additional 1,400 acres. The local press, in a disheartening display of naivete, sent up great yells of "Victory!"

Hut Vieques Mayor Don 1\ntonio

Rivera Rodrigue,, his face rreued Crorn years of concern over his mori· bund island ho1nc, 1nust have kno,vn

the truth. He must have known that although the worst had not yet co,nc, things were as bad as before. He surely knew d1a1 since the early 1940's his people have been deserting in a steady stream. lie knew tha< or those ,vho ren1ain, n1ost of then1 are ,vom·

VIEQUES is relatively isolaled from ils "molher island", Puerto Rico, and lhe resl of the worfd.

A launch service (see top photo) makes a round

trip (cosl: $4) lwice daily between the island and the cily of Fajardo. Trade Winds Airways also makes a round trip (""'t: $13) twice daily. "Vieques lnler-

national AirPOrt Terminal" is what the owner calls the small bar,restauranl in the photo below. It is the lone buildinJ which greets the visitor who oomes to Vieques by air. Sometimes Navy maneuvers halt

flights (and incoming mail) for up lo lhree or four days. Since the landing strip is so small, an eight· passenger plane is the largest which can land there. There are no lighls for afler-dark landings or lakeoffs.

en, young chi ldren and oldsters. H~ knew that d,c bright-eyed high school students whom he had watched grow tall ,\ ould, as soon as they rccclvcd their diplomas, leave the island. There arc no jobs for thco1 on Vie<.(UCS. 1

There is no future for thc1n on Vie-

ques. The island is dying.

The Island History Vicques, like Puerto Rico, ,vas dis-

covered during Christopher Columbus' second voyage, on the 19th of November, 1493.

In 1647, the Spanish chased the French away, but forty years later a mixture of French and English returned to establish a colony. The influences of these early colonizers can be noted in such Vieques landmarks as Monrcpos, la Sorce, Martineau, Wolf, Cori and Leguillou.

The original records of the Vicques municipal govcrnn1ent ,vcre ,vritten in French.

In 1843, the Spaniards, their vast Hispanic An,crican en1pire rapidly crwnbling, 1noved into Vic..-qucs and

established the town of Isabel 11, the island's capital, in honor of the Span· ish queen. Recognizing the Gallic flavor of the island's populace, they appointed a French descendant, The· 8

THE SAN JuAN Rev1£\\?

odore Leguilleu, as the first govemor of Vicqucs.

During the following year, the governor o[ Puerto Rico, Don Rafael Aristcgui, Count Mirasol, established a military garrison on Vieques1 and construction of Vicques' first fort ,vas

begun. The island continued under Spanish control until 1898 when, together ,vith Puerto R.ico, it ,vas ceded 10 the United States.

Today Vieques is a municipality of l11e Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. lt is parl of the Senatorial District of llwnacao and or Representative District No. 39, , ... hich enco1npa..'lSCS Viequcs, Culebra and Fajardo. Viequcs is ruled by a n,unicipal governn,ent in the san1e ,vay as all o ther cities and to,,•ns of Puerto Rico.

The Economy Agriculture, primarily sugar cane, was 1he bulwark of the Vicqucs eco110111y during t.hc Spanish rcgi,ne, and continu(..'<l to be so under the Anter· ican flag up through the early l 900's.

Hut in the t 920's, due to economic

setbacks, Vieques' four once-prosperous sugar n1i1ls chvi ndled to t,vo. There "·as one n,ill ren1aining ii\ the 19-1-0's when the U.S. Navy expl'Opriated 10 establish "the world's largest navy base." The proposed base was lo house the llritish fleet if and when England fell to the A,is powers. With this expl'Opriation, the last sugar mill vanished. Today, the Jiule sugar that is cultivated ( which still comprises the island's major crop) is shipped twenty-two miles by barge to Fajardo for grinding.

Several projects have been initiated by the Government of Puerto Rico to bolster Vicqucs' faltering econon1y.

1\1nong thc111 \\ as a pineapple plant 1

which proved 100 large for the island's pineapple production and subsequently "'as unable to operaLe at a high enough level of efficiency.

1\side rrorn sugar, the present day economy depends upon cattle raising, t,vo s111all Fomento fact.ories ,vhich employ a total or 130 workers, a few Con1mon,,•ealtl1 Covernn,cnl jobs, plus the no1·111al run of sn1all business,. c~ needed to service the co1nn1unity.

Many people believe that with proper technical assistance and financial backing, Vicques could becon1c a thriving agticultural center. Dut since

most of lhe arable land is held by the U.S. Navy, agriculture is in such a debilitated condilion that even plant·

ains -

a daily staple in the Puerto

'

Rican diet - mus! be brought in from Puerto Rico. The same goes for such ncccs.sit.ics as milk, butter, virtually all vegetables, and all fruits except the mango and coconut.

The crippled economy has had a grave effect upon the population of Vieques. In 1899, when sugar was king, lhc census showed about 6,000 inhabi1ants. This jumped to nearly 12,000 by 1920. Contrary to the trend of the United States, where the population has lriplcd since the turn of the century, the population of Vie· qucs has dwindled to about 7,000.

Young men tend to cnUgrate, seeking

job opportunities in San Juan, the neighboring island of St. Croix, or in New York. There arc very few viequrnses in the age 20 to 35 bracke1, a fact which casts a dismal shadow upon the island's future.

Any analysis of economic opportunities on Vieques must focus upon three areas: I. Agriculture. For as long as the

U.S. Navy retains approximately 80 per cent of the land, the development of profitable modern fanning is impossible.

2. Manufacturing. Chances here, too, are limited because facilities for shipn1ent of ra,,, materials and finished goods are wholly inadequate. Also, the emigration of Vieques' most ablebodied men has reduced the available labor pool. And, some potential investo~ fear further U.S. Navy land expropriation.

Tourism The third area, tourisrn, is the brightest hope nourished by the people of Vieques. The island is blessed with an average temperature of 79.3 degrees, which docs not e.'<ceed three degrees in variation during any given day. Rainfall varies from scarce on the east end of the island to moderate in the west (<U!.92 inches annually) .

There are miles of beautiful undeveloped beachfront, ringed by graceful palm trees and lapped by gentle \\raves. Only t,\ 0 hurricanes have interrupted the island's tranquility in the past fifty years.

Yet, all attempts to develop the 1rcmcndous potential of tourism have been blocked by the U.S. Navy be·

THE SUGAR PIER on the island's southern coast enables Vieques cane farmers to shjp their sugar 22 miles away to Humacao and Fajardo for grinding. In the ea,ly decades of the twentieth century, Vieques had lour sugar mills, but they closed one by one, the last one being expropriated by the U.S. Navy in 1942.

CATnE roam fre<lty on 7,200 of Vlequos' expropriated acres, Which have been leased back to a cattlemen's cooperative by the Navy. But civilians are unable to erect buildings or use the land for agriculture. During maneuver time, a stray cow is occasionalty converted to hamburger by landmlnes or falling bombs.

1

cause "touris1n is incompatible ,vith

large-scale amphibious training activities." .. It is inevitable, ,,•e believe," says

a U.S. Navy spokesman, "that resulting confLicts would only operate to juNB, 1964

9

ON THE DRAWING BOARD A.ND READY TO GO :

A St 5 million tourism project that would help revitali1e the economy of Vieques

limit the scope or degree of our train· ing, and u1tiniatcly, lx"C'ausc of nu1nerous li1nitations i1nposed, force the Marine Corps to abandon Vieques entirely."

"The U.S. (~ovcrnrncnt has SJX!llt more than $100 million in developing Vie<JUCS and Roosevelt Roads. We're not going to chro,v a,vay such an investment so that Viequ~s should be converted into a 1nccca for touris1n 1" ,vas the blunt statc111cnt 1nade hr Capt. Howard Munt, Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the 10th Naval District, in July of 1961. ..!'he Wool nor Corporation ( o,\ ner of Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan) has since the late 1950-s been ttying to develop a tourist co111111unity on the south -;hore of \lieques. on a 1200-acre tract of bcachfront land leased to it by the Pueno Rico Industrial Development Company. The projcl.t ,,·ould include a JOO.. roo111 hotel, a 1narina, a golf coutSC, a riding aradc111y, a sn1aJI shoppin_~ center and 300 onc ..acrc hon,e.sites for private dt•velopmcnt. l nitial spcndin~t cstiinated at close to $8 1nillion, ,vould be doublc·d \\•hen one includes the cost of building the private ho111es.

The touris111 center \\'Ould en1ploy over 200 \\'Orkcrs ,vho \\'Ould. in turn, create ntorc c1nployn1e11t because of their increased purchasing f)O\\'Cr. Since the entire labor force of Vieque.s numlx-rs less than 2.000, ,he addition of 200 job opportunities ,vould have a trc1 cndous in'lpact upon the island's cconoruy. \Voolnor subn,ittccl thC' tnasu;!:r plan for its projl..'Ct to rucrto Rico's Plan· ning Board on April 8, 1960. On June 2, 1960 preliminary plans were ap· proved by the Board. But Woolnor has been unable to pro<"ccd for sc,·cral reasons. Jt needs assurance that pres.. cnt airport facilities on Vit.-ques ,vill i1nprovc !W.l as to allov,• a continuous tourist flO\\. C.:aribair has secured CAB approval to serve the island, but 1

100-room hotel

1

lls planes r'C(1uire a longer airstrip.

AN "AERIAL VIEW" of the scale model, showmg the Woolnor pro1ecl as it wwld appear if finished: holel, marina, gotr course, shopping center, private h Tiesttes.

10

Tut SAN JUAN RRVIE\V

The Navy, which holds the land on ,vhich the airstrip is located, has con· sistcntly refused 10 approve any expansion of the run,vay. $1 Million Spent Woolnor, which has already spent over S1 n1illion in promotion ( it even opened a N.Y. sales office), drawing up plans and securing a \\'ater source, also demands assurances that its land will not later be expropriated. No word is fonhcoming from PRIDCO,

so the entire project 1s 1n lirnbo. No one in PRIDCO seems able to explain ,,·hy so 1nuch cncou ra~etncnt ,,,as given the Woolnor project at the out· set, when there wa., full knowledge that the l'\avy ,,•as not favorably in· c-linc·d to,,•ard~ the gro,vth of to11ris1n.

Another pron,ising tourism project ,vhich never 1naterialil.cd, ,, as to create a conununity of cottages Cor vacationing n1iddle-incon1e Puerto Ricans and visitors. II would have been styled after tl1c Club NlediterranCe, v,1hich has over 8001000 n1c1nbcrs in Europe.

This project, which would cost little to begin, \\'ould be founded upon a 1nodcratc :innual 1nernbership fee, perhaps $ I0, entitling the 111cmbcr and his family to use the facilities at rca.~nable rates. If, for exa1np1c, J0,000 Puerto ll.icans ,,·ere recruited at $10 per year, the $100,000 colkcted would be a giant step forward in securing n1ore Cinancing. R.ccn1i1ing campaigns among large middle-in· come groups ( such as Government e1nployccs, ,vho 111,unber close to 50,000) c.ould guarantee a si:ocablc membership. The result could be that Yiequcs would become a popular ,,·cckcnd or vacation hidea\\•ay for thousands of Puerto Ricans.

There have been other auemplS to 1

1

develop touris,u in Vicqucs. all of

which have foryled out. In February of 1953, a group of North American investors, rcprcscmcd by a Joseph G. Uhap1nan, becan1e interested in :.\C· qui,ing a, least 2,000 acres (and eventually 5,000) for a hotel, golf course and other facilities. But the land was unavailable and the project dropped.

111 ~lay of 1953 a Mr. Edward Croup ,, rote to Governor ~iuricr1. indicating his intc·rc.c1L in obtaining the Vieques Fort property where he planned 10 invest $500,000 in makin!( a hotel and adjacent cabanas. The project was approved by the Executive Com1niuec on Touris111 but never 111atcrialiwd. ,\t present, Vit..'<lucs' auraction as a vacation spot is lii-nited to only the hardiest of tourist types. Transporta· tion is restricted to s1nall planes \\•hich make cwo daytime flights from San Juan daily and a twice-a-day launch rro,,n Fajardo \\•hich takes over an hour to cross the choppy channel. The 16-room Hotel Cam,cn, in the city of Jsabcl JI , is clean and inexpensive ($-l daily) but is mo.-c suitable for comn,ercial lodging. There arc a few

FRENCHMAN'S HOUSE, an

eleganl mansion restored by the

Woolnor company for SISS,000 to serve as a guest quarters for

prospeetive investors and for the

present small trickle of tourists.

It has been closed since June.

1962.

GOVERNOR MUNOZ (checked ,hirt) at the gala ope111ng of Frenchman's House in October.

1960, when optimism over the

project was high.

....

1

l

fSLANO CHILDREN frolic on the beach whiclt the U.S. Navy planned to expropnate untll 11 cltanged plans fast month. Vieques has miles ol beautiful, unspoiled beach fronlllge. ringed by graceful palms and protected by olfshore reefs. jUNI!,

1964

11

s.snall rarnlly-run guest houses as \\fell as a handful of rcstaurants ,vhich offer home-style cooking at reasonable prices. The beautiful beaches are al\\·ays there, but car or taxi rental facilities are poor. Most of the bars are drab establishments geared almost cxclusivc1y to,vards the n1en-in-uniform trade. In one, a hi-Ii blares out martial tunes extolling the glories of the Tara\\'a ca111paign ,vhile tearsoakcd noncoms sip beer and re1ni-

nicce.

A Continuous Struggle Puerto Rico has \\1agcd a continuous strugg:le in recent years to regain parts of Vieques, and every so often t.he controversy flares up in the pages of the press.

In 1959 the Fernos-Murray Bill, asking for the ,·eturn of all unused land held by the Am1ed Forces, died in the U.S. Congress.

In 196 l, the Comrnonwcalth filed a brief \\'ith the Federal Aviation Agency, urging the need of air space over the \vcstcrn end or the island for commercial flights ( this request dovetailed with Woolnor's efforts to develop tourism ) .

In June of 1961, a San Juan

Sta; editorial said: "The cconoa1ic plight or \ licqucs grovvs 1norc serious each year. Lack of adequate air transportation has isolated the people and deprived them of the opponunity to develop their [inc beach areas for 1ourisrn.11 ( l t is interesting to note that, while the same condition prevail in 1964 as did in '6 1 no Star editorial has come out so strongly since.)

On July 24 1961, Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce President Dr. Antonio Rodriguez Geigel said in El i tundo: HBarring the circumstances in \\•hich the unquestionable ncccs.sity of national defense in1poses a restric· tion - \\1hich apparently is not the case - it is our belief that a prosperous conununity of srnall and rrce enterprises in Vieques ,vou1d be to the credit and best interest of the U.S. and Puerto Rico." 'fhat s.1.n1c day, University of Puerto R.ico students 1narched in front of U.S. 10th Naval District headq uarters in Isla Grand e with placards 1'Cading: ''Navy stay, but not at the

expense or poverty."

Another letter in El ~!undo that day said: " l n the conrlict bet w<.-en the strategic interests of the U.S. and the welfare which humanly and morally belongs to the people of Viequcs, 12

TUE SAN JUAN RP.VIP.W

A WAVE of amphibious landing craft (LVTP's}

THE MILITARY

we strongly feel that the second factor n,ust prevail, \\•ithout failing to be

conscious of the firsl."

Still another letter, this one from a native of Vieques, said: "'I run not anti-.A.n1erican, on the contrary, I feel a deep appreciation for that great nation, but above everything else T

anl a Viequense/' On July 15, 1961, Vieques Mayor 1\r1tonio R.ivera said that the ~ravy would be responsible if the ramshackle homc-s in the Santa Ma,ia and Montesanto sections \\rere da1naged by

hurricanes. 1 ..his area, expropriated by the Navy in 1961, allowed people displac<"<l rrom other pans of the island by the Navy to set up homcsitcs. But the Navy. instead of g iving the land to the inhabitants, offered only a tiny p iece of paper which allowed t.hcm the use of the land but obliged them to leave on 30 da)•S notice ,\fhcncver it \\•as dccn1<:d ncccs.· sary. i.wc nec.-d a lo,v.cost cc111ent housing project for 700 families there," said the .Xl ayor, noting that no one was able 10 S<-'Curc loans 10 build decent ho1l1es because they did r101. have ownership of the land. (The proje<:t has never been reali1-<.'<l.)

"J'hc next n'lonth ~[ayor Rivera at-

carrying combat.ready U.S. Marines moves towards an assault beach on Vieques during a massive maneuver.

tacked the Navy's original expropriation of 26,(M)() acres. 11 In 19·~1 ," he said, the Republican-Socialist administration turned Vicqucs over to the U.S. Navy without protest and without de1nanding any responsibility, just to win the friendship or generals and adn,irals, even if it \\'as to the detri· ,ncnt or the people of \ l ieques."

In November of that year, Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, chairman of the 1\rn1ed Setvices Co111111ittt.-c, crunc to Puerto R.i co and spoke out ag ainst the transfer or any Navy land 10 civiljan hands. "Vicqucs is or vital importance to the defense of the Western Hemisphere," he said. "A lourisl center \\'Ould be i1nproper." .\layor Rivera, co1n1ncnting in the press the next day, s;iid: "Senator Russell visited Vieques, yes, but he

never left the base to sec the conditions under \vhich \\' C live. l n his state of Georgia, the Armed Forces don't have fou r-fifLhs of the land."

The Recent Scare In May of this year, the people of Viequ~• celebrated an apparc111

victory \\•hich \\fas) in truth, a serious defeat. A few months previous, at a party hosted by the U .S. iMarincs for so1ne of Viequcs' citizens, it ,vas jn.

<

CAMP GARCIA, where several hundred Marines

it ready for the large maneuvers once or twiee a year when over 20,000 ~l'\lieemen take part. The Camp was named in

"mind the store", keeping

honor of Fernando Luis Garci., a youn, Puerto Rican who died In Korea when he threw himself upon I live enemy hand grenade to protect his buddies.

A HELICOPTER loaded with Manne jeeps takes off from an ahcraft carrier and begins the flight towards Vieques during a full-scale attack maneuver.

advertently leaked that the Navy planned to expropriate an additional 1,400 acres of land along the southern shore.

This new land grab would have; • cut off the civilian source of fresh water.

• taken away the single pier used for shipping sugar to Fajardo.

• eliminated the community of Esperanza, where I 09 families had re· cently constructed low-cost self-help ho1nes.

• cut off the civilian access to the entire southern shore, nullifying all hopes for eventual tourism development.

It was later learned that the funds needed to expropriate the land had already b<.-cn approved by the U.S. Ilousc of Representatives and the matter \\ as soon to be proposed to the Senate.

The people of Vieques mobilized and called upon the press and the Co1n1non\\realth Covcrnn1cnt for help.

So great was the hubbub that the Navy finally backed away from the project.

What was believed to be the real Hconvincer" in the Navy's retreat \\'as a 1961 letter from the late President

THE GATE lo Camp Garefa: blocking off ~eral

thousand acres

of land

to the civilian

papulace.

u. S. MARINES "twist" off steam at one of the dozens of bars wllich serve hard liqU<>r on Vieques. Though Jhe town is relatively quiet most of the year, at maneuver time planeloads of commuting prostitutes fly in from Puerto Rico to meet the demand. Afew of the servicemen have fallen in love with local girls and become per· manent residoots of the island. Others leave when their "hitch" i.s up, leaving behind them broken hearts and,

sometimes, illegitimate offspring..

jUNt, 1964

13

THE HOUSING PROBLEM ON VIEQUES

John F. Kennedy, proruising Govern-

of feudalistic society which Puerto

o r Mufioz that

,nore land ,..,ould

Rico has been trying to eliminate for

be expropriated on Vicques without

the last few decades. Many fam1ers arc landless, virtually serfs, living with a slip of paper entitling thc,n to only 30 days of eviction notice. Others live

110

previous consultation ,vith the Cornmon,vca1th Covemmcnt.

A PARTIALLY completed public housing project which will provide adequate sheller for SO Vieques families. Due to the problem in transporting ma· teriats to Ille island, the project will tum out to be "one of the highest priced in the history of Puerto Rico." according to -a spokesman for the Urban Renewal and Housina Co,p0ration.

The Navy Deparlment, in announcing that it no longer had plans lo expropriate the 1,400 acres, implied that an ..accord" had be.en reached with Commonwealth officials. The Navy agreed to lay off, providing no attcn1pts ,,•e1'C made to foster the

growth of tourism. Vicques Mayor Rivera denies knowledge of any such agreement. Whether or not he was let in on the ''accord/' reliable sources insist that such a clandestine arrange· mcnt ,,•as Jnade.

If lhis is true, the Navy has ac-

complished

its objective,

muffling

tourisn1 1 ,,·ithout actually having to

go lhrough the disagreeable process of expropriation. ,\nd the Navy has since ad,niued that its sole objective in wanting to expropriate the l, l-00 bcachfron, acres was to block future tourisna gl"O\\'Ch. 'l .hus, ,vith tourism Vieques· brightest hope for prosperity - blocked, the Navy is perpetuating the type

,,·ithout pennission on Navy land. In

both cases, the tenants are unable to secure credit because lhcy own no land.

The Navy claims that it needs all 26,(X)() acres currently under its con· trol. Camp Carcia, on the eastern end of the island, holds about 500 permanently-based Marines. Once or t,vice a year, 20,000 l\larines "attack" the island in full scale amphibious maneuvers.

The ,vestern end of the island is

uS<..-d pri1narily as a Navy auununition depot. The Navy has leased 7,000 acres of this section back to lhe caulegro,,•cr's cooperative Cot grazing land, but there can be no farming or household construction.

In the middle, sandwiched on the rcrnaining 7,000 acres of \ lieques, arc

the civilians. Some of the younger Ot'lcS

have never

~en the eastern and

western tips of their 25-mile-long

THESE HOMES, some of them hurricane-prone wooden shacks, but others substantial concrete

structures, have been built clandestmely on U.S. Navy land near the town of Isabel Segunda. Since the Navy has neither stopped an)'OOe hom putting up a home or asked anyone to tear one down. the res1de.nts wonder why the land was expropriated in the first place. Other homes have been built w11h Navy permis.s,on, but the "mortgage" is a piece of paper allowing a 30·day notice in c.ase of

eviction.

LOW-COST, sell-help homes located ,n the village of Esperanza neor the soul.hem coast 109 of these would have been probably torn down had the U.S. Navy's planned expropriation of an additional 1,400 acres gone throueh.

THE FORT, overlooking the city of Isabel Segunda, was built by the Spaniards in lhe mid-19th century.

Apparently 1t was never completed and, according to local legend, Queen lsablela 11, alarmed at the cost, once asked: "Is II being built of gold?" The

fort was made into a jail house after the American occupation in 1898. In a stale of ruin until six. years

ago, ii is pain,takingly being reconstructed by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. Several attempts have been made to convert it into a tourist attrac·

hon: a gambling casino, a restaurant. a hotel with c.aballas. None have come to fruition.

•

•

homeland. O thers, the older ones, remember. And they are the ones who suffer most.

After the recent abortive attempt to expropriate 1,400 acres, the Navy promised to "seek economic assistance for the people of Vieques."

But, based upon past performance, no help will be forthcoming. Unlike Guantanamo in Cuba, and Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla, where many civilians are employed, the gar· rison on Viequcs employs no civilians.

Except for a fe," bar owners, no civilian on Vicqucs receives any economic benefit from the Navy's presence.

On the basis of the Navy's recent change of heart in the planned expropriation of 1,400 additional acres, it is evident that the Navy's judge· ment as to ,,•hat land is, and is not., vital to the national defcnse1 is not infallible.

Also, what may have been vital at the outset of World War ll , may not be so today.

Here in San Juan, for example, the Armed Forces have been holding onto valuable land which no longer has military significance and should be returned to civilian hands.

In July 1961, Garry Hoyt, a local business executive. ,vrotc i.n the San Juno Star: "From the naval point of vie,v the San Juan harbor is practically useless since it cannot take a major ship and in time of war could easily be sealed off at the narrow harbor en· trance. It has no jet landing facilities; it is located near a large civilian population concentration. and aU in all is eminently unsuitable as a military base. The impraclicality or thi, base is further compounded by the fact that in Roosevelt Roads the Navy has an ideal facility, with aa excellent harbor, a jet airfield and ample room for expansion.

"The taxpayer is being asked to support the expensive unnecessary duplication which has 110 basis in nlllit.a.ry necessity. l n addition, the San Juan Naval Base and the various Naval housing projects arc located on some or the most vital island real estate in terms of tourist and housing projects, which would greatly aid the island's development if properly util· i1.cd.

"So tile San Juan Naval base is first or all a financial drain by being an ineffective duplication of the Roosevelt Roads base, and is secondly,

THE PEOPLE OF VIEQUES

THIS OLDTIMER lives in a wood and tin shack in the village of Espmnia. Too old to farm, Marcelino Rodrigue, catches fish occasional!)' and spends the rest of his time mending nets. Fishing is pro,. hibiled aJoog much of Vieques' coastline. He is resigned to the Navy's overbearing presence on the island, but he holds on tenaciously to his half-acre and is very proud of thefew mango trees he cultivates.

"We were born here and we're going to die here, no matter what," he says.

RAMONDO GARCIA is a bit1e1 man. In his early

40's now, he reme,nbers how before the Navy ex-

P.'opriated he had steady work as a cane cutter.

'It was hard work, but it was work," he says. Now

he gets occasional highway construction work from

the Commonwealth government bul depends for the most part upon the money his wife and daughter make by washing clothes for Marines stationed in Vieques. They five in Barrio Des-lino, alongside lhe fence encircling Camp Garcia.

PEDRO ROSAS left Vieques after World War II and established a store in St. Croix. He returned lor a visit rec<fltly to help R&llt the Navy's planned expropriation of 1,400 additional acres. "Many of us in St Croix would like to return permanently, but what Is there to do here? How can one make a tlvlng1 The Navy tried to grab more land in St Croix, but so many bigshots and U.S. coogressmen built hou,.. tl1ere they blocked the expansloo."

YIEQUES STUDENTS on U,elr way to school In Isabel 11. Alter high school g11duation, most of these youngsters will leave the island for Puerto Rico, St. Croix or New York because there are few opportunities for employment One news eonespondent has called V1eques "an isl.and of women, children and old folks" due to the wholesale eml· grations, which have depleted the population from 10,362 inhabitants in 1940 to the presenl figure ol 7,200. juN£, 196.

15

an impediment to local development by tying up vital real estate.

"Fort Brooke is another example of a military base which has IO$t any

路.

pretext to,vards nlilitary significance

in modern warfare. Fort Brooke is a national monument (El Morro) and a golf course, and should not pretend to be anything else. The Anny has no business there and they arc only duplicating the Fort Buchanan operation right across the way, where they have at least some claim to strategic i1nportance.

"The foregoing should not be construed as merely an anti-military tirade. I am for a strong Navy and a strong Anny, and they deserve the best housing and t'(...;reational facilities, as well as good pay and benefits.

But doesn't it make econon,ic sense, military sense, and corn1non sense to locate military bases where they can best handle military duties?" h would be convenient, and immature, to say that the Na,路y is the ''villain" in the sad case of Viequcs.

The Navy is not a social welfare organization. Its sole purpose for existence is to defend the country in time of war and, although it may be accused of ovcr,..calousness, it has thus far done an effective job.

But it must also be remembered that the Navy. and the rest of the Armed ForcesJ are servants to, not oiastcrs of, the civilian populace. Civilian taxes pay the Am1ed Forces' expenses. Civilian personnel bolsicr the ranks of the Anned Forces in

DESPITE Its rather nondescript appearance, the 83r Polilla (Termite e.ar, in Isabel Segunda is a meeting

place for some of the town's most prominent citizens. Even Governor

Mu710t, during his visits to the island.

often sips a beer and chats Nith the

townlolk gatllered there. The man standing, in the dark jacket and

sunglasses, is the city auditor. He is

very coocerned about Hie "strangled economy" of the island. Normally a soft-spoken person, he complained vehemeAtly O\ler a recent incident when "Hie Navy refused to return just a tiny porhon of land near town so that we eould construct a sewage

filtrabon plant."

times of crisis.

VIEQUES MAYOR Antonio Rivera reflects the exhaustion of a struggle of ....,eral decades to win back Navy exprOPriated land for his people. He won a hollow victory in May, when he led a protest resulting in Hie with路 drawal of U\e Navy from its plan to

expropriate an additional 1,400 acres.

But still, 26,000 of Vieques' 33,000 acres are blocked from full civilian use. "It is almost as if there was a master plan to strangle our economy and throw us into the sea," he says

glumly.

16

Ttt& SAN JUAN Revu~w

The purpose of the Armed Forces is to insure the peace, so that the ci路 vilian populace can live freely and happily in their homes. On Vicques, the cause of natural defense has been so perverted that the viequen.tts are being practically forced from the very land which the Anned Forces are pledged to defend for sake of the civilians.

J n the light of such Oagrant Anncd Forces misuse of property in the San Juan area, ( over 14 per cent of Puerto Rico's total land area is held by the Armed Forces,) it is obvious that a careful Congressional investigation should be made 10 justify the urgent need of every inch of Vicques property now in Navy hands. In San Juan, military held land is an economic handicap. But in Vieques it is a matter of life and death as far as the survival of a co1nmunity is concerned.

'

Miiton's '¡Paradiso Lost."

Why didn't you tell me they were poison ivy leaves?

j uNE, 1964

17

THE CONCEPT

by William Kennedy

AM IN a place called Isabel Segunda, which is the capital of Vicques, but not really, an unreal touch tha, suits 111c perfectly today. Vieques is one of <he miniature offshore islands belonging lo Puerto Rico and iL, true capital is San Juan. Isabel Segunda is 1nerely the lO\\'U on Vic· c1ues. ~10!.t of \fieques you cannot see because the United States Navy has it restricted for u\C as a !iring range and training ground and mock landing area for 1nancuven. It is also the place where they brought the luckless Cubans after they were <hot ui> invading Cuba (so long ago) to ge, it back !ro,n Fidel Castro.

13ut that part is all fenced in and 111ysterious. The rest of the island is either alarmingly beautiful and quasi-

I

'°

virgin:'11, or else it ls dreary and Un· poverished and squalid. The squalor )ten1s mainly fro1n the fact that l~a· bcl Scgunda is a Jlfarine town, a ,aifots to\\•n. The bats and dance halls where the Marines and the

,\·horcs go arc profuse and primitive and have an abjectnc.<S about them, a destitution of all valurs. ''ou can sec it in the fine detail, down to the way the woodwork in ,he bars has been carved :ind scarred and repaint-

ed badly. then scarrc"<I and repainted badly agajn. The bars also ha,·e signs like this: IIE Who enters COVERD here BUYS the house around of CHEER and ,his: LET WHAT YOU HEAR AND SEE HERE STAY HERE and Lhis:

T

SOUVENIERS HIS IS a ,own buili on hillsides, ,he tops un\Cttlcd and given to

grazing goaL1;. and co,....-s. 1~he house~

are mostly shacks, paint~d green.

Mos, of ,he people are, or used to be,

rann

,vorkcrs.

On top of one hill overlooking the harbor is a fort, a foral point. fl was built by the Spaniards. who started it in 18+3. E"eryonc knows that. You arc also told that a bugler at the fort blew his bugle ,o drown out the 18

THI!. SAN JUAN R.tvn:.w

scream, of locals being whipped. The fort is in disrepair, being restored by Lhe govcrnn1ent. I nlet a "·on1an there

from Clcvel:tnd who had moved lo Viequcs permanently. She wa, doing a \\."atercolor or lhc countryside, u!iiing part of the fort as her foreground.

She \\'as a pleasant ,,·on,an ,.,,ho gave herself away when she said Cleveland "·as an abon1inablc place. uEverything on Vieques i~ slov•. ,vhich is nice," she said. ~1Lifc takes tin1e." Neat adjusuncnt, ,.,·ot?

The rest of Vicqucs is open country. bordered at one end by some of the most beautiful beaches in the Carib· bean. We ,...-ere at Orle this aftcr1,oon, an exquisite- place, a cove ,vith \\•hitc sand, blue ,vatcr made cairn

by a reef, grt-cn hills behind it and no people except ours.elves. Some .'\1ncric.an investors ,•,ere planning a po!o.h resort in this are-a but it never 1naterializcd and so we "·ere alone instead of being surro11nded by tour· ists. \.\'e ca1nc to Vieques this 111on,ing. ~large and I, in con,pany ,.,·ith a young Jnan ,..,ho "·rite-$ for the rnagazinc I once "'orked for, and a young lady who is traveling with him. He i~ on a. bric£ v;,c.'ltion, an advanc.c rest. When he goes back to New York he will !)lunge into extended \\'Ork on a cover story on the rcnaiss..,ncc or television. J 11 good nc"·s1nagazine tradition he ,,·outd not identify <he cover figure and when I guessed it would either be Humphrey Bogan or Fred Flimstone he only

laughc'<I. The young n1an's name i~ Carey Sloan and I did not know him until three days ago when he walked into the office and introduced himsclr. He said he knew Joe Fields pretty well, the closest friend 1 had in the maga· .,int· day~ and a great ne,\'s.n1a.n. Joe nlentions me every so often, Carey

,aid. We had a good chat and he ('ante out. to the house for dinner, he

brought his ladyfricnd, a young thing he calls .\1:(gie. Out of that dinner a.nd con,·crs.."ltion this ,vcekend ,,·as hatched. he being in search, of

course, of the-Puerto-Rico-thc-tourists.. ne,·er-sec. Vicques ,vas !vlarge's idea. We had never been here our.. ~Ives art.er t,,·elve years in Puerto Riro 1 and so Lhe ,veckcnd look on aspecls of an advcnlurc for us all.

WE

DROVE to Fajardo, on the

mainland of Puerto Rico. this

morning, to get the launch. Air SCrv· ice to ''ieque~ is spotty and ,vc actually preferred the short hop on the ocean. The launch runs from Fajar· do to lsabd Scgunda and is a "chicle ca.l'rier prinlarily, ,vith n,ini1nal accon1odations for the infrequent touri~ts or Viequcs corntnuters. VVc all boarded it just before it spuuered away from the dock.

"How long docs it lake to gel to Vieques?" l asked one or Lhe ,vorkcr,,, who had just put the last block under the wh,-el of the last vehicle on board the small raft-like craft.

"'Ila? Que?" "Cuanto tir111po para rl i:iajr a

I 'if'qU('.f.''1 "No spick I ngli<h."

"Your

Spanish

is

marvelous,"

:.large said.

We put our luggage in the for·

"·ard C"abin, \\•hich had a Ce"· sheltered seats for the pa~·ngel'S in case or hl·avy ,,·eather. ~large inunc<liatt·ly "ent to the railing to ,\·:uC'h tl1e ocean. She is a1t·rl to thr- tourist's duty

to be esthetically moved by the waves and thr- colors of the \\'ater. I \\'atch-

ecl awhile and started to get queasy, a~ usual, "·cnl into the cabin and sat clo"·n. \ ~uing position doesn't di~pel 111y qu~asiness but it'!!i ~ ruental com .. fon.

But the cramped seals were as bad as the nunbling stoauach, so 1 ,vent hack out on de-ck. Carev, Aggie and 11arge stood at the front of the snub. nosed launch, Jelling the scaspray blo"· O\'Cr thcn1. !\farge's hair ,,.ras loose and hun.i: below her shoulders. r rorn the rear you ,\·ould have thought she was the youniter of the gil'l!S. Aggie's hair \,•a.s rolled ;nto a ti.~ht bun. creating a matronly effect, although she was unmistakably girl-

OF BEING TWENTY-TWO

I saw her meet a young one wearing a mask and, fascinated ' ' by him, take him home and lay him down. He was wearing a suit with a zipper from his throat to below his crotch. ' ' j U N Y. 1

1964

19

ish otherwise. She was twenty-two as I came 10 understand later.

ARCE'S IIATR was blowing wild and she would toss her head or flap at the hair with the back of her hand to get it away from her face, a casually youthful gesture. She also wore slacks and I must say that ,he did have a youthful look about her. Until you saw her face. From her face Marge was clearly fortyish.

T sa)' this as no insult. She is fortyish.

Forty-th.rec to be precise. She should perhaps look younger bec.~usc she takes care of herself so well, but makeup poisoning years ago left her ,,-ith serious ~ars. ~fost of thc,n ,vere couched up by plastic surgery but sonic furro,vs and pits remain. Yet

M

she has fine features, a natural beau·

ty of line. The scars have not destroyed this, but have turned her face into something mildly grotesque and thus interesting. She is hypersensitive

about the scars and is eternally con>pcnsating for them.

11

0h Herbie," she said. "There you

arc. Are you going

LO

join us or did

you just come up to pukc?

0

"You do look a bit ashy," Carey said, clapping rnc on the shoulder with his already deep-tanned am,.

"Aggie has lx-cn celling us about the show she was in just before con1ing do,'\•n,

11

Marge said. 0ne or 0

\\•hat a ,, ondcr£ul tin1c ,ve'd have, jointly. Jler plans were complete on 1

through to evening, ,vith no open

space.<: lunch, a walk through the old fort, r("nting a car, touring the is·

land $\,rin1ming dinner and so She ,va.c: in brighter spirits than had been for months. She hit an ceptional low point when our dog 1

1

on. she exran

a,,·a.y. She ,vent into a n1clancholy mood, mooning around the house

for three days. But that was over, the dog came back thin, starved and weak. T 1heori,cd he'd been on an orgy but Marge insisLs he was dognappcd and had struggled valiantly to con1e hon1e, ju~t like Lassie. TI1is i~ silly, because the dog has no more sense of direction than does ~1arge, who gets lost going around the block.

But that's past, ~fargc N'cover'('d a.nd no\\' shr \Vas taking charge. She ar1anged for us to get a room next to Carey and Aggie. i11suring C'O'tiness.

"We'll see you downstairs in fifteen rninutes, okay?" ~large said.

"Uh huh/' Carey ~aid, and ,vent into the roon, ,\·ith A~g-ie.

Inside our room I asked Marge ,vhat she ,\ as trying 10 prove ,vith 1

:ill this togetherness. "How do you know those kids don"t want to be alone for a ,vhife ovt.•r here?" ~large che,,·ed that over.

•'After all, this is a trans-oceanic

those Greenwich Village revues. It sounds exciting." .. It ,,·as a nice sho,v," Carey said. "'Aggie was wild. Her first acting job 10 speak of. She did a satire on a strip tease 10 a reading of Alice In Wonder-

shack job they're on.''

"Well they can', spend the whole

]and."

The launch rolled just then and Marge Jo,t her balance. I noticed Carey ,taring down the front of her blouS<'. Marge has exceptional boobs

just for that, do you?"

I rould ,we her mllin.~ the idea over and over. ..,ve can ask then, ,vhen \\·e sec thc.-111," I said.

and ]oves to have the \\'Orld Jeer al thcn1. It i.s as close as she ever gets

~farge \\·as read)· fi"t and \vent do,"•nstairs to \vait. A fe\v 1ninutes

adultery.

When the launch docked we car-

later I heard her calling my name and I went outside and looked over

10

\\'Cekend in bed." s.he said.

"\'Vhy not?"

HYou don't think thC'y can1c ~11 the ,\1ay do,\•n here from Ne,v York

lu~gage up the pier to

the balcony. She ,,·as standing v•.·ith

a dance hall where we inquired about the nearest hotel. The dance hall was

Carey, who had chan~ed into Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt.

closed until evening. ()pen, such a plarl· is a SJXC:laclc ,\·ith the ~1arines

"\Ve're going to see about renting a car," ~large said. "\'\''e1 1J be back in a little \\'hale."

1 ''\i\'hf'n' S 1\ggie? 11

ried our

O\\'n

and 1he whores. Closed and in daylight it has the quality of a place hauntc-d by a spook that dances eternally in a <hroud s1aincd by beer and spcm,: the spirit of a military good time.

CLEANUP man directed us to a hotel and a cab took us there. !\large was effervescing about

A 20

THg SAH juAN R.r.v1gw

"'She's lying dO\rn," Carey said.

"Doesn't foci too hot. She'll be up before long."

I ,vatchcd then1 \\'alk do,\·n the

street that ,va.s t\'l.'i("e as ,vide as an average strl-Ct, ,vith a tar parked

yards away ( rom the nearest side-

walk and a horse burdened with saddlebasket tied to a hitching post in ftont of a store. J chang<.-d into n1y S\\'in1suit1 put on a pair of pants and another shirt and '"'cnt do\vnstairs to

wait. The hotel had no lobby, only a passage,vay to the stairs. I settled

into a chair ou1side the entrance to a\\'ait the return of our reconnaissance tea1n. Aggie arrived first.

Hfee.ling better?"

"I'm all right no"'· I was just a little upset."

"If it's your ~to1nach T have sorne stuff upstairs to settle it."

Hll's not that kind of upset."

14 Ah." uwhere's your ,vife?"

"She and Carey ,V"cnt to rent a car. 0 ..1.hey \\'ent together?"

HYes."

S HE

FUMED quietly. I offered

her n1y chajr ,vith

a

courtly

flourish but she chose 10 prop herself in the hotel doorway. She wore shorts and sat in a position \\•hich, I noticed, cxhlbitcd the soft undcr-

sweep or her thighs. Marge and Carey came back \\·ith the car after a strained half hour in which 1\gt,~c and I n1ade stanunering effort~ to

find a common topic. Then we all ,1si1ed 1hc fort like a dutiful tour group, sa,v the lady ,vatctcolorisl, drove around the bland and looked a, 1hc- Navy·~ fences and the countless

shacks. Alongside dozens of the shacks were piles of concrete blocks. the sha<kdwcllers solidifying their hearth, int proving their lot. Il \va~ a good lhir1g to see, but confusing, for it n1akes you feel ,hat your O\\'n failures arc uniniportant .

We had lunch in a primitive coffee ~hop-ne,,·sroo1n , ....here the countern1an ,vas a teenager ,vho \Vas

saving up to go 10 New York. He said he heard you could make as much as 1wcnty dollars a day just by ,\·orking in Ne,v "\.'ork and he \\'Ondcrc..-d if it ,vas ltue.

Jf you \\!Ork hard enough in America you can make a hundred dollars a day." Marge said.

0

"non't believe it, kid/' 1 said. "\\'hat's the n1atter?" Carey S."lid.

"Don't you believe in the good old drcruu any n1orc ?"

"Only as a drcani.n "Too bad. ls that what happens

to people when they live down here ( ConltnueJ on f>agL 27)

A fresh ... and very French

EO It simply never disappoints in matters of basic taste

experience

by William Hurst

hands Guadeloupe INwouldOTHER probably be just another West Jndie, stunningly endowed by nat.ure in son1e ,vays, but no more so than dozens of other islands of the Caribbean. What makes the difference is the in1n1ediate and lasting a,vareness that it is owned, operated and indubitably influenced by Prance.

The first glimpse of country road reveals life that is simple but not static, leisurely but not plodding, in1povcrishcd buL inevitably a,vare that the best things are, indeed, free.

Blossoming trees and bushes of carefully contrasting hues proudly enhance every yard. Tiny houses and shacks, some of them falling apart, sin1ply never disappoint in 111atters of basic taste. (That fellow's choice of colors might never occur to an influential fashion designer, but here they arc unmistakably right; this family used an old Mobi l oil can 10 pot a plant, but for some 1nysterious reason it actually has a certain intentional flair on that particular front porch. ) The nat.lvcs, ,,,hen personally encountered, scc111 si1nilar to those of other islands., but again there is I.hat indefinable difference. They arc friendly "'ithout belng solicitous, unconsciously channi ng, handsornely appealing, eager to help but indifferent to the tourists' intrusion. A smile or ,vave fro1n a Jnovlng car '"'indo,\â&#x20AC;˘ ,viii aln1ost certainly produce a sirl'lilar recognition on the part of the roadsider, but the salutation is ahvays returned ,vith the S.."\n'lC intensity, never more nor le.~, except for an oc... casional lonely child who will brighten a little vvith that sort of "sorneonc cares" look.

A Full-Fledged Department A son1e,\ hat larger island than \\'e had expected, and with a population of around 280,000, Guadeloupe is situated half(,ay down the Antilles and was discovered by Columbus in 1493 but taken o,â&#x20AC;˘er by France in 1635. Naturally, French - mostly a creole dialect version- is the Ian1

JUNE,

1964

21

narro,,·J pitching roads, and our driver

~-·---

was so completely mad that there

SAN JUAN

,vas no questioning his genius. So

,,: 1

•

• GUADELOUPE~,.

~ I Women of CU4dtkP/>t

~

closely did he avoid the raging vehicles that passed, it seemed almost certain he had larded the left side of the car. (We were soon to learn, ho,,•ever, that everyone drives like that in Guadeloupe, and it's an nc~ quired intuitional reflex that one grows uSl.'<l' to.)

The Fort Royal, nearing the end of its first Winter Season of operation (l\lodificd A111crican rates in Season: $36 single, $52 double), welcomed us in the t)'picaUy French 111anr"1cr, the ,nanagcr and his i11u1u..-diatc lobby

The lkul La Cara11tllt's rolling, blank,t roof "I

staff quickly IS"Lhering to greet us , and be of service. ll's a s1uall, 111ocl-

luXUt')'-fCSOl't hotel or 75 air conditioned rooins (111orc space in the forua of 25 cabanas plus a very large S\\ in1n1ing pool are close to ~ co1npletlon), three-storied, rather for· ..... U.(llJ

, Qialll:aepoint~a, and wc(l-positioned on a small chff overlookmg the sea "S:~~d fl.1nkcd by two handsome bca';s!es, one surf and one more ladyljl,;c. Our acconunodalions ,,·ere close

,o lavish, perhaps emphasi,.ed by the simply no foeling of civilization for tuilcs atound) and so clean and crisp we had the feeling we might be first-nighters. (What really looks quite 'SO nc,,r as a sparkling, ultra-111oclern chrome-fiucd, canary yellow bidet?)

The Piece de Resistance llut we had yet to reali%c ,he piece of resistance: the food, which was 1

io a ,vord, superlative. Every 1neal produced such a variety of excellent

..

dishes that the simple process of sus"\Cnancc-intakc sccn1ccl to become the

most inspired and sought-after physical aspi..ralion. Course after course, ,,·ine after ,vine, each crun1b and drop

guage, the franc the currency unit, - although U.S. dollars are widely acceptable- and Roman Catholicism the ahuost exclusive choice of religion. c;,adcloujx:r and her satellites (Des· iradc, Marie-Cialant and the Saintes island group) together with the islands of Saint-Barthelemy and Saint Martin have comprised f11ll,Jledged department of France since 1946, ad· ministered by a Prefect and with a departmental assembly, the General Council. It is represented in the Parliament of the French Republic by two senators elected by limited suf· frage and two depu tics elected by universal suffrage. (Martinique, the other l'rench possession in the Carib-

a

bean, is also a department of France. ) Guadeloupe is composed of two closely connected main islands that are widely djvcrsc. Grande-Terre, the home of the airport and largest city, Pointe-a-Pitre, is sJjghtl)' rolling, agricultural (mostly sugar cane) and famous [or its bone-white beaches encircling gentle, crystal clear bays.

Son1e,vhat larger, Basse-Terre is n1ainly rugged in tc)Tain, capped ~t steep volcanic mountains lhat. rise to near· Jy 5000 feet and spotted with yellow\ sand beaches and good surf.

Our hotel, the Fort Royal, located near Deshaies on the far side of BasscTcrre, required a fifty minute drive from the airport over hazardously

calculated to tllakc a glutton out of an Indian fakir - with superb service to match. (This report':¥' was so ovcrwhehncd by the magyif,cence of the fare that he, regrctfably, never

achieved the presence of mind to take notes on the vintage ,vines or uliber· ate,, a rncnu.. o.-.. C,.vo_ for epicurean readers. Fro1n merrtory, ho,vever, ,vc

recall such splendid contrib,1tions as Goquilles St. Jacques, Escalo~ de Veau, Tournedos Bearnaise, Filet de

l~uf Wcllingtoo,-\:lignoncttcs de Sole, Cocurs de Leuuce and, of course, Baba au Rhum - not to Jncntion the 1nost enticing appetizers)

soups and vegetables this side of Paris herself. Even breakfast, a meal we

•

'

generally regard with no particular anticipation of savour, offered such dclcctab1l'S as on1clcttes -

the hrun

and Lornato is par excellence - superb French chocolate and the proud crois.sant.

I\ good portion of our three days on the island was spent nosing a.-ound Pointe-a-Pitre, an unexpectedly con·

gested and busy little cit)' of 50,000, ,vhcrc C\"Cryone see.ms to be carrying or wearing baskets of food and the marketplace bulges with produce.

(Surely no one is missing rneals in Guadeloupe, aad the \\1onder is ho,,., the island n1anages to sustain itself

so well.)

A Fresh Experience Nearly every item or any description one encounters has found its origin in France; thus shopping offers the rresh experience o[ sorting through an exclusive range of products front a country that very often solves the minor problems o[ day-w-day existence in entirely different ways than our o,,·n. Such varied itcn1s a.\ can

Tit, morktl p/or, al Poinl,-a-Pitr,

openers, co..1.t hangers, hinges~ ice buckets. outdoor furniture, scissors and cooking'-,1are can offer nc,,• and interesting approaches., not to mention

packaged and canned foodstuffs, but figuring in francs - the prevailing monetary exchange - takes some getting used lO. (To give some idea of prices, "·c ourselves returned ,vith

Rrie cheese thal was just the righl tle<,'l'CC or ripencs.s the day after arriva], 8 oz.. for 50 ccnu; a 1nulti·

colored plastic ribboned curtain that hangs in Guadeloupian doorways like the beaded ones, $3.20; escargot holders,

$I

a piece; the favorite native

hollow-hoop<.'Cl gold earrings for pierced cars, $14; perfume at what is described as "bc.lO\'i Paris prices"; and

ct·ete roof slab that sctvcs as a kind

from the rcstric,ed-to-departees free port shop at the airport ( Guadeloupe

o[ rolling blanket over the ample pub-

Gelling to Guadeloupe has been made a good deal easier with the rc-

lic areas, a vil'tual ,vork of art ,\·hich

ccnL addilion of non·Stop jet service

is not a free port as ,,.·c kno,v thcrn)

produces the ideal but rare tropical combination of shelter plus openness.

The beach here is quite special, 100: acres of pure white sand and calm, coral-protected sea fringed by elegant shade trees. And, as if that weren't quite enough, there is also a goodsizcd pool. The rooms are quite handsome (leave it to the French to put twin beds on silent horizontal rollers) and all arc air conditioned and face out to sea. ~.f.odificd An1erican rates, in Season, arc $35 single and $42 <loub1e, and if our luncheon ,vas a fair sample, the food is excellent.

cutting the 310-mile trip to a mere 55 minutes. Both airlines offer round trip jct flights at $95 ($126 first class) and propellor flights at $86.

The jet flights leave San Juan on Wednesdays. Air France's prop flights arc on Monday, Friday and Saturday , ..•hile Pan 1\m's arc on ~·l onday and Fridays. Pan Am will also add, beginning June· 7, a Sunday jet flight.

Through December, Air France is offering a special 17-day excursion rate, cutting round trip fares to $72 via jet and $63 on propellor planes.a

our boo-,e, which consisled or Palignac Cognac, $2.50; Ricard, $2; and some fine local rum, Delisle, at $1.25.)

Incidentally. for some reason traveler's ch~-cks will get you a 209< discount in some shops.

The island's other important hotel, the I 00-room La Cara,•elle, is located near the charming little fishing comnu1nity of St. Anne, about a fifteen n1inute dri\'e a1ong the scenic Grandc-

Terl'e from P.-a-P. It is a spectacular, three-tiered edifice supporting an enonnous, hyperbolic, prccast con-

br

Air France atld Pan American,

J Ul<E,

19&1

23

A MEAL TO JREMEMBEJR of a famed gastronomical society get together, it means fours hours of almost sinfully pleasurable dining

When members

l .·

O ne evening about a month ago,a group of prosperous-looking men and women sat down at linen-covered tables in the dining room of the Dorado Beach Hotel, picked up their glittering silverware and, for the next four hours, enjoyed what must be considered one of the most sumptuous meals ever served in Puerto Rico; a tour de force of ten separate courses, rinsed down by 14 exquisite wines and cordials.

When ii was over, head chef Alfred Fahndrich, looking slightly dazed but happy, accepted hearty busses on both cheeks from the toastmaster and a lusty shout of salud ! from the entire assemblage, who raised glasses aloft in his honor.

Commented one pleasingly plump diner: "II was so good, it was almost sinful."

The meal had been held to mark the inauguration of the Caribbean chapter of the centuries-old (since 1248) gastronomical society, the Confrerie de la Chaine des Rotisseurs, an organization with over 40,000 members from the Congo to Canada.

Members of the Chaine take their eating seriously. Three rules are compulsory at all their official dinners: {I) no smoking at any time until after coffee has been served - one member lit up too soon and was reprimanded at the Dorado feast; (2) waler will be served upon request ; (3) no speechmaking.

The most satisfying aspect of the meal, aside from the impeccable service of the large staff and the uniform excellence of each morsel, was the fact that so much was consumed yet no one felt overly stuffed.

The secret, it seems, was in the "intermissions." After four rather heavy courses including land crab, smoked ham, oysters, jellied tomato madrilene, shrimp and broiled stuffed pigeon, palates were refreshed by a serving of guava sherbet bathed in Rose champagne. This paved the way for the main course of heart of roast beef.

The strong savour of the beef, was then neutralized by a tart salad of Royal Palm slices with olive oil and lemon juice, a prelude to the dessert of cheeses, parfait, coffee and bonbons.

Looking back, the memory of the meal imparts a blurred collage of enticing sights, colors and aromas. Yet, insists chef Fahndrich, if taken individually, each course is

L' Escriteau Picon Punch

Les Crabes Farcis Dorado Beach

Maxim's Brut 1953, Cuv~e Speciale

Le Jambon de Serrano

Pouilly-Fuisse au Cassis de Dijon

Les Delices des Caraibes

Sherry Tio Pepe

l'Essence de Tomate Romanoff r

,..

tf

,,

,f•t

11

Erdener Treppchen Feine Spallese 1959

Les Crevettes en Casserole Obregon

Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou 1959

Les Pigeons Grilles Casanova

,.

.,

~

1'

le Sorbet de Goyave au Champagne Rose rt

Chaleau Margaux 1955

I

r

Le Coeur de la Cote de Boeuf a la Broche Asperges Fraiches ,I

II

Sauce Maltaise La Salade Tropicale a l'Huite d'Olive Citronnee 111 s ,t fhdf t ,,

.~ 1\

n I

f11lr,,

,1n1I ,, ,

La Tache 1955 Domaine de Romanee Conti

Les Fromages de Franoe et de Suisse

Chateau d'Yquem 1953

Le Biscuit Glace Marie Louise a /1 ,,J,ul ;J Jro:, ream. •41 ,:,

B,

l,1m,•111Jrr/ I

u1

,,

, m f,r,.'.'I

,rroat from Su ,t:n/,i, J)

1,,,urt.u ·,pJ,td :1,tlt frtrl,

,t, ,,,~,,

(

nI

>J

le Cafe Porto-Rica in Fine Champagne Napoleon Carlos Primero Grand Marnier Cherry Heering Goldwasser

la Bonbonniere de Friandises u1urf<d cfJu(1t1 111,! '

lillt 'i1Jnbun1 )

jUNt:, )964

25

relatively simple to prepare. The key, he

says, is plenty of patience in the preparation

and the proper timing so that each course is served together with the appropriate beverage for maximum enjoyment.

Accompanying this article is a list of foods and beverages offered at the memorable meal, with explanations for some of the French terminology. There are also recipes for a few of the courses. The other recipes will be gladly supplied by chef Fahndrich. For anyone with the ambition and energy to reproduce this gargantuan feast, we recommend it as a fine way to enjoy a small, informal Sunday dinner.

Bon apetlt!

MARY KELLY'S

NIGHT CLUB ·

P,.E.S TAU~ANT FOl\,T HE F INEST INJAZ.'-0 ENTE~TAINM.ENT

HOLLANOAISE SAUCE On, and on, half lbt. bulttr Tht yolk, of six ,ggs Ont pine/, of mignontll< p,pptr

Ont quarltr oz. soil

100 San Sebastih • Old San Juan

Thrtt labl,spoons uiritgor

724-9749 • 4 pm 10 4 am

Put lht salt, the pepptr, v1°ntgor and ,qua/ amount of UlOl<r in a small sou,tpan, and ,,duct I>> thftt qua,ttrs on tht f,'re. Moue lht sauc,pon lo

a

corntr of th, fire or into

a

douhlt

hoil,r t1nd add a spoonful of cold u,14trr arid

The Captain's Table Ft>Od from around the u..orld will, a A'ew England «€-tnl,

CONDADO LAGOON HOTEL

TM Skipper's Lou# e

tht yolks. 8.tat tt,·ith a u.:hisJ:: untU thr yolks thfrktn and hat1t llrt conristtncy of trtam.

Cradua/1) pour the butur on lht Jolks whilt hris!Jy stirring the sautt.

11 'htn the bulltr is absorbtd the sarae OU.ttht to be thick and firm. Tht sauu is eomplttcd by a drop of lt1non juict and it is rubbtd tlt,ough o fine sitiir.

l .I' MALTESE SAUCE

~

Olne and Da nce Tel. 722-5598

.

night/:, p,utnting

Add to Hollandaise Sautt when st1Vi1tg up /ht jui<t of two blood orongtJ and half a teaspoonful of grated orange n',,d.

GLADYS JOHNSON TRIO CHARLIE RODRIGUEZ QUARTET cs..,. nigh11 only) Relax to good li$lenlng Jazz

LA " GALLEGA" RESTAURANT

Spanish Cuisine Our Specialty 203 San Sebasti5n • San Juan• 724-2670

Fisher Inc. OALSl'tl& D ' H ,AITt

M1ken ol fin• west l.ndla11 Metio,iny rood• Oritinal H1itian art & cr, IU

204 CRISTO ST. OLD SAN JUAN 722-2~ 26

T1t&

$ A.N

J VAN

Revu~w

SH RIMPS OBREGON 2 lbs. prrltd and derdntd shrimps, raw.

3 garlic tlows 1 Frt.rh ltrnon pttl Solt to seaso11, bullt'T ~ small juitt glass Pnw,d 1 Quart htt:tvy cream 1 Tsp. fmh l,mon juiu P/q,u 1ujfititnl bulttr h1 sldlltl and sault tlu shrimps lo o light brown. Add th, Ptmod grodu4/l7. St'mmtr until tooktd down, add whole gar/it clouts, lemon pet!, salt lo tast, and heavy ,,,am. Boil :entl)• II> htavy con.si.1ttnq unlil doM, Add last the frtsh lemon ju,'t.e. &rue hot in casstrolt. St.r«s 6.

PIGEONS GRILLE CASANOVA Split lht young pigeons l,nglhl()ist in two.

Op,n thtm. F/allm thtm slighlly. S,a,on. Dip in mt/ltd hulltT and Eng/iii, ntUJlard. Roll them in 1uh1°tt brtod uurnhs, chopped garli,. /><mley and ham and grill lhtm gtn1ly for 5 miaultr. Suet u.n·lh o dtt11"fled Jauu and Anno Potato.

THE CONCEPT OF BEING •..

(Continued from page 20) in the islands? They Jose faith?"

"On the contrary. Faith gets bloated. Distance lends enhancement and I've reached the conclusion this is dangerous."

"You're a cautious n,an, 1-Ierbie."

11

"Ncver.

We drove to the beach alter a lunch of garl.icburgcrs on toasted plasterboard. Carey drove and l\farge talked incessantly, letting her apparams babble. She hadn't been so talkative in years. She had changed clo\h~ in the hotel bathroom and so I di,dn't know she had on a bikini until she disrobed at the beach. I didn't even know she owned a bikini.

AREY whistled at her as she slipped out of her skirt and blou,;,;. lier boobs, legs and rump were always visual joys, but there w;,s iomething vaguely obscene about

C

the display, not in the ncar-nakednes.~

i~

but ~e contrast l]er scarred face a,i\d girlish, shoulder-length loose hair crealed. Aggie si.-tlcd again when Carey" \Vhistled, a fact that did not escape him. Ile took her arm and pulled her for a trot up the beach. .. Do you like my suit?" Marge asked. "You didn't say anything." ''You got whistled at. How could r top that?"

"I didn't ask you to top it. I just asked if you liked the suit." ''It's a nice bikini and it fits you \\'ell. I don't like it." ''Why not.

0

'·Because you're not some Italian

1novie actress.'' ''Can't anyone else \\'ear bikinis?"

•tycs, ,,•hich is unfortunate."

" T got i1 for you, esp<.-cially for 1his trip. I ,tvanted to surprise you." ''You did that."

I, "l !eel like I ought to nut my 1 c:i9thcs back on." "')'-9 need to do that. What's donc's' done.'' ''You make h sound !d.n,dalous, for heaven's s.."\ke.'' ult's not scandalous. I just don't like it. Do you have anotht;r suit ,vith you? 0

"Yes." J. '""\\'ith 1nq~ 1naterial to it?"

Yes." u \Vear that one ne.'-:t time." ('Your Puritan strain is sho\tving, buster."

0

1 ~

\\!hat do you exp<.-et utldcr the

circun1stances?1 '

.. What circu1nst.:,nccs?''

"Don•t be so goddam dumb.''

"Oh the hell "·ith you. 0 She walked down tl1e beach a Cc.,· yards and strctchc-d out on the sand to suobathc. J--lcr buttocks stood ou t like the carved faces on Mount Rush· 1nore, sy1nbols o[ past greatness.

When Carey and Aggie came back T ,vas sitting under a canopy of thatched palm fronds, built for tl1e tcD1porary convenience of the invest· on. '"ho hopl.--d LO tum this into another Round Hill. The wanderers came over and s.at ,vith inc and \\IC agreed it "'as a bcauLiful day, that the beach was ,:reat s1uff, Vicqucs \\'as prin1itive. and Puerto Rico had a lot going for it. But I wanted to find out more about Joe Fields. Carey seemed less than candid in our previous conversations, although he had told me what Joe was doing these days. hHavc l detected that you're avoid· iag the subject of Joe Fields'" I asked hin1. "\i~lhy do you say that?"

.. You let the conversation die when he comes up. Don"1 you get along ,\·llh him?" " I t's not a case of that. I only see hll11 ,\'hen I s,"ilch to hi4; scctio,, a.s a (ill-in."

"Then "hat is it a case or? 11 ''What I know about JO<', outside of him being a nice enough guy, is 1nostly rtcg.ttivc. You being an old friend of his I don't think it's my place to knock."

"Unless Joe has changed radically, you can't kno\\· n,uch if you can only knock."

"It's not exactly knockin,:. lie works like he's plugged into an ckcuic sockeL /\s long as the juice keeps flowing he keeps working. I rev~r saw a man work so hard. Out lately much of it never st'CS the ligh1 of day. What's happened is he's beCl>IIILa..11'.0Wll.aD. instead of a news 111an. Oh he still works the researchers like gaJJey slaves, but what he comes up ,viLh n1orc and ,note these days is pretty prose, and it often gets re· ~vrittcn or thro,vu Qut1 It's an office gag. Joe missed again." " I doubt he misses at this stage of his career."

"Doubt it, but it happens. He's ,novcd into decline, OJ' n1aybc into cloudland, and goes on as if nothing happened. Ile should have enough

pride to get. out, go someplace , ..,here he fi1s. He's a good guy, but under 1hc circuinstanccs hc,s a clo,vn. Sad be<;ausc he docs 1hing,; asswards. Also laughable."

"Why do you suppose he stays on?" "~1one>·· Who else pays so ,veil?"

"You've got him all figured ou1."

"Righi. I tl1ink he'll hold on as long as he can, ,vriting his o,vn pri· vate prose, and then when tl1at book he's writing gets published, somebody will come up with the files of Joe Fields and put them in hard covers like they did with Agee's movie revie"·s. Nc,vs poet or our tilnc."

"Balls. If he had illusions like that he'd be dead."

"I think he is dead. A horrible example or a cog disconncc1cd f rorn 1hc machinery. /\II dignity gone. They "'on't do that to n1e."

AREY WAS very sure of him·

self and sold on his own promise.

C That familiar old promise. He s1ood

up then and I had the beginnings of a perception: that my past had suddenly change-cl.

"Let's go for a s\vim," Carey said.

·•tt's about tin1c son1cbody ,vent in the \\':'l.tcr.''

11 You go. I'll ,vatch.'' "llung-o.'" he said and ran at top speed across the sand and into the placid, ankle-deep but deepening water, tl1en dove wilh a flat splatter and swam toward and old sailboat anchored half-way between the reef and the beach. Aggie and I watched hi1u go. Ile s,\·run as 1 expected him to S\,·io1: as if one of his parents had been a sahnon.

"Isn't he beautiful?'' Aggie asked me. Tier walk up the beach with Cal'e)' had obviously quieted her si:t· ,le. "What a marvelous philosophy of life he's got. Live for the moment. ,\nd he really docs, too. He really unclers,ands "·hat life is all about." ·'He's quite lucky, not. to say unique."

" He's brillian1. llow many people do you kno"· ,,•ho've gone as far as

he ha$ at the age of t\\lCOL)'·four?" ,:Several." \'\'ell a.11y,..'ay, he 111akes 1ne feel like no ,natter ,vhat happens next it doesn't ,natter because I've lived rny life as fully !ls ii can be lived right up to the very second that I'm thinking about it."

"Wonderful ,vay to be."

I studied her. She had an unex11

J""'·

1964

21

rl'1>tion~I (a('<' hut could scn!,v it into nn intc'llSl' 111~\Sk. si~nifying, 1 suppose-. intcn~it). \\'lu·u she ,,·ai,n't bc:i11g inH·us.· her face '''l'Ul blank.

'-'~<·s yapid, a Yaruou.., scx1l0t. Sh(• could al.so cxpn:...s a si;,.,lc b~ lipbilin~.

I ll·r !-1nilc "a..; ,nirthl(•ss. l gul'S$<..'d ~he.· \\:IS a lcrriblc aCll't'!-iS, but ( i,nagint.·d her doing 1ht• strip tca-.c ~atirc. Siu: ,, a~ )<l'Cal. ··t.ook at hi111 ~o." !-.he said, poinlinL: at Carey, ,, ho "'~lS 111..·•11 in1.; lhc sailboal. "llc doc•s t'\'t.•1;•thing ,,·ell.'" ".\ ~~l S\, i1nn1er, :ill right.'' 1 ).aid. I "as sick of <..'Choinc; (;arC'y's

g-('nius. " J lc'll be \'Cf)' fa111ous or die tragic:1lly," she S..-'licl, g:a1ing c:an..'}'\\':rtrd.

"PerhaJ)S both. I le has such a marvel· ou'i 111ind. Last night \\'C ,,·ere talking about the concept of bcin~ l\\'C•nty· l,,·o. l ll· has c,o n1any g:ood thou~ht~ 011 ll.1'

··1~ thal so?'' "l IC" says it's so flcl·tiog. ·rhat '"t:'l"C.: l\,cnty~t\\O for surh a short ti1nc, and then . .. '' ..~I hc·n ,,e'rc l\\Cllt)'-thl'C"r":1"

"J\~o. Thtn ,,·e'rc ol<l. 'fhrn ,,,c'r"· ~,dult.s, but really, \\ith all the burden~ or thv ,,orld to carry for the l"{"Sl of our li,t.·s. J It· hates the ,vol'ld for 111aki11~ hiru gro,v ol<.1."

"It's a rotten tl'ick. all right. I le',:; !{Ot a point th('rc."

I IE XIOVED out from under thr canopy~ fC'II back,"ard on the ~.a nd :.,nd l('t her ;1n11 fall across her t•ye,s to !-hick! thcnl fro1n the bright :,;unlight. She "·as 1nuffiubr("astcd a,,cl ,,,ith a na1·ro"· \\'aist, to \\ hich the 1nuffins arid c\'erythinK else contra~te<l neatly. "()h it's so "·ondC'rful here/' she !'laid, "just to he,:, ahle to bathe in the sun, s1n:1ched out on the sand likt.· this.''

I n10,·<..·<l dcclX'I" into the shady area undt'r thl' ranopy. But I "as not 1uo,ing- a,,·a) fro1n t.h<· sun. I had an :tltnost uncontrollable urge to ('o,cr her nu)uth ,vith ki&'lcS, t('II her ho"' litth· ~he knc,v about anythin_~ aucl 1hc-n drag her !)('hind the sc..'l. grape bushc:-, for so111c cducatio,1.

I s1n·1chcd out ruysf'lf then. lookini.:, up at the r,;~·<'1'os.scd pah11s until I heard 1 he splashing. lido re I look<·cl up I guc:SM."d ,vhat it \\'a.;.: :,i.1argc, s\\·inunin~ and floatin~. apparl·utly ai1nlt•ssly. trying- to be as in· dirl'C'I as possihll' about J,tCttint;" lo d1t• ~ailboa1 "ht•1-c Car<.')' \\':lS prone on

S

1

th<· dct·k, colo1;0~ his (;rc<'ian urn. \\'t• ab:1odo11t•d Liu: lx·ach out of hon..·don, ::i~ tht.· sun lx:1!,,lf1 10 fall and 1l·lu1nl'd to our 'l.·paratc roo111s [U tlac huu·l. l ,1 a gesture: 111on.· t111....·at(•11in~ than purposeful I slOl)JX'd at a ~Lore on till· "ay bark and hou~ht a UOttlt· of Scotch. ~large said nod1iu~.

I put it on the drc~cr ;111d left it tan· opened ...fh1..·11 I ,,atched ~lartrc as ~he clrt·~<'d for dinner. proppinl{ 111ys.t·lf up on the bed "'i th pillo\\ s. She ~too<l bc:fOI'(' th{' bathroo1n 111irror apJllying the spcciul inakcup that parthlll)' hic..les lil·r lines. I could think only uf a co111parablc ,,·on1an pursuing our older son, '"ho is aboul '"'Oycar'S }Ollll~t·r than Ca1c:y. Roth our boys 411"(.' in C'OIJt·~t· llO\\' . -J'he older, lhl' 111ou· srholarl) or the t\\·o. is fascina1l'cl ()CJ'\'(._"J'st'ly i11 this :.l~C of SJ)3('(', by 41rtlicology .• Nothing gi,cs hin1 n1orc of a kirk than such nc,,•s 3s the to1nb nf ~1oses being '"ithin l'each of disco,·l·11·, ··( think J"JI tr)' t.tlkm~ joe)' Olli of l-x:cotning an a 1cheologist," l :;.:"lid. "\,Vhy?"

··1 think I'll try 10 make an ol)'m· pie s,"inuncr oul of hitn. 'fhat's "hat <'Ollt·~t· boys really do lx:st." ··()h I sec." ~large said. She "·as drt:)M•d no,\'. "'I think you•re envious of Carey·, physique. Looking like )'OU look I don't bla1nc you.'' "(:arcy. No,,· lhat's an intercst.ing natlll', Consider it. Carey. l)i1ninutivc of care. if rou "·:tnt to strclch a point.

Tortoise slwll in Spanish, bul that's not , C'I')' apt for our C:i.rc·y, ,vould you say? 'fhcn thtl't's Care)' n1c back to old \'irginny. And one of 111y all ll'illinm J;,n,rrdJ, o /Q11rto rtsidn1I of lh, 1,la11d, u 110:v ,,1 uorJ. on a nOl'l'' ,,, up11<,tr .VtttJ ro,J.. «:/1trt lu hrvs of a f,,,./artrl' u:t1lt'1. Durin( his )'tnrf 1n J"ualo Ri.:o ht u ·orkl'd {UI Jiu notv drfu,1(1 ll'orld-Journ11/, w,as T1111t· lt"ft corrtrfH,ndrnl a11d lolrr ll1t first ,,,nnni:i,ig rditor 1Jj lht Sl'ln ,j°uQn ,\'la,. fir fl'si,:nrd os mana..t:in.t: ,,/itor u, /961 lh dtt'<llt full tin,r tu u.·rrling fi<tron.

I Ir is n1n,rird '" tltr former Dann Soso, Purrto Rita,1 dnnrtr n11d m1Jdrl «.tho J11u <1J,p,or1d on /Jrondu·o.v ;,, Stl'trol pro<lutlton.i. Tltt)' !torr h<VJ small daug/1/trs.

litllt' fa\'oritci,: 1..hcy had to carry C~tfC}' to lhc fc1 I')', thC) had to Carr)' Caiq to the door. They had to c:irry Carey to the fc,r), because Cal'<'}' couldn't carry any ntorc."

I san~ th,u last P"rt.

•·] don't thi1lk that's fun11y," f\(a~c said. " f don't .~i,e a i:;-ood old rat's ass "hat you think. What <lo you think of that?"

Sht· didn't ans\,·cr 111c.

"1\nd J'u1 going to forcgo lhe plc-asu1'<' of dining out ,,ith the younger 54:1. You kid~ go ahead ,,•ithout me." '' I f }"Ou don't go, 1'01 not going." " ~ oblc· and loyal of you, ,vifc.H "'\'ou rcall)' h~-.ve bct.·n a JX'l'fC'Cl b,.1.~l<l 1-<l a1J day Ion~." "'ro n1atch your perfect char,n, lo,·c:. Your s,,·t-ct, youthful chann.

I .i kr you had ,,,hen you '"ere a youn~ cl,ick back i11 Hoslo1)." ·•1 don'l kno,, ho,, ,,·carinl{ a bikini roul<l upset you so 1nuch." .

••\'cs. you look,,c( Vl'ry youthful in that bikini. Like a roung girl, inSll·ad of~· 1niddlc-:1gcd \\10n)an. Like a teenag,"r, inslead of a ,,•0111an ,·crging 011 the menopause. Like a college girl instead of the 111othcr of t,,·o gro,,·n boys." "()h that's S\\'CCt." ·'S\,'CCt? 'i'cs. S,,.C'Cl}'-S:\\'CCt, like a 5tarlet on the 1nakc for the director. instead of a •.. 11 " I 'm going out." She grabbed her pocketbook :ind opened the door.

"I ns1cad of a faded old broad ... " But she sla1nn1cd the door thC'n rather than listt:11 to any n1ore of my a11..1 logies.

IIEARD I !ER knock on Carey an<l Aggie's doo,· and set up a 111cctin~ do"' llStai rs in five n1inutcs.

It "ac: silent in the hotel then. l broke open 1hc Scotch an<l took a drink. Then I sat on lhc bed. I heard Carey and Aggie 1..,lking bm could discern no "ords. Then T heard Carey scrcant: "I'll do as I godda,n please... Then it was only muffled sounds, :111d tlicn silence until thcdoor opened and Carey "·alked do,,·n the hall alone.

J listened for tht· next sound hut thtrf" \\'ere only the rc111otc street noises ...rh<' silc-ncc, the dti ,,k and th(· idea d 1inking prcSM..-<1 1HC into a "-aki11g drca1n i,tatc. I S.-'l\\' an aging ,,·01nan '"ho hrou~ht young 1nen ho111e to l><'d ond asked only that ,hey flatter her. l ~1" her n1eel a young

.

I

or

one wearing a mask and, fascinated by him, cake him home and lay him do,vn. Ile v.·as 1,vcaring a suit with a zipper ( ron1 his Lhroat to belov, his

crotch. She unmasked and unzipJ><,-<l him ,vith one quick rnotion and before her eyes he turned to paper. His jawbone fell out from telling her lies

:::

and his ears turned to dust from listening to her entreaties. And this ,v:is the best young man she ever had.

I sat up and took another drink and put on my shirt and pants and sandals. I walked out of the room to the balcony and looked at the sunset. l'rom the balcony you could see the street where the horse had been tied.

You could see the Vieques harbor, the pier where we had walked carrying our luggage tJUs 1norning. Two

c:ibi ,, cruise I'S and a handson,c blackhullcd saiJboat ,vcre at anchor in the harbor. I , .. anted another drink, but no,v I ,,·as afraid.

"Hello," Ag_,:ic said then. I looked up at her s,vccl sniilc. ''\Ve seenl to be alone.,, "1-hat ,vc do."

"I heard some of the fight you had. The walls are lhin." "! heard some of your fight Loo. \Ve're even.,,

"Isn't it cra.1.y? Gro,vn.. up people fighting all the time? I don't know ,\·hat's con1c over Carey.,. "~fy \\•i(e's co1Hc over hinl, and he's ovcrcon1c her. 1 'hcy are smit·

ten ,vith each other, though neither \\'Ould adrnit lt."

"What's going to happen?" Her eyes had not yet recovered £rotn cry~

ini;.

"Nothing. It's a spam1. \>\'hen it passes I sugge>t you mock Carey.

I l's the only immediate antidote and so111l·Lin1cs it ,vorks/'

euphoric depression swamped me.

Great wallowing in stimulating agony.

J '"'as not n1uch 0£ a success as a child seducer: rather the opposite. .\nd the awareness of this nudged n1e into the oh so familiar considera·

,ion of my age. In my forty-six years I really haven't had much excitement.

I have never been on a sailboat, a small thing to be sure, but I have never done so many small things, and things not so s1nall. J have never travelled enough, despite my work, never been to the Orient, never gone dcc-p sea fishing_, or hunting. even

for small game, never had enough sex, never gone on a long-distance

shack up, never had a fistfight in my adult life, or encountered sufficicnl rea'iOn for having a fistfight. I have not acted on ,vhim, or in1pulse, in years.

Then the music began as I sat there alone in the deepening d.ay1 in 1tu: du.c:k '"hich ~111ot.hcn-d Hght and heat, encouraging cool and lonrly

breezes. I stared off at lhe blackening sky and at the red and gray rooftops ancl at the silhouettes of other islands and at the sh..ado,\·cd coastline 0£ Puerto Rico. The nlu~ic filled the cvcnin.~. sh.-cl band music, sonorous.

muffled calypso hammering. I wondered about its source as it \\'COL on and on ,\·ith those .~reat rhythn1s and sounds so rcrnotc from the tnusic of n1y life. On and on and on. It \\'3!;,

I decided, somebody's radio, turned rull volun1c. God has his ironies, doesn't he? No sad songs, please.

Give Herbie Winston a calypso.

After an, the time of rcnc,vaJ is not a sad occasion, even though decay is irnplicit in it. And certainly ~f:irgc and I arc decaying. We all live in a ,\·odd of rc,vards: ,vork and you

I watched her blinking. She did

\Vin. 1 have ah\•ays kno,vn that. But

not respond except ,\·ith hrr sad little stare. I studied her n1ufrins ob·

there is the x-factor which I had in mind today with !hat boy dreamer in the lunchroorll. The clrean, t,-_'\kes odd twists and the shape of the prize changes. \Ve.· h:t.\'C ,vorkcd, ~fargc

liqu<'ly, my fancy beginning to gallop, kno\\;ng it had no horse. "\\Jill )'OU have a drink ,vith n1c?"

"No thank you. r think I'll go for a \\'alk. I "ve got to figure out ho"' I reel. l',n ,·cl)' conru~-d."

"1 J..no\,. thl· feeling." llEN SIIE kft T brought the

and 1, ,\•orked ::it living \vith one another and we are entitled to our re,\·ard: our due is a renc,val. But

drinkint" equipment onto the bakony and s..\t do,'"·n in a rusting 111ctal porch chair, one of those that bnuncc "·hen )·Ou sit in thcn1. The drinking\\·:&!; 111y first in four dry years

slO\\' process, almost evolutionary, as a can.-cr ic. c\·olutionary, or a failure.

and as I studied the boulc the great

after twenty-three years. Sad, gro-

W

what b the form? That is where the interest lie$. J believe thi, to be a

Perhaps Marge and I should pray for n1utual cornpassion [or ,vhat \\'C have become in one another•s eyes

1esque. But most assuredly, life as we have kno,vn it is a11 but over; it has long been dying, waiting to be buried.

Today we began shoveling the dirt.

OW EVERYTHING is in chaos. Carey's portrait of Joe Fields, sitting in his New York to\ver, pounding away for all his soul is worth, soiling paper with the black blood of his life, has called into question the value of my own professional intensity. There seems to be a key to Joe Fields' story, and mine, and I connect it vaguely with delusion in the past. But I am deluded no longer. I feel myself at the very edge of an important piece of Win.ion wisdom and I lust for the unknowns that lay ahead. .Marge came back. Sbe was gone half an hour. Carey returned with her and went 10 his room. Marge came out onto lhe balcony and saw tl,c half-empty Scotch bottle.

"There you are. I brought you

N

so1nething to eaL O

"Did you?"

00 you ,vant it here or in the 0

rootn ?"

"I never pul rood on an empty sto,nach. You know that."

"You really ought to cat some1hing."

..Later. Did you have a nice din-

ner?,.

"It was all right. We ran out of things to talk about."

"No." "Yes. And I think you oughl to cat no,v.t ,vhile the food is hot. 1

hrought you two ham and cheese sandwiches, toasted. Spiced ham. It was all they had. And an order or tostones. And coffee. Lots of Puerto Rican co££cc, nice and strong. Con1c on no"·, ,vhile it1s hot."

"I'm really not hungry."

"Come on. You've got to eat."

"No 1 don't.''

"I'm going to fix it now. See how

good it smells?"

She passed the bag under my nose and then went to the bedroom and set up the meal on the bedside table.

I drank some more Scoteh. Then she came back to lhe balcony and badger<.-d me until I finally went to lhe room. I wolfed the food and then, with the beginnings of somnolent drunkenness to remind me that I ,vas a cautionJcss, needy man, l lock-

ed the hotel room door and entered my wife's dry reaches.

It is all part of the decay.

0 jVNE, 1964

29

N THE MORNING. Mon<0na Quintana told hrr hushand, 1\na~ clclo QuintJ.na: "Last ni~lu anothl'r ,vas born Didn't ,vant to ,,.:akc- you. Managed alone best I could." "fhe (at.her ,vas not gteatly n1ovcd. l!'t's say. by tho birth of the new child. lie had sixteen other hungry mouth, under his roof, and you can't reed children on flower S<.>cds.

"I rave to buy so,nething-, 1 g-urss." he ventured rautiously.

"I already mended the cloth-cradlt-. and rnadt· hin, so111c llulc shirt~. non't you ,vorry.'' ul'JI gu see hin1 later," 1he fatlu.·r ans_,,·errd. a bit rclii:,·ed, hcadin~ for his weedy patch of a 11ardcn. !\.1onsona Quintana ,,·a~ hurt J110rt' by lwr man's indifference than by her labor pains. "Tic ain't g-oin.~ LO lo,·e

I

Monsona Quintana's Purple Child

by Emilio S. Belovol

n1y kid. Coin' a,vay ,vi th out look in' at hin1! 0 Yet she ,va.c; anxiou~ to finish preparing the morning coffee, so she could give her precious baby a long look. three yards long. Th,· children of the house were crowd,•d around the cradle, watching the e)·r< ol the newborn.

"1'lanima. ho,\· tin)' he is!" "l!e ain't n,oved a leg yet."

0 \\'hrn's he going to open hi\ eyes1 nlan1n1a?"

30

THe SAN JUAN Rt:YIF.W

Hearing their chatter, Monsona Quintana fretted, unable as she was to give her son that first look which tells a mother with what starry threads has her child been adorned. But not even that. tiny concession to senti1nentality is allo\,•ed a counlr)'\voman of my land who has given birth at dawn. Turning and turning the wooden spoon to toast the fragrant coffee, her eye more attentive to the cradle than to the srnokc, her face more filled with curiosity than her back was with af,er-pains, at last she was able to serve the coffee, fill and carry the ,vater can back to the house, cool the three stones on which she cooked, and with heart aflame, go to look at the tiny face o[ her new son.

M

ONSONA Quintana's child was one of those purple babies so com1non in our mountains, a poor bundle of scrofulous wax, a pathetic warp to be woven by tuberculosis, a child ,,•hose color is never anything but the color of death. Contemplating that tiny human scrap, Monsona Quintana's loving soul became aroused.

"Pretty baby, more than pretty, precious, more than precious, deevine!0 sang her mother's heart, as she embraced her purple bundle. lllonsona Quintana is an emaciated countrywoman of my land who has given birth seventeen times; her belly is so stretched that her husband can no longer tell when she is pregnant.

Childbearing has devoured the youth of this countrygirl who once had the color of ean11fodu/a seeds and the breasts o( a sleepy tunledove. Now she is only a dreaming mother, exhausted from so much carrying the creek to the house, bare of ribbons other than the ,awdry shreds which, in my land, are suspended in a mother's soul This time heaven has want· ed to innict punishment upon Monsona Quintana's hut. ''J~hc ne,vborn is so sickly that he is almost like a left-o\'er child.

"If there was only some milk for hin1," Lhc countr}"'...·oman

sighed, try·

ing her sagging breast.

The baby decided 10 stretch one little leg and his mamma forgot all her misery. That palhetic child who dared to stir about among the pile of rags made his mam.ma a dreamer again.

"Look at the pretty feet my boy got from me!" cried lllonsona Quin-

tana, letting loose her maternal joy.

"The little angel i~ indian-color!"

She went to make a broth of lautr,a to move his bowels. She had bought a little bottle and a new nipple out of her house-money, by econo,nizing on the beans, without let· ting her husband notice that the soup was short. The baby drank it without closing his lips. Ile was sleeping like a snail, a purple baby's sleep, an almost deathlike sleep, but which seemed, to Monsona Quintana, like the peaceful repose of a seraph whose wing is being mended. "Why am I so fond of this kid?" she asked herself wiih uncontrollable happiness, a ,.,.oman to ,vho1n n1otherhood should no longer offer a single joy, a ,von,an who, )'C3r after year, had cxhaust~-d the romance of the belly.

W

HEN TUE other big-bellied

women of the neighborhood arrived, l\fonsona Quintana presented her purple child with the haughtiness of one , ...ho has born the finest son in the county. One of the pregnant women lifted the boy, breathing her mouthy symphony: "Look how cute he is! Hope mine will be just like that!"

"He looks a little purple to me. ls he cold?" inquired another, less

enthusiastic. ''You'll have to raise him on fresh milk. Looks like this one's born delicate,0 another ,vamcd, just barely veiling her disgust.

Monsona Quintana grabbed the baby with a happy fury to invalidate the augury. Bah! Women get stupid when they grow a belly. How could her precious child be purple? llis color was the color of a little indian, the color of a lovely red and violet vine on a country fence. She could very well take the cold away from him, if he felt any, with her mother's warmth, pressing him tight in the deep nest of her fleshy belly.

That child came from heaven, with the beak of a pitirr,·, a little man who would take care of her when he became the political leader around this place and his mamma became feeble.

But the chatter of the fat.bellied women left a welt on Monsona Quintana's soul which lasted the entire day; one of them had hardly dared to look at the child, as if she were afraid her unborn might catch the evil eye. Could her baby be really sick? Was he cold? The baby was

on time and had emerged in only one pain; she had hardly swollen a vein to give birth. The baby tried to dispel his mother's ,vorry by uttering his first wail. Monsona Quintana leaped, wilder than a goat, to skim her baby's fil"St hunger.

1\ nlid,,,ifc came, ,,·ith old eyes and dirty hands, to examine the bellybutton of Monsona Quintana·, purple baby.

"They told me it happened fast last night."

"Almost \'lithout pain. Didn't have to wake Anacleto. Tell me, you see any thing wrong with my kid?"

"I don't sec nothin' bad. Only his color ain't so healthy. I already told you not to carry so much ,,·ater ,vhen you're like thaL Them things is bad for you." uBut you seen any like this?"

"Yes, woman. Only they grow up pretty thin and give a lot of trouble.

I'll bring something for your kid."

TROUBLE the new baby T HE might give didn't matter al all to Monsona Quintana. She was ready to suffer a mother's trouble for her baby from morning to dawn. Those fussy fat-bellies would see what a country mother could do to k~-ep the cold from a sickly child. She was ready to do anything to s.we her little politician. She took off her new petticoats to make some good diapers, kept her eyes on the cradle and prayed to Saint Laughter, patron of country children. Two or three days later, she told her husband: 0 Go get your niece to take care of the house. Froni no,,.• on, I ,vant to take care of the kid, nothin' clse/ 1 "He sick?"

"That's what they tell me. Want to take a look at him, )'OU bein' his pa?"

Anacleto Quintana went close to the cradle and looked the baby over bit by biL The husband was frankly da,.ed. It was the first lime that he sa\\" his \\'Otnan \\'ith a fever in her look, which sapped the sublime vigor rro1:n her 1natemal cares.

"Don't sec nothin'. A little skinny, sure.''

"Think he's sick?"

"Well ... His color ain't good. He looks burned. Some die just born."

Monsona Quintana ,vouldn t let the truth get through her matted braids. She feared that perhaps her baby had been born a little scrawny, 1

Juxe:,

1964

31

but her heart nourished an unflagging hope. What he needed was his mamma's warmth, and she ,vas there, more worn than the hide of a calf, but stronger willed than an overseer, ,villing lO go \Vithout sleep, not even nodding, to make her baby get well.

Anacleto Quintana had to bring her a niece to cook the green bananas and the flour. ~fonsona Quintana pulled up the sleeves of her hope to save her child from death. The husband watched her, more frightened by her fervor than by the color of his latest son.

"You're killin' yourself, 1-.lonsona.

La)' do,vn a ,vhilc."

Dcath can't take hitn a,,·ay ,vhile I got n1y eye on him," the country· woman murmured, shaking off her fatigue.

The baby had buried itself in Monsona Quintana's belly as if he were trying to get back inside her.

There \\'a.5 no ,vay to separate one from the other, both looking into each other's eyes; he \\ras purple, in spite of the nice nJarungu,y starch vvith ,,·hich ~tonsona Quintana po,,,_ dered hin1 to cover his color: she ,vas the kind of yellow which a sleepless night induces when it is blended with another such night.

T TIMES heaven, pitying the

under the mother's eyes. Monsona Quintana is no longer a fanciful countr")"''oma.n ,,·iLh happy ribbons strung in her soul; she is a terrible mamn1a ,,•ho v,till not surrender to the spectral snare of death, a cloth ,vet ,,•ith tears hung over her dilated stou1ach, an in1placable prayer t,,·isting her lips so that heaven might not forget her. l\fonsona Quintana's agony would not end in a 111onth, nor nvo, nor three. The baby was dying slowly, still se,,·n to the ,vo1nan's entrails. as if he wished to take her with him, to sleep blissfully together under pu,·ple

0

sieve in the cool of the evcni1tg, from which she took the pinch of ash for

the baby's milk; day after day, a new herb was used lo dispel the child's internal gases, and failed; hour after hour, the agonized shadows grew

nochord latnent of a mountain n1oth~

er, still holding a monstrous supplica9

tion in her voice: "J)on t you die, rny precious, don't you die on inc; look, your nlan1ma1s goin~ to be left c;o all alone if you go an' die on her," pleaded the mother. appealing in her last we~ping to the breath of conciousness ,vhich that convulsed little body might contain, rcp<•ating <'ach ,vord as ir il ,vcrc the verse of a tragic lullaby, off~ring the sweetness of twenty tear-filled chalict·s to the dying one.

LT TIIE B.\BY died; he was

B

1

torn front his n1other s an-ns ''"·hen :\[onsona Quintana ,va$ already gla«)' with rancor and f.ttigt1r Death had to s,vcep

,t\\':l)'

that scrap of lo\'c

,Yhich ,,•a...; aln1ost an aberration of

A

cxhal1sted ,,•oman's S\vollen eyes and somnambulent ankles, would decide to tear away the baby from his mother's fleshy belly. The child would be taken with such a fever that she could only tell he was alive by the metallic snore be uttered when he gasped. Monsona Quintana fixed her eyes on heaven with a look so hostile that the terrified guardian angel himself came down, fearing a blasphemy.

The husband protest,-<!, convinced they could do nothing against that color, which in the country children of my land is almost like a smudge of death. '·You 'II catch a sickness if you keep up like this, '"voman."

"Death can't take hlm a\\•ay, ,.,,,hiJe I got an eye on him," S\vore the mother, a,,·aiting a miracle, lmpassive under the agony of her macerated ,vomb.

Night after night, she placed the

now feels coming from her own bleeding insides.

The grim father expecting a double burial, the other little mouths mute with ft·ar that their laughter may offend the dying child, and the mo-

shcelS. Monson" Quintana, luckless peasant

or

,ny country,

,vorn-out

mamma whose milky little motherly ambition fails in an exhausted tit, whose inflexible prayecs cannot change the will of heaven, whose miserable shack offccs no help on this earth!

The mo1nent arrivt.-d \\•hen the

child began to complain with his purple baby's cry, when death, bit by bit, gave little tugs to llnstitch liim lrom the body which protected him.

There is no , ... arm cactus able to conquer the cold which has hardenl·d his 1ncager flesh~ there i~ no

aromatic bath to cure the fever which melts the scrofulous wax drop by drop. His n1amn13 ,-.·alks hin1 with fearful stride, ,Yith passionate ragef with a faith abused by an inscrutable heaven ,vhere, at tilnes, the prayer or :t countJ)!'\\IOrnan cannot reach ...rhe

n,edicine ,von1an has no art to cahn that cry, which Monsona Quintana

life. No one dared to sing nor danr:t> at the ,vakc or ~(onsona Quintana's purple child - the whole county was foarful of the mother's blasph('mous gaze, ,,..·hich never left the heav€'ns_ I saw tbe little burial of Monsona Quintana's purple baby. Came across it one afternoon ,vhilc riding in a government car, trying to sell the munificent colors of our landscape to sonLc An1<.•rican tourists. Anaclcto and his conJpadrt·s ,vcrc taking him to burial in a little white box, with three wreaths of paper flowecs carri,-d by some boys, noses dripping, full of fleas and tears; a rnclancholy procession of barefoot angels who dared not look to"·ard heaven.

In my land, friend, sht• who gives birth rears, although the scrofulous scrap of a child may be torn from many a mother's arms.

O

Supr,nu Court judgt Emilio S. B1larol, horn ,n Fajardo in IQOJ, hat managtd to protlutt nn imfrrtstil.'t nwnbcr of thorJ ston·u. ,na:,s and plays dun·,w his busy /~gal and judicial corerr. Among his U!(Jr-!s which haCM apptortd in 6ooJ. form art tlit follou.tin.( c<>llt<lions of shNt slorits, Cuentos de la Uni· versidad (1935), Cuentos para fo. men tar tuti.J1no ( 1946). Cucntos de la Plaza Fuerte ( 1963), and tlit lhrtt-4,t fllay La muertc (1953).

This month's story, lr4n.s/ol~d for Jiu San JU1J11 Rtcitw by Patricio Vol/is, is taien from Cuentos para roi:ncntar el turismo.

BOOKS

by Thomas Molhews The PucrtoRican Problem, Edward

Lockett, (Expositfon Press, New York, 1964. 64.00).

The Dork Skinned Puerto Ricans Edward B. Lockett's problem could be more accurately sta.tcd as cluomatophobia. His aversion to colors: red Comrnunisn1, pink Socialisn,, and

"largely dark-skinned" Puerto Ricans, appears ,vith repetitous n1onotony ln every chapter of this thinly disguised racist diatribe. This spectre of a "steady strerun of dark-skinned" migrant$_, naively carrying the subversive

doctrines of Socialism or Con1munisn1. present in the opinion or the author

objectivity the balance sheet of U.S.Pucrto RicM relations and further elaborate his proposals to correct the gross imbalMce encountered.

I have no quarrel with the statistical data offered concen,ing the population growth and migration flow both to and rrom the mainland. A much more meaningful and accurate analysis of the Puerto Rican rnigration

can be found in Oscar Handlin's magnificent study Th, Neweomers.

Handlin puts the Puerto Rican migrant in his proper historical perspective by pointing out that the Polish, the Swedish, the Irish, the Italians, the Gem1ans, etc. all went through pretty much the same process of assi,nilation ,vhich the mainland Puer-

to Rican is experiencing today. The process may be slightly slower in reallZation because econo1nical l\vo\\'ay transportation aJlo,\ls the islander to renew his cultural ties by returning pilgrimages to the spring-well of his native island, a luxury not enjoyed by the hardy nineteenth century immigrant to America.

While his percentages (implied by the use of ter1ns like "mostly", "largely", ctc.- a n,atter \\ hich \\IC \Vil1 touch upon later) are greatly wrong, Lock1

ett is perhaps a bit more realistic than

Handlin in observing, in his back1nanncr1 that dark-skinned Puerto Ricans will find assimilation difficult and quite unattractive since it rneans incorpora· lion into a second-class level o[ American life similar to that suffered bv the American 1\~egro. Neverthele~ the Puerto Rican in the mainland handed and vicious racist

1

is being assirnilatcd at one level or F.dward 8. Lock,11

a grave threat to our national security and an intolerable n1enace to the

social stability of many mainland comn1unities.

The Puerto Rico problem is both dcfinc-d and solved, at least to 1-!r.

Lockett's satisfaction, in the first bric[ chapter. Those hearty spirits who persist in reading further will find some statistical trappings which usually come from government publicity releases and serve to give this featherweight study a guise of a work of the social sciences. A very brief historical survey, replete ,vith sontc rninor and sorne not so 1ninor errors, occupies the middle section of the book. The

the other and, in the process, although certainly not recogni1.cd by observers the likes or Lockett, maxing an admirable contribution in the arts, and social institutjons not to mention the 1nore mundane contributions to the

trades, services, and industries.

The ac:hor bemoans the reluctance to release foreign cultural tics and the resistance to the English language and the so-called American way o[ life. Unfortunately for the island's

cultural

nationalists

these

closing chapters evaluate in accord

conclusions of the author arc not born out by those \\ ho have spent ti1nc living on the island and in the Puerto Rican mainland communities. Nor docs Lockett care to recall the hundreds or foreign language community centers whether they be Polish in De-

,vit11 the author\ curious sense of

troit, S,vedish or Nonvegian in St.

1

Paul, or Italian in New York {not to mention the many small foreign language newspapers) which have given ample proof of similar resistance of other immigrant groups.

If one were to list the errors which blot the historical survey offered in the middle chapters I would be accused of being pedantic. Two serious errors need 10 be corrected and serve at the same time to underline the prejudice with whicl, the author ap· proacbes his problem. No author prior to Lockett, no matter bow biased, has succeeded in t\\fisting facts

so completely as he has done io the case of the 1937 Ponce massacre of dcfonsclcss Nationalist young men and women by a squadron of police led by the Insular police chief. For Lockett (page 107) "the so-called Ponce massacre" was really an affair of "near-insurrection magni· tudc" ! Fortunately verbal witnesses need not be relied upon in this case.

Two photographs (one minutes before the shooting and the other seconds after it began) serve to prevent the perversion of history by those like Lockett. One moment the young boys and girls line up for their little parade and the next armed police are firing into the fleeting crowds. In neither photo can one civilian be found to have a gun. And if this is not proof enough I suggest that Lockett do a little research and examine carcfully the Harold Ickes collection of twenty photographs or the wounded and dead, 75%, of whom were shot in the back as they fled in terror from the berserk police. The historian has accurately labeled this black day for what it really was: the day of the Ponce massacre.

The other error to which attention must be called is equally perverted and fantastic, and can just as easily be corrected by consulting material found in Mr. Lockctt's home town library. According to the author the Chard6n Plan of 1934 (page 103) outlined the steps for the Puerto Rican government to "purchase and operate all of the island's basic industries"! "This pro· gram, of course, \\fas out-right socialism" so ,vrites Lockett. I am sure that Dr. Carlos Chard6n, still a very vigorous and active regional economist, will be amazed to learn or the rhangcs thirty years of time has had upon his original rehabilitation plan.

The facts are otherwise as any calm study of the complex ( too complical-

Ju>i•,

196+

33

ed to outline here) Chardon Plan will

assumes ,ve ,vilJ accept j t on the basis

clearly indicate. Few of the readers of SJR will have the time and interest to look up the plan and come to their o,,,n conclusions, so I ,,,ould suggest tha, only a moment's reOection is necessary to realize that even in the depths of the depression any government commission which would propose seriously what Lockett claims to be the heart of the Chardon Plan would have been utterly irrealistic and of no consequence toward the shaping of government policy.

But beyond historical errors or inaccurate observations, what really bugs me about this book is that it is a skillful job of defamation of the character of the Puerto Rican people.

I nterspcrscd among the recitation of data and a readable if highly erroneous historical survey, Lockett manages to drop his mnuendos, asides, and even libelous insults which

of his authority.) And finally, as if he had not stretched his readers credulity far enough, he follows through with the following: "Equally cruel, and again whether true or in error, just or unjust, these ,vere judgements with which a considerable segment of of the U.S. mainlanders were already in agreement before the conclusions to their way of thinking were confirmed by the U. S. military." Actually I must confess that I am in doubt as to whether the American or the Puerto Rican should take more offense at the presumptuous insults of Edward Lockett.

In a similar fashion we learn that while objective studies indicate that Pueno Ricans are not responsible for more than their share of crime and juvenile delinquency, the U.S. crime rate is still adversely affected by the influx of Puerto Ricans. (page 52).

Demonstrating a singular lack of un· derstanding of the cultural environment and mores of the people be is pretending to study, Lockett links

serve to characterize his ,vork as a

product of a pitifully scared reactionary making a last desperate effort to prevent the society which protects him from collapsing all around him.

There are at least four instances of this technique used in this short book.

I will examine carefully the most reprehensible instance and only mention in passing some of the others.

Shrewdly using a recognized radical and friend of Puerto Rico as his second-hand source of information, Lockett undertakes to quote so-called objective testimony of U.S. Arm)' officers as to the unreliability of the Puerto Rican soldier and thus put· ting in doubt by implication the character, intelligence, dedication and loyalty of the Puerto Rkan people.

So carefully does Lockett operate that he disarms you first with his guile by protesting that this is not a question of valour ( the cunning artist, hopes to win his game without all of the aces). He goes further by disclaiming any need for invest· igating the truth: "the accuracy or the error, the justice or the injust-

ice of the various judgements of the Puerto Ricans are largely beside the point... The judgements passed on Puerto Ricans by the military (ac· tuallv one officer was cited second· hand) authorities and made public by various means were and arc the judgements accepted by the great mass of the American people." (For both ends of this magnificent generalization Lockett offers no proof and

common·la,\• n1arriages ,vith a high

rate of prostitution, polygan1y, and immorality ( page 84).

There will be a group of our island society which will receive this book with certain elauon. The independen· tistas will see in Lockett the personification of the typical America, steep· ed in racial prejudice, rabidly anti· Puerto Rican, and thoroughly isolat· ed from the realities of the mid· twentieth century world about him Lockett will confirm their suspicions that in spite of statements of presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Ken·

nedy, the United States has no in· tentions of responding to a request for independence should it be prescmed by the Puerto Rican people. Lockett will confirm their suspicions that in spite of the push-button method of modern \\·arfare Puerto Rico is a vital

key in the U.S. defense system (Just as out-moded as Guantanamo is Puer· to Rico; but only the independentistas, Fidelistas, Marines and Navy st.ill refuse to accept this fact.) not to be given up without a fight. And finally Lockett will be quoted admiringly as an accurate observer who has come to the conclusion that the movc1ncnt for Independence will never be CX· terminated (page 45).

I would like to end this caustic and critical revie,v of an unfortunate

book on a more positive note and

hope, by saving my comment for the last, to put across a much needed lesson which unfortunately will prob· ably go unheeded by those to whom it is directed. I can not help but feel that much of the fire and anger aroused by the unjust. slander contained in this book only serves to pin· point some of the partial truths it contains. The average Puerto Rican ( and Lockett, too, if he bad visited more than the one limited area outside of metropolitan San Juan) knows that he can not be classified as largely dark-skinned. And yet if the fanatical purist definition of a Negro by the white supremi.st of the southern part of United States were to be applied, many of the members of the middle and upper class (including members of the Pueno Rican Casino and other so-called e.~clusive clubs) would be classified as non-white. This state· mcnt will be met with indignation by many ( some more cynical than I would claim that the degree of personal indignation could be measured by the more accurateness of the observation) and yet such indignation i.s utterly unjustified and just as re· prehensible as the mouthing of a southern racist, since in fact both stem from the same rotten seed of racial prejudice. l am not naive enough to think that on this delightful island we have eliminated every vestige of racial discrllnination, but certainly every Puer-

to Rican has some justification of admiration for the measure of racial

harmony obtained in this community.

Students of r~\.Cial tensions in olher

areas of the world would do well to study race relations on this island.

And to return to ~fr. Lockett; far from presenting a problem to the United States, the stream of "largely dark migrants" from this island presents absolutely no problem, but rather the solution to an infinitely more pressing American predicament threaten· ing to tear our nation apart ,vith ra-

cial violence. All that is needed is that the Puerto Rican ,vit..h coura"'c

and strength of character in his manner confront the American like Lock· ctt, and suggest that the degree of racial mixture which has produced the Puerto Rican will solve the American problem. You know, I think that ~ [r. Edward Lockett, who is really no fool, recognizes this and that is why he so desperately wants the Puer· to Rican ,o stay home.

PRESS

HEADLIN E OF TH E MONTH

A Geography lesson The Olhcr day, a San J uan Star editoria l discussed the U.S. recon· naisance rlighL< over Cuba and concluded ,vith: we t:an never sleep in pe(l(;t so long as this madman (Fidel Castro) has his trigger finger poised off our southern shores.

•

The Sen Jua n Star, Tuesday, May 5, 1964

Cen. Bogart Recalls Panama Riots M•J.

Gell

Cu~ r U SouUwna Com.n lffiJa,- (h.at Ill Frtendd up pro, m6iM in II 11• IOW"liftl i.t J e

-

• 8o,:IM1., .,,. ' Bto0k.t , said I! rt11111Wd Ill('!> Uf'Wl)' ·appollltl'I'

Such references to our southern ,hor,s, if repeated, might well set off a considerable feeling of unrest among the populace of Ponce, our southern· most city. fl should be pointed out that Cuba is not off our southern shores; Cuba is norlhwesl of Puerto Rico.

J11dt llood V1111 tbt r•u111...1a 8o.CIM1 Wiii I ,\ rm1 lorct'S ,t «1 ,r lt'OOPl • l m11:1.1t1N to c,, IIUIU,U111i Ofl

~

&on. Bopr1 rep •·All tr00p rc.1

ti1 SC...i.nl th..,n

m..nd

Sever.il excellent U.S. ma.~azines and ne,vspapcrs on sale here n1orc than adequately ,·eflccl the mainland vic,vpoint tO\\•ards ,,·orJd affairs. Jr the Star is to properly fulfill its function as a local newspaper, based in San Juan and dedicalcd lO lhe inlerest of the island's residents, a brush-up lesson in geography is advisable.

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n m S ANJU AN Re:vr.aw

CHILE...

(Continued from page 6) larger say in governn1ental decisions.

Some of its members, like Felipe H e· rrera Lane, President of the Inter· art1crican Developn1ent Bank, havewith United States approval- been appointed to key international posi· lions. A lthough the union of the Com· munist and Socialist Parties in Chile dates from 1958. many of the Social· ists labor leaden, recalling the p<!TSe· cutions of the late I 940's, strongly distrust the Co1nmunists. At this ,vrit· ing, ho,vever, the animosity has not grown large enough to crack the P.A.F.'s internal organizations Apolitical Military Recently, the Armed Forces of sev· cral Latin American counlries have intervened directly in the political life of their countries. Such an eventeven with the arrival to power of a Marxist government- is judged unlikely in Chile. Observer.; point out that the country's military leaders are very proud of their professional, apolitical status, and to the strong pressures favoring radical internal changes within Chile in the military establishment. The Chilean Air Force, for example, has al\,·ays termed itself "progressive and liberal." Its memben proudly point out that Mam,aduke Grove Vallejos, an early Socialist leader, was an Air Commodore before entering politics.

The land-holding aristocracy. which has wielded political power in the country for many decades, has created d~-ep resentments across all socio-econorniC': sectors of the country.

On one end of the social scale, for example, the right wing has used intimidation of iL, employees-- be they £anners or laborers- as a political technique. On this subject A. Oli,·ares, a local journalist, \\'rote recently: "The left-wing leaders must take advantage of the darknes, to meet with their constituents in agricultural re· gions. They must meet secretly, under bridges, or in out of the way placrs in order to escape the heavy vigilance maintained by the large land-holden over their \vorkcrs ... ,, Such persecution has finally borne fruit: the Chil· can peasant sees change and improve· 1nent only in the ~farxisl movements.

T he caste system which the old aristocracy established with the birth of t he republic has also caused resentment among t he industrially rich. For example, several textile-wealt h)' fam· ilies arc openly backing t he P.A.F.'s

Presidential Candidate. The middle class, roughly divided among the P.A.F. and the C h ristian Democrats, have been the direct victims of the nation•s continuing econo111ic crisis.

The Christian T)emocrats have recently seen their party's direct appeals to the Socialist leader Senator Allende.

Tn any case. there scc1ns to be no organi1.ed force strong enough to destroy Chile's long tradition of electoral legality. Chileans arc generally proud to call thc111~lvcs the 0 LaLin Arnerican Britishers/' and of solving their political problems within a legalistic rramework. For the last 130 years dra\vn-ouL revolutions or political assasinations have been unkno\,•n in Chile, and n1osL obscivcrs scriou.sl)' doubt that all this will suddenly change. As one prominent Chilean journalist said recently "anyone vvho attcntpts to carry out a violent rcvolu· tion here would only be ,nakmg a fool of himself." llis opinion is openly shared by the majority of his fellow citizens.

Chilcts institutions run thr complete socio-economic gamut: from 20th century ,,·elfarc state to pre-renaissance frudalism. J\ledical care, a large part of the country's internal transportation, and the nation's electrical plant are in the hands of the .iatc. ,\ lso socialized are Chile's principal airline, its steel, and its petroleum industries.

Agrarian Reform On the other hand, the larger part of the good agricultural land, and the copper, nit rate and carbon mining activities are in pri,·ate, often foreign. hands. Both the P.A.F. and the Chri5tian Democrats have promised the ra1111ing sector that they, ;r and when they achieve political power. ,,·ill iruprovc their lot through an agrarian refonn. Though both schemes would call for large scale land cxpropiations, the Christian Democrat's plan call for heavier use of the vast desert areas of Chile through a 1najor irrigation progra1n.

Since the Curic6 election clearly 1 sho\\•ed the irnportance of U1e fam1crs vote in the coining presidential elections, this is one tin1e in " •hich campaign promises will be kept.

I n 1960 the Cniversity of Notre Dame, 1ndiana, published a study which stated that "the Chilean peasant lived under conditions sin1ilar to those cornrnon in Europe during the llliddlc Ages. ' In 196 1 the Catholic C hurch in

Chile started a program of giving land to peasant fa1111crs. Unfortunately, in this case, the Chilean Catholic Church (unlike in most other J,atin A1ncrican countries} is not a 1najor land-o,,·ncr. _Its efforts have also been limited by the Church's inability to provide adequate technical help and

credit faciJit..ics to the nc,,· land-o,,·n· ers.

Following the earthquakes that shook Chile in 1960, the national Congress gave the country's president vast ccono1nic and ad1ninistrativc powers to deal with the emergency.

At this tirnc the left.,,,ing groups at-

tempted to have the president use the to l111ple111ent. an integral agrarian rcfonn. "fheir clan1or, ho,Y"()0\\1Crs

cvcr, \\las disregarded, artd instead the

government set up a base for buying land from private land-holders at piiccs ,,·ay abovc the assessed tax

value.

Copper Mining Chile is the second largest copper

many years. }.lore rt'Ccntly they have 1nade repeated auc,upts 10 \\'00 the Socialists into a possible coalition. In any case, barring the C."-trcn1c radicalization of Allende's partywhich could result fro1n international pressures- the Christian Democrats ,..,ill continue their friendly relationships "ith the Socialists. Such relationship could ,vcll serve to tcanpcr the aln1ost predicable J'Cvolutionary excesses of any nc,v, lcft-,ving governn1ent.

Even with a full understanding of Chile's condition, it is unlikely that the United States will graciously acr:cpt the c:st.;_•hlishn1cnt of another ~ larxist-oriented, Socialist Republic in the 1\111crica.s. Ho,,•ever, the cstablishmem of the S<.-cond Socialist Republic in the 1\1ncric.c"lS. this 1in1c through the electoral process. ,,,ill establish a nc\\' alternative for the I le1nisphe1-e's lcft-,,·ing groups, ,,•h.ich so far had only the ,•iolcnt, Cuban type revolution to follow. o

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produC'iog country in the ,,·odd, a

fact which by itscl[ makes the country strategically important. Presently all the copper n1ining is being carried out by United States companies which export to the United States the larger part or the 518,000 tons of copper annually produced in Chile. Chilean n1ine~ longti1t1e victims of discrirninatory pracliccs by their An1erican employers ( they arc not allowed to ~o into the housing proje('tS ,vhcre the An,erlcan personnel live, an,d are kept out of An1erir:a11 clubs and re· creation centers) , have definite antiAmerican feelings. The leadership of the Confederation of Copper Workers (44,000 n1cmbcrs) is in the hands of the Socialist and Co1n1uunist Parties.

The miners, who have faithfully given their votC$ to the t,,·o parties over the decades arc no,11 dcananding the nationalization of the 1nines and the ilnprove1nent of th<'ir cconornic condition. Any nationalization 1nove ,viii naturally be forcefully resisted by the U.S. 111inin,g concerns. \\'ith Presidential clc.·C'tions in tl1c U.S. in Novc1nbcr, the issue n1ight becofne critical.

If the predicted electoral triumph of Allende's P.A.F. takes place in September, it is likely that a U.S. rcjec1ion o f his govcrn111cnt ,,·ill result in i111pr<>ving the position of the Coinn1unist Party vis-a-vis his o,,•n Social .. ist Party. The Christian Democrats. as noted above, have 111aintai11ed (t'iendly relations \\•iLh the Socialis1 Party for

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ART Jazzin' It Up Jar-1, spa"·ned and sust:.incd in the _.,,.,.__. murky darkness of the nightclub, has Ion,{{ fasclnat.e<l the senslth·c eye of the artist.

T\vO or the 1nost active proponents of 11jazz art'' arc \\'Cll·kno,,·n island artist R.nfacl Tufiito and ~lax Frye, :ln itinerant Carolinian ,vho recently popped into t.o,,·n after a h,·o-ycar ;tbi,cncc. The) can often been seen at late-hour jru11 sessions. fc\'cri~h1) sketching away, trying- (and often succeeding) to freeze on paper the fluid Jines of i.thl' scene."

ttnd drawings by well-known local artists iocludin~ Domingo C:lrcta, Julio Rosado deJ Valle, franci.sco RodOn, Roberto Alberty, Luisa (;(-igt"I, CompOSlela, 1'01n~ Batista, Gcor~c \\farreck, Luis Hernfinde1 Cruz.

Lorenzo Ho1nat', Augusto Mar(n, Rafael ·rufino, Jaime CarN:'ro, Pedro Gispcrt and Mytna Baez.

IN STITUTE OF PUERTO RICAN CULTURE, OSJ (724.07001 - i\ per· manent collection of Puerto Rican musical instru1nents, 1anto1. sculpture, .-ccordings and publications, rui well 3$ a monthly exhibit b)' an individual artist in the u1>· stai~ s.alon. (Mondays 1hrough Fridays from 8 to 12 and 1 to 5; Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 6.)

CASA OEL CALLEJON, 319 Forrnlczn, OSJ - Exhibit of colonial nrchitcctun:, under the awpic('., or the lnslitulc: of C:\1lturc.

FOLK ART c~:N'fER or thr lnllt1tute of Culture, 153 Sul, OSJ lstu1d·1nadt' handicrafu. The a.rtisan,; ma)' ohen be obst·rvcd while" ther '"ork.

CASA 0£L LIBRO. 255 Cristo, OS.J (723-0354-) - ••·r1u· Lion in l:SOO~;· an exhibit o( btx>ks sho,\lln,:r the: lioll i1, myths tac:cnd and f,tble, i,1 h('taldry. in religious svl'J\bohsrn, ,:.nd as a dcco.-ativc: d<:,icc. ( 'ivlonday$ 11,.-ough Satt1rdays from 11 to 5.)

DON ROB£R T 0 1 20:J <.~rilltO, OSJ ( ?i4-0l 91 ) - Antique and c:on1ern1>0rary Janlos, graphics by island attists, wid(· ~declion of handicrafu fro1n the Caribbean, \\'Uh crnpha,is on local handiwo1•k. ( ~1nndays lhroul(h Sntordav.1 fron1 9 until ti.)

So111e of lhcsc sketches " 1c.re made in La Rotella, others at ,he San Juan Jaz1: \Vorkshops' concert in Ponce early last momh. Though the subjects don'L ..sit still" as thf')' ,,·ou)d ror a portrait, the unfinished appearance of Tufiiio's and Frve's dra,,rin,s i1npart a spont31'l("it}1 ,~·hich is crnfncntly faithful to the ephemeral im:w;es "hich nash into vie"' at a jarn ses· sion. (Frye has also illus1ra1ed one of this 111onth·s short Slories. and Tufifio's graphics have appcart..-d several thncs in the R.cvicv1.·.)

The Workshop, b)' the way, has iL< second anniversary concert 1hc evening of June 14 at the Americana's La Copa Club.

GALLER IES, MUSEUMS CALERIA CAMPECHE, 153 San Sebas· tifo, OSJ (724-1680) - During June. • collccrive show· of oils by promising younit island painters including: Luis flgueroa, )OK Mendoza, Lui.s Sfutc:hc:z and l ..uis Trifilio. (Mondays chrough Saturdays rrom 1'2 until 6.)

UNIVERSITY or PUERTO RICO MUSEUM, (766.0000, t;x<. 477) - Until June 19: a group showing of oils, sculptures

CABtLOO CRAIT CENTER, 152 Cr;sto, OSJ (72'.J.-829-t) Co\'enuncnt-1pon.wred center for islaod handicrafts: woodcan iog,.

C<"ramics, furniture. ~tc, ( ~1onday, through Sn.turday,; from 10 until 5. ) CALERlA BOTt-:LLO, 200 Cruco. OS.) ( 72:l -()17.l ) - P.UntiO(t!I hy Ant;e1 Botello Barros and a pricelt'U collt"Ction of umlos, somt' of which aN" for sale. (Mondays throu~h Saturday~ from 9 to 6,) FISHER, INC. CALERIE D'ART, W4 C:lltc Cri.'ltO, OS.I ( 722·:l'.i()IJ) 1 landmadc C,u·iblx-an mahogany "oods, pnintinR5 .and sculptures b)· Haitian and olhcr \VC".t Indian artist'!. Antiqut·s. pt"('·(;olombia.n art, f\1oseusn of Haitian histo.-y ,\ilh 1•att relic,; ,o,d docunlc1\l$. ( ~londa)' through !53turda)' frorn 9 until 6.)

CALERIA COLIBRI, 319 Fort.alez3 corner C.llej6n de la Capilla, OSJ - A gallery ex.elusively devoted to linutcd edition prints.

Through June 5 or 12, a 011e-n1an show by Carlos Raquel Rivera. After"•a.-ds. a SCJ'tcs orlithograptu... Le l'henomenes" (in editions up to 20) by Fr.antt's famed Jean Oubufctt, p lus gnphiC-'I by Chagall, M'.ir6, Picruso, Mor.indi, Ucrillo, Marini, ~toorc and de Chirico. (Tuesday through Saturday from II until 5.)

CASA DEL ARTE, 152 Fortale,a, OSJ (724-2538) - ,\ group show o r oil.s, watcrcolor-s, cngravi.n1-,rt 3nd sculptures br l ri· zarry, Marl11, Ros.ado dd Valle, Oliver and Garcia of Puerto Rico; Gro1h and Levine of the U.S.; Paternosto and Carpa.ni or A.tl'(entina. (~1ondar5 throu~h Saturdays fro1n 10 until 6, or by appoi.nllnC'nt.)

FIRST FEDERAl CALLERY, Suite 20-I, FirSl 1:cderal Savings Bldg., Santul"CC Through Jun<" 13: ·'La Viole.ncia;" etchings

by Rcnd6n, drawings by Obreg6n and oils

by Granada - all depicting violence in their homclru1d or Colombi~. Sculptura, oils by 0.1ban exile a.-ti,t Rolando Lopez.

Din.1bc. From June 15: A collccti,·c show

by Cn.tpo Praxi, of Argentina, with works

by A.-6st~i, Sa<"1\1:, Izquierdo, etc. Oils

by R3fa(') Col6n Moralc:s and drawing.s by Anibal Manos, both or PuCJ'to Rico.

MUSIC The 8th Festival Cosols The Annual Casals Festival closes earl)' this month with live 8:30 p.m. performances at the t.: niversity of Puerto Rico Theatre; on June I, 5.

6, 9 and 13.

Although n1ost of the perfon11anccs of the Festival Orchestra are being directed by Alexander Schneider and Juan Jose Castro, the octogenarian Maestro Pablo Casals will take up tl1e baton for the festival's June 13 finale when he will direct the orchcs· tta and the Sha\\' Festival Chorus in llavdn's oratorio ·vrhe Creatior1.')

M~estro Casals will also direct Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 on June 5 and, on June 9, \\'iU dirt.-ct a series of \\'Orks by Cluck, Schubert and Bcetho,·en in a concert dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy.

In addition 10 the long list of intcrnationall\'·kno\\1n soloists invited I rom abroad·, the festival program includes lour noted Puerto Rican per· formers: sopranos Olga Iglesias and Maria Esther Robles, bass Justino Diaz and pianist Jesus ~Caria Sanromi\. Herc is the program for the remaining concerts:

8th.

,\1autro Pohlq Casals

Our Symphony Orchestro, by James lewis The Symphon)' Orchestra of Puer· to Rico is good. Let us start ,vith that. 1\s a rnattcr of fact, it is amazingly izood. Although the quality of performance varies from piece to piece, this year's orchestra, ,vhen it hit the peaks, climbs pretty high.

•\nd lt " ·as such run to go to their concerts. Iinagine a hahny, tropical eveninit ( it rained later: the bassists should be congratulated for their address in zipping up the covers or their un";c(dy instrurncnts in record tin1e), )'Ourself seated an1idst son1c nine or ten hundred of the good burgher.; of Rio Picdras in their ~pacious plata, your feet inca.sed in comfortable loafers1 ,,·ith no tie hampering your breathing, and listen· ing contentedly to ~fozart's J upiter Symphon)' ( no. +I), with the gradual·

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ly moumin(l leelino: that you arc back in some baroque S<Juarc in \'icnna or Salzb<1rg, and that X!o1.art himself ,.,•ill step out a£ter the f:H:rfonnancc and take a bow. Of course the inevi· table airplane flies over and dcsiro)S the illusion. but still, ho,.,· pleas..'\nt !

Turning to individual pieces in the three latest concerts given in the metropolitan area, I found the :llo· zart 4 lst, rncntioncd above -even with the hanrcls of air and highway noises- brisk!)• played. The last move· ment, particularly, , ..•as turned out with brio, b<1t l had the feeling that the orchestra ,.,•as striving n1ightHy to overcome an in1balance bct,vccn strings and winds caused by the pet· ulant acoustics of the ,\coustic Shell in Rio Piedras. Jose Figueroa, as soloist in the Chausson "Poc1nc for \ iiolin and Orchestra." ,.,•as han~pcrcd by :, steady sprinkle of rain. _T~e virtuoso pnssages for the solo v1ohn , ..•ere not , ..·eJl.aniculated 1 although he made the and.1..te and lento sections si,,g ,\·ith c1notiou. Orlc \\'Ould like to hear Figueroa tackle this piece under better pcrfo1111ing conditions. The orchestral sound was full and rich in the "f>oc,nc" ,o 111uC'h so that J had the in1prc5Sion l "·as listening to tlw Boston Symphon). who do t hi, son of thing superlatively.

In the concert on .\pril 25th at the l:.P.R. .\uditoritun the llandel Co nee no Grosso ( Op. 6, no. I), a blan<l and uneventful work, was play· l'd in a bland and tu1c,·cntful ,.,1ay.

'J'his is l{ood cxc,·cisc 1nusic, aud tl1e orchestra handled it \\•ith aln1osL too nluch ease.

Things started to pick up when Adolfo Odnoposoff 111.1rchcd out next to the podium a~J launched into Hn)'cln's Concc,to m IJ ,\ Jajor for Violoncello. The piece itself offer.; nothing startling, but what a joy it was 10 hear Odnoposolf, a Russo.\rgentinian. coerce those lush sounds from the 'cello. llis playing combined a thorough knowledge of the instm· n1en1 \\'ith a cleanness of sound and

a passionate. ahnost Ro1nantic inter· prctation of a rather dry classic. Od. noposoff held this passionate exubcr· ance severely in check, t.hus 1nak1ng the perfom,ance doubly effective. If you did not attend this concert, you have another chance to hear Odno· posoff perform at the Casals Festival.

Don't n1iss hint.

The Orchestra really came to life

JUNE,

1964

39

152 Forto.loza. Old San Juan

in the second half of this concert with an c.xciting performance of Hector Campos Parsi's "Ode to Cabo Rojo." I, for one, am very partial to this brief concert overture. Although the f,nal bars sound like some of the

strongest in the Symphony Orchestra -had a field day with the lovely obbligato in the Allegro movement of the Schubert Symphony no. 5 in B

more e.xtravagant sections of the Bcn·Hur1' movie score, the total im-

of the same symphony.

The most memorable performance at this concert was that of Debussy's

11

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AlllNI M-1lloS and "Gtupo Praxis.,

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pression is highly favorable. The structure of the piece depends on the contrast bctvveen angular, \\litty outbursts from the strings and a long· phrased, langourous melody which is later transformt-d into a kind of march. Underpinning the work is a series of subtle · adaptations of characteristic Puerto Rican dance rhythms.

There are some fine horn passages in this sparkling tour-de-force, and the Orchestra brass was more than up to the occasion.

The high point of the season up to May I was the last item on the abovementioned program-Shostakovich's Symphony No. I in F Major. This is the work that made Shostakovich kno,\•n to the world music audience, and rightly so, for it is a really magnificent symphony; though how much is due to the composer or to the spectacular perfom1ance by the Symphony Orchestra is hard to say.

The first movement is practically chamber music, a brisk jeu d' esprit with the familiar Shostakovich march.

The second movement- Allegro-is characterized by brilliant orchestra· tion, and the delicate balance of the orchestral choir was beautifully handled by Maestro Juan Jose Castro. By the third move1nent the listeners ,vere on the edge of their scats at the poetic rendering of this section's sombre lyricism. But in the last movemcntAllegro molto-Dr. Castro and his players really outdid themselves. The orchestra, always tightly reined in by Dr. Castro's controlling hand, opened up in a glorious burst of sound. With· out letting my adjectives run wild, it \\fas a stunning perfom1ance.

The last concert I was able to attend before printing deadlines caught up with me featured works by Brahms, Schubert, Debussy and Stravinsky.

Some ragged fiddle-playing marred the Brahms "Tragic Overture, u but the strings redeemed themselves with their exciting c.xcculion of the rip· piing figures which run through the "Russian Dance" in Stravinsky's "Petrouchka Suite" later in the program.

The

flute section-one of

the

Nlinor, as ,vcll as "'ith the exquisite f rec cano11 in the Andante movement

nNocturnes." Debussy's fastidious or-

chestration is a perpetual wonder when played well as it was this evening. The Orchestra was ably assisted by the young voices of the Conservatory of Music's Woman's Chorus in the concluding

section-"Sirencs.u The

girls were placed too far forward on the stage, and consequently the precise effect Debussy was aiming at, of the distant but compelling call of the Sirens, c.ame across ,vithout quite

the proper finesse. However, these young ladies have clear, S\\'eet voices and they \\'ere very pleasant to see

and hear.

In conclusion, the Symphony Orchestra's program this year was wellplanned and, for the most part, professionally played. Especially satisfying were the performances of the Romantic French masters Chausson and Debussy, and the contemporary-that is, twentieth century- pieces. Dr. Castro and his men and , ..•omen seem

parlicularly well-attuned to this music and do a much better job with it than with the 18th and early 19th century classics. Performances of the latter, always excepting Odnoposofrs personal contribution, referred to above, tended to be pcrfunctory.

The Symphony Orchestra has already developed a distinctive style of its own, due probably to Dr. Cas.. tro's musical temperament. One al· ways sensed a notable restraint: the performances never erred on the side of extravagance, and the playing was always cautiously understated. This style, of course, means that when the orchestra does open up, the resulting contrast can be breathtaking; it often \\!as.

One would hope that the audiences ,.,ould learn a sirnilar restraint. Ex-

cessive applause and repeated "bravo's" indicate not only lack of taste and the inability to distinguish be· tween the memorable and the merely capable, but they are also acutely embarassing to the 1nusicians ,vho know that the response to their best efforts will be exactly equal to their lesser exertions.

as they appear on the stage. Thus, no one can question an author's priv· ilcgc to ,,·rite in ,vhatcvcr style he pleases. No one can slain the door in

THEATRE

his face and demand that he "not

by Juan Luis M6rquez Again, the Theatre

,,;rite" if he is unra1niliar ,,1ith such

There is a hint of sardonic, halfsuppresscd malice in Luis Rcchani 1\grajt's "AH the Nightingale.~ Sing," (Todos Los Ruisei\ores Cantan), a comedy which marked the opening, on April 9, of 1he Seventh Fes1ival of Puerto Rican Theatre.

Rechani is a good playwrighl. Some years ago he gave us a tragico,ncdy: li Sefioria." Buenaventura PadjJla.. the pathetic hero or "Mi Seiioria,"

" ~1

,vas extraordinary ,,•hen he roarned our theatrical scene and has gro,vn ,vith tin1c, because he ,vas created by the author ,vith a rare nUxture of

authors as Calderon, Shakespeare and Ibsen. Sophocles and Aristophanes ,,'Tote imn1ortal tragedies and con1edies ,vithout any influence rro,n cxistcntia1is1n and other 11 ls1ns,, that hide

or lurk in the dark or bright corners or contemporary world tl1catre.

I suspect that some, if not all, of the characters in "All the Nightingales Sing" are real. That is, they existed in flesh and bone. However, I cannot assure that such hutnan beings in turn really experienced the anecdote that the author cleverly "'eaves to

Charles Gibbs, although at times he hesitated as if he had forgouen one or another line, gave us a good "Brisquet". Juan Gonzalez, although slightly exaggerated, interpreted his role as 11 Fritanga" \\tith ability. Gilda Cal.in played a convinclng "Dona Lirios"; Luis Vera offert.-d a pleasant and realisdc version of groveling 11 Hcribcrto", lris l\(arti1lCZ ,\fas natural and at tin1cs moving in the role of "Asunci6n"; R.os.i,1. Blanca ~lcnCndcz gave a clean, fresh interpretation of uAlicia"; Benja1nin Morales in the

part of "El Z.Or-,al", leader or the group of street tnusicians, gave us a

show worth a million dollars. Olga de Carlos gave us a virtuoso perfom1ance as "Sra. Biodinelli" ; Francisco O'Neill played "Arturo" realistically

agony and fantasy, 1opped with a light touch of pity.

But the Rechani of 1964 does not pretend to create characters for posterity. His purpose is to create an uninterrupted series of ( unny situations. ln this sense, "All the Night· ingales Sing" is an effective ,,,ork.

but it is hollow, guided by , single interest: to n1akc one laugh.

He ,,•ants to rcrnincl us that n,aking people laugh is also one of the resricctable aims of the theatre. He sets himself 10 this cause eagerly, openly, making fun of everything and everyone, including hirnsclf. 1-(c ridicules the apostles of modern thea1re and consequently niany of the tendencies that have charac,criz<.-d, and currently characteri1.e, son1e of lhc '"orks pres-

ented by the Festivals of Puerto Rican Theatre.

"All the Nightingales Sing" is a comL-<ly written in a deliberately archaic style. It suggests something of the Spanish Theatre that was presented in Puerto Rico at the beginning of the century. At ti1ncs it is remi· nisceat of the humorous traits of authors like Carlos Arniches, Julio Camba, Pedro Munoz Seca and others. Half-hidden midst its ragged dress lurk the battered bald pate and mocking eyes or Pirandello.

In a so-called preface that the author places between the second and third act, Rechani Agrait claims 1hat he does not know Ionesco, or Camus,

"Todos !As Rui.seii.orts Cantan° and ,vas irnpressivc in his

shape the plot of this play.

Rechani sets his plot in a caferestaurant in the San Juan of thirty years ago. For inc this restaurant seems a direct rcminiscence of such

a place owned by Ciro Malatrasi, a kind ltalo-Puerto Rican whose bonho1nie, generosity, si1nplicity of spirit, candor and many other values, left an unforgettable memory in the hearts

of those who were fortunaie enough to have kno\\·n hinl.

If don Ciro did not live the anecdote of the play, "Alejandro," a character masterfully perfom,ed by Jose de San Anton, exhibits many of the qualities which comprised the person· ality of that e.,ceptional man.

And again, if anybody should deem Jose Luis ~·farrero's acting as

11

Bion·

dinello" exaggerated, it should be enough to remember Angelo Albrizio, that quixotic and refined Italian actor ,,•ho lived \,1ith us for n1any, many

years. Talkative Albrizio, sculplor by trade, "'hose con1ical gestures do1nirlated every conversation in \~·hich he \\fas engaged, n1ay not have truly been

Director or an Opera Company, as

par·

"Biondclli" is in Rcchani's play, but

ticular way justifies the archaic style

Albrizio spent the last years of his life telling us of his imaginary tri· umphs in the world of opera.

or even Sartre, and in his

O\\'n

used in the , ..1ork.

In the theatre, works are judged

rcacLing" of the famous prologue between the second and third act - in which the author pretends that we believe his white lie that he has not read those 11

,,,ho, \,1rapped in the blessed rags of existentialism, claim a place a1nong

the immortals of the theatre.

And Art Bedard was appealingly funny as Mr. Crayson.

Ten other actors play secondary characters to total a cast of 23 1icople "'ho 1nake arrangen1ents, in different combinations} to meet at the cafe.. restaurant. J-lo,vever, during the l"'O hours and five minutes of scenic time,

not one of these characters orders even a cup of coffee, not to 1nention

any of the culinary delights that are supposedly served at this cafe.

Is this restaurant \'1ithout menu \Vhere the clients, despite the realistic

character of the play, were not hungry, an oversight by the author and director?

Or was it that Luis Rechani Agrait, obsessed with forgetting all about the vanguard and existcntia1ists, decided

to let his characters go hungry?

Leopoldo Santiago Lavandero directed his twenty three actors - a difficult job - with an iron grip, a1though at ti1nes he instruc ted the111

Ju,,s,

1964

41

"' SIIOUl illSteau 0 1 speaKn 1g, d OCOI CC

6on ,vh1c.h

ana

Hut U1e reahlteS \Y1lh \vh1Ch 1vlar-

,vhic h is not uncornrnon in his ,vork.

Carlos Marichal's scenery ,vas ex· ccllent ,vhile Ed,vin Silva M ariani

tragically measures is time. The jigs.a,v puzzle ,vhich "EJpidio" so obstinately trys to solve is the complex

qul'S deals in HEJ Apartamienton have little or nothing to do with the fleeting anecdote of the everyday physical existence of the Puerto Rican people.

The author is interested (and it is with this that he deals) in dissecting the spiritual trngedy of his people. In

let a few unnecessary shadows fall, from time to time. Gloria S,\cz designed the dresses, representi ng faithfully and grnccfully th= used thirty years back, with the possible exception of the postman's costun1e. 'T'he audience, ,vhich sometimes turned actor according to the author's design, ,vas

marvelous. They enjoyed the play, laughed heartily and filled the theatre night after night.

So, Luis Rcchani Agrait, like the mischievous Prodigal Son returning home I mean, to the theatre after 1norc than t\venty years' absence,

so pa1ni ully

rnosaic of the social, poHtica1, ecc,.. nomic, rnoral, cultural and human circunlst.ances ,vhich Lhe Puerto Rican encounters ,vhcn he tries to escape

from the no-exit colony in which he lives.

The s1>iritual climate of the play is one o f sordid and convulsive pessi-

his characters "Carola" and '"Elpi· dio", the dual manifesta tion of man and ,vo1nan, he prcsentS to us the

111js1n. ~\1arquCS can find no exit from the ci rcuJllS~"'lncc, or rro,n the cornplex

by strange forces; tormented, brutal-

of circumstances which define the life of a people who, according to the author, surfer fro,n a self-destructive

inability to solve their political problem.

had his way.

lie sho,ved that you can create a

Carola

The drruna, ,vrittcn primarily in

monosyllables and short dial~'Ues, in

play if you know the inner mechanisms of this marvelous and difficult genre. Tie showed this by means of a light comedy, a play without any great sih,nificance, ,vhich is rea11y an

unending series of all the old tricks ever invented to incite Jaughtcr.

Marla .Judith Fran,o and Rafa,/ Enrique Saldana ln "El Aparttltnt'ento"

the fashion of some of the works of Ionesco, Sartre or Cainus, tends to

arc so evident that for one ,vho kno,1,1s

be l'nonotonous in the beginning, until the obsessive symbols arc discovered, and lhcn, Hkc an avalanche of cruel realities, the Lhcrne descends upon the audience.

Th.is rapid, ahnost 111ctcoric transi tion bct,vecn the ~ytnbo1s and the realities they represent strangles the dramatic progression of the play, thus robbing the audience of the pleasure of discovering for itself the author's n1cs.sage, and .seeing it gro,v vigorously on the stage.

Sin1plifying our critical criteria to

to Rican ,vontan of today. "Elpidio"

the Puerto Rican man or our tilnc.

"Lucio" is ,vhat "Elpidio could have

been. And '1"crra", ,vhat uCarola"

could have been. "Cuprila" and "Landrillo" represent the United St.ates in its most 1naterialistic aspect, \\·hilc u"rlo" is a vanishing ilnage of Latin American autochthony. The rib4-2

TH& S A N jVAH REVIEW

11

Carola", offered a performance

charged with tragic pathos. And she achieved it by virtue of a deliberate si1npUcity, \vhicl1 1nadc her interpretation of a difficult, thankless character all the more convincing. Rafael Enrique Saldana played the strangk-d, half-destroyed "Elpidio" with the sober dignity of a man who is losing his identity, but in whose personality

acters in contemporary Puerto Rican theatre (in some ,vays reminiscent of

pie, din.'Ct and specific symbols which

Let us define these symbols: The Apartment is The Colony. Yes, the colony which dates from the time Columbus landed upon our shores to the present day. "Carola" is the Puer-

of

there ren)ain values that could save

French Existentialist ,vriter, uEI Apartarniento" projects a nurnlx:r of sin1·

status.

ized, degraded, uprooted, its will sha ttered, unable to solve iL< political problem, while time goes inexornbly by.

Maria Judith Franco, in the part

him forever. Saldana, interpreting one of the most introspectively cruel char-

El Apartamiento Puerto Rican playwright Rene Marques (who, let it be said in passing, i, no relation to this critic) displays the unequivocal influence of JeanPaul Sartre's "No Exit" in his play "El Apartamiento" (The Apartment), the second work presented in the Seventh Theatre Festival.

In addition 10 the influence of the

Marques' work (and many of the Festival spectators do) the play represents one more note in the symphony of his literary creation; a symphony dominated by one obsessing theme: Puerto Rico and its colonial

image of an automati>.ed people, ru led

the bone, let us say that Rene Mar<1ues. as author of this political play, convert.S hi111selr into a school teacher ho enters the classroom, ,vrltcs the simple equation 2 + 2 • 4 on the board, and abruptly leaves the room. \ \1

Obviously, this trcat1ncnt \\'Cc"'lkcns

the internal structure of the play.

"MersauJt" in Camus' "The Stranger") outdid himself, moving the ravaged, confused "Elpidio" about the stage with uncanny control.

It ,vas unfortunate that Marta Judith's wig and the golden dye in Saldafia's hair at tirncs irnpartcd a touch of unnecessary artificiality to their roles. /\s "Lucio", Miguel Angel Su5rcz looked green and inexpert; incapable of projecting the idealism with which ~1arquf!s endo,ved his character as a counterpoint to "Elpidio." In Suarez'

performance you could almost hear the director's voice ordering move-ments, gestures, actions; as though the actor, in his inexperience, ,vere

struggling against the severe hand of Angel F. lUvcra, and as though he

had received his last-1ninutc instructions just before coming on stage.

There was some of this also in Estela clc la l.astra•s interpretation of "Terra," except that the young actress

knew how to clearly project some of the most poetic lines in the play, filling the stage with emotion on these fe,v occasions. the Latin 1\111erican lndian

''1"101 "

( Ernest Conccpci6n), is the weakest character in the play. As a symbol

he is perhaps the ghost or a race that has disappeared, or is on the brink of disappearing. And although the mere existence of Benito Juarez, the indian ,\·ho said: "Peace is the rcspcc1 of another's rights," certainly justil'ics Tlo's presence on stage, the character

as such, despite the author's intcntions1 is innocuous, lacking ln vitality, com· pletely wanting in pride, e.<temporaneous and decrepit. Man1ucs' indian is so ,vcak that at times he seCJns antisymbolic. He enters the play accidentally at the last moment, and despite the fact that hi, presence could have had much more impact and a n1orc deeper significance, the author causes hin1 to disappe..1.r ,vithout explaining how. Conccpci(m's acting comributed little to the role.

Digna Cuzman, in the part of ucuprila11 and Luis A. Cosine as "Lan-

Rafael Sanchez' " ... 0 Casi cl Alma" (Or Almost the Soul) was the best theatrical production in the Seventh Festival of Puerto Rican Theatre.

I n its production, the work also benefited from one of the best performances in the Festival; the inter· prclation of "La Senora" by noted Puerto Rican comedienne Nom1a Candal.

"La Senora" ,,1as conceived by the

author as a satire of Puerto Rican society, of the prudishness and folly of those ladies of our society ,,•ho ,vastc their lives in various insignificant SO· cial activities, doling out their charity ,vith a n1cdicinc d roppcr ,'t'hile they spend the money that should be delivered to the needy on expensive dresses arld ridiculous hats.

drillo" interpreted their roles with conviction.

Angel F. Rivera directed with a good sense of rhythm. Conscious that "El Apartainicnto" is a syrnbolic tragedy ,,,hose impact is derived more from the psyches of its figures than in the external expressions if its characters, Rivera kept a tight rein on his actors, avoiding all unn~-ccssary gestures.

Also conscious of the abilities and limitations of his group, and of the inlrinsic ,vcakncss of son,e of his secondary players, Rivera worked intensely on "Elpidio" and evoked an exceptional perfonnance from Rafael Enrique Saldana. Pedro Luis Tosado's scenery, scarcely irnaginative and poorly realized, plus the intentionally static lighting by Juan R. Moctezuma contributed little towards creating an appropriate setting for the play.

Actually, if they were looking for scenic simplicity, the play could have been staged wiLh the help of a simple

Miss Candal played the part with po,vcrfu] sincerity. \\ ith a n1agnificcnt sense of pace and ,,•i1h a theatrical aplomb that won her the audicnce,s mos.1 enthusiastic applause.

Other exceptionally good interpretations were offered by Jacobo Mora.Jes in the patt of "The ?,.fan", ~tar-

cyc1oran'I~ a fe\\• bits of furniture and

ta

more vigorous, better defined lighting.

Thus, we saw, we felt, we enjoyed and "·c suffered "El Apartamicnto," as it was presented on the night of April 16 at the Tapia Thc.~trc. Another \\'Ork ,vhere the burning vision that his people will never achieve the human and political dignity characterized by f rec peoples, haunts the creative mind of Rene Marques.

... 0 Casi cl Alma Because or its sense or drama and its amazing control of dialogue, Luis

.7oeobo A1orahs and Afarla Romtro in 11 0 Casi El Alma" 1

l{on1ero as uThe Wo1nan" and J\J .. bcr.to Zayas as "The Envoy."

Pablo Cab,·era directed masterfully, disciplining CVCI)' n1ove111cnt '".,ithin a wcll-organiz<.-d Master Plan where sober expression, both in gestures and speech, ,\·ere 01niniprcscnt values.

Carlos Marichal designed a poetically realistic set ,vhich "'as just perfect, although in the lighting, which he also handled, he occasionally forgot to make better use of the chiaroscuro, ,vhich \\'Ould have n1ade the set, and the p1ay, even n,ore dramatic.

Despite the fact that " .. . 0 Casi

cl Alona" was the best presented work in the festival, it is essentially a mclod.rau1a "'ith a quasi-religious thcn1e, intentionally distorted by the author ,vho creates penetrating contrasts \\•hi1c in search of expressive - not thematic- originality. Other authors before him have used the l11cme, with similar technique.~ and n1otives yet he has introduced dialogues occasionally bordering on ,he sacrilegious.

It is here \'t'hcre at times the ,vork gains in brilliance, ,vhilc it loses in genuine profundity.

On the other hand, it is a difficult task to juxtapose values, whether they be hun1an, historical, religious or legendary, particularly when these same values have, ,vith the passage of time, achieved the level of mythology.

Luis Rafael Sanchez brings back to the stage the figure or Magdalena redeemed by Chrisl and gives us a false Christ, liv~-d by a deceiver who degrades himself by e.xploiting the innocence of the people who kneel before an equally false miracle.

Then, as though he were playing ,vith the public's cn,otions, - this, too, is one of the missions of the playwright - he presents the very human character of "La Sci'iora. 0 And later, as though be would like to ,niLigatc his iconoclastic n1cssagc, he brings us 11The Envoy," a priest, the weakest character in tlic play, who presenL< the morally doub,ful precept that "the end justifies the 1

mcans.

Moreover, "The Woman," a pros· 11

titute who has barely reached the sixth grade and who exhibits a candid naivete in the early scenes, is suddenly and magically transformed through the innucnce or the false Christ into a theologian; a pheneomcnon \\'C consider to be an inconsistenc)' of the author in the dran1atic development or the character.

"The Woman", that is, the prostitute, effectively play~-d by Marta Ro111cro, rans apart in the dra1natic sense when she takes on an unjustified poetic depth and defines a man with a ,valking stick as a 1na1'I in search of support.

Obviously, for a prostitute ,vho has barely reached the sixth grade, a man with a walking stick should have continued to be just that: a rnan \\rith a \',•alking stick.

Jacobo Morales played wrhc Man" ,vith vigorous sincerity, displaying a 43 =

po,verful, serious slyle of acting nol often seen in our theatres, although his enunciation slightly marred the projection or his interesting role. /\lbert Zayas was at his bes, and gave us a convincing portrayal of c.Thc Envoy."

How could a play like " . .. 0 Casi el Alma", ,vith all the lin,itations just n1cntioncd, be considcJ'ed the best theatrical production in the rcsll\'al?

Simply because it is strong and ali\'C and il has JlO\\'erful , incisive dialogue which is often poetically beautiful and profound. The res, of this lheatrical miracle was produced by a conscientious and meticulous director, Pablo Cabrera, the good acting of its interpreters, .M arichal's set and the c~tunles by Cloria Saez.

Coetel de Don Nadie [( Francisco Arri\'i has ,vorkcd for over 25 years to n,ake history in the Puerto Rican lheatre. he certainly achieved his goal on /\pril 30, c,·cn though the \\'ay it ca.inc about "'as rather regrettable. I !is play, "Coctel de Don Nadic" (Mr. Nobody's Cocktail Party) was noisily and spontaneously booed on openin.~ night.

Ttae booing ,vas the result of one simple. unavoidable fact: "Coctel de Don Nadie" is a bad play. So bad that in the last of the four acts, the author is obliged to explain one of his characters on stage by means of a recorded voice \\ hich says: "the last generation." l\loreovcr, he sub· jects the tired listener to a 200-word recorded speech that ;mcmpts to explain lhc significance of all the theatrical gibberish that has been paraded before the audience for almost three hours.

Francisco Arrivi, a Puerto Rican author who has had more fortunate encounters with the public on other OCC..'"lsions~ ,vit.h \\•orks of relative value, ,vrotc his play ,\•ith the best of intentions: to present a caustic, biting criticisn1 of today's Pucrt.o Rican society.

But just as the road to hell is pavc-d with good intentions, as the popular saying goes, intentions - no matter how noble - do not suffice to make a good play.

Contrary lo the pre-opening publicity. "Coctel de Don Nadic" is not, in any sense, Theatre of the /\bsul'd.

It may, perhaps, be a grotesquely absurd play, but that is an entirely different thing.

1

The Theatre of the /\bsurd is based upon an intense philosophy of life.

Ca1nus, Sartre, Kierkegaard and the rest of its representatives are first philosophen and then playwrights. /\nd precisely what "Coctcl de Don Xadie" lacks is philosophy. It is a "·orcly play \\•ith a senseless, super· ficial procaci ty that leads nowhere because it is devoid or any n1olivation.

The procacity found in the works of Tennes.sce Williams, Berthold B,·echt, Kafka and Gogol is meaning(ul because it is ah\•ays anchored to reality.

The procacity in /\rrivi's play is detestable because it adds nothing to the dramatic impact of the plai·· In fact. the play lacks any conmct. Every character says what he is

Juli,

Riv,ra and Fllix Anulo

t'n "C0<,l~I de Do11 Nadie"

and what he is not. And nothing 1norc. It is as ir each character, stricken '"'ith a compulsive, banal verbalism, \vere improvising a 1nonologue to justify his appearance on the stage.

Herc arc some of the questions i\rrivi presents in \Vrili1lg his play: Is Puerto Rico battered and prostrate? Do the people or Puerto Rico \\'antler about in a semi-conscious state. 1\0l caring about the solutions to rnany of their serious, collective problems? ls the character of the Puerto Rican n1alc clcleriorating, at tin,cs LO degrading cxtrc1nes? Do so1nc glrls in our society fornicate behind tl1cir fan1i)ies' backs, and dro\\'O their disillusions in alcohol, ,,·hilc their fathers toy ,vith guns that they never fil'e? Arc mere lascivious middleagcd \\'01nen in eternal \vait for the 111an who will offer them the charity of their love, ,vho don't ,niss a chance to display their sickly scnsualisn, ? Is our ne,,· generation childish and a111biguous, the vi('tirn of an endless.

oppressive colll.'Ctivc indecision? Are all or Lhcse terrible realities manifestations of a blind destiny > So what?

AU these clc1ucnts, ho,vcvcr ,vcll defined they may be in the author's 111ind, don'l ncccss..1.rily u1ake good theatre.

'1'he)r are sin,ply ele1nents, bitterly real thcn1cs \vhich, one nighlrnarish, orar.ulat evening, passed ·by Francisco ,\rrlvi s side ,vith a Satanical sneer and conlinucd on in search of another Puerto Jtican play,vright ,\•ho ,\·ould kno,\· ho,\· to present thc1n on the stage in their full dranlatic stature.

Not to 1nouth empty \\'Ords. but lO shout or "•hispcr their cruel, accusing u·uth before the conscience of our people.

Delia Esther Quinones, Julie Rivera, Alicia Alorcda, Esperancita ~lartlnez and FClix 1\ntclo, using their best interpretive capacities, 1nade a supl"('nle effort and succeeded in breathing son,c life into Arrivi's ,veak, hollow cha,-acten. Though scenographcr Jose !\·!aria lranzo seems to be unfa.1niliar ,\'ith stage proport.ions, he created a gl'otesquely attractive set, \\'ith ju~t the anarchic, baroque louch required by the script.

And Edwin Silva Marini light~'<! the set \\'ith skill and in1agination.

Youtbful director Francisco Santiago de! Rio, who handled the most difficult play in the Festival, did the best thM could possibly be done with a play that should never have been ritten. ·'Coctcl de Don l\adic" will also stand out in the annals of Puerto Rican Theatre as an accusing finger, pointed at t.he co1nrnittce ,vhich SC· lects the plays to be presented in the Festival. Either the con1n1ittcc pcrfonns its functjon ,vith true critical sense or il \vilJ destroy, perhaps for. ever, a cultural activity \\ hich can be of great benefit to our society.

As for the booing, that is all part of theatre. People boo and hiss in ~(adrid, in Ne,v York, in l\lexico, in Paris, in Tokyo, and in any other place ,\·hctc th{'rc is a distinction between good and bad theatre.It shows the development in Puerto Rico or a discri1ninating theatre auicnce ,vhich ha.s the ('Outage to reject a play ,vhen it i, ,imply and essentially a bad one.

I .ct Arrlv'i ,vritc a better \\ ork in the futu!'c. 1\nd he will see how that sa1nc audience \\•ill, as it has done on other occasions, applaud hinl.

1

\ \1

1

1

NIGHT LIFE (Some placn to while - or whirl - a way th<" hours of the evening. frequent hut• toinute changC!i make it advisable that you call before statting out to $t"C: a specific show or performer. Thou~h sco1ne of the large supper clu~ arc shuncrc:d for the 1urnrnC"r1 ,i;a,nt,ling r.asine)' remain open at alJ wnjor hotels: the Caribc Hilton, Ponce de Lc6n, El Convcnto, J-1 Conc:ha, f.l San Juan, Condado Beach and Sber,1100.)

SUPPER CLUBS CLUB CARIBE, C.,;bc H;J,on (723-0030) - Dancing to Miguclito ~1i.randa's orchestra and M.a ndy Campo's combo. Floorahow. through June 2, stars Italian-Canadian song• strcs.,-Oancer Lolita de Carlo. Showtimc at ten and twelve-thirty. CIO!Jcd Mondays. In the ncxtdoor Ca.ribar, Luisito Beajamtn and his combo play nighll)· from 7 p.m. and dow1utairs on the Pool Terrace, Los Rubies stroll about and Jerenadc after-dark <linen.

CLUB TROPICORO, El San Juan Hotel (79 1-1100) - Dancing to Anselmo Sacasas' orchestra and Pablico Elvira's combo. Floor.show: "Puerto Rico Sings and Dances.," s1arring La (ritl'dn d~ o,.o, Myrta Silva.

Closed Sundays. Showtime ten-thirty weekdays, nine-thirty ~nd eleven-thirty Saturdays. Under the same roof arc two smaller cocktail lounges: El Cofr4!si Lounfe .ttnrring Billy Ford's Thunderbirch; E Chico Bar with \Villy O« and his sextet featuring Yd1Jia Gare&. t IESTA ROOM, C,ondado Beach Hotel (723.0010) - Dancing to Pepito Ton-cs and his Siboncy Orchestra (featuring songstress Lolita Vargas) and Paquito L6~ VidaPs combo. Floor sho"' at ten• Lbi.tty with second shov.-s Saturdays at one-thirty.

Star through June 3 is singer Monica J\{aris.

Frotn June 4, the 11 Jlitsof Broadway Revue.n Cosed Sundays and Mondays. Next door, orrering cool coc.lct~ils and a view of the cra.,hing waves oui.side the window, i.s the Tr.tdcwind.s Bar, £ca.luring Mario Oumontls dance combo nightly C.'<CCpt Tuesda.ys. The waves arc on every day.

SWISS CRALET, next to the llotel Pierre (724-1200) - Son1e busincs.$men get a full day's ,~·ork done during t.hc cuphori.s1ic liquid luncheon period at this cro,vded center oC button-down camaraderie. At ni,ht, Rafael Kain.rs dance combo and pianist l·clix Armer shi.Ct the mood Crom finance to something that rhymes.

TOP OF THE FIRST, penthouse: or 1st.

Federal $3\fogs lluHding, Stop 23 (723-!1210) The cit)' lighu ~low tv,.-inklt gcnd)' 3S you glide to the t•,n-,osl music of Tommy Cort&' quattct or drift ,\'1th Danny Dcavcr·s piano mu.sings. C«ktn1l.s fro,n tive. Sunday luncheon.

OTHER PLACES (No dancing, unless indicated. "OSJ" staods for "Old San Juan.")

CHERYL'S LITTLE CLUB, 1554 Ponce de Lc6n, Stop 22 - A c::hecrful upstairscJ05Ct personally looked after by proprietress-pianist Cheryl Norm.an. Open nightly except Sundays ll'om ti"'C to live.

CORBETT'S, 56 San Josi,, OSJ. - A vcd· dy, veddy elegant saloon prdidcd over by Ch\1ck Corbett, lhe ,\le.'(:1ndcr \Voollcou or the drink-dispcn!i.in'{ profess.ion. ~'iusic by an a.slutdy stacked Victrola. Titc: last patron C3Ut:;ht <lancing was stuffed and mounted behind the bar. Optu nightly lrom nine until infinity.

NJdia S..ffronl EL BURRITO, 207 Cr;,to, OSJ (724-2128) - The giant antique door1 give thii quaint spot the nt1nospherc ot an opeo-:1ir sidewalk cafe. Opc:n daily excc:pt Sundays lron1 lunch· con unlil 2:30 a.m. On Thul'Mla)', Friday an :I Saturday ('VC!I., from ci~ht to one, Guillenno Santiago sings and plays the guitar or &11aJro. EL CALYPSO, 106 De Diego, opposite the S,viss Chalet. Even timid walltto,vc:n blos· som into devil•Oll'ly-care c-xhibi1ioni..11-', thanks to the ebullient Boorncran~ Steel Band.

Calypso singer Tony \\tyntcr and limber limbo dancc-.r Arito Cru~ co1nprise tlte sho,v.

Open nightly from ten to (our.

EL GA TO TUERTOf comer De Diego and L.o[za in Santurce (723-9114) - This OOn)· binatioo eatery, nite:-ry and gallery (of att) is remiu.iscenl of old Hnvan:\ at its gaudiest and most dclight(ul. Open from c:leven a.m. until four a.m. Show, at nine. rea1urcs songi:t~ Carmen La.sl'ra and pianist Roberto RodtSgucz.

EL PATlO DE SAM , 102 San SebastiAD, OSJ - •\ny jukebox th:\1 pl,1.y, tvtarlene l)ictrich can't be all bad, ,tn<l the tnnbrc:lla· covered picnic; tablt'S in the <:enter patio of(er one of tllc linNt places in to,...n for hancls-holdjng and/or dcbal'ing politics. 'fhc sin~er-g,_utariu~ ,vho 1t1·0U about- on ,,,eekcnd cvcoinl(l will 1ea,·e you alone if you look at them griotly <"nOugh.

LA BOTELLA, 100 San Scbastiiln, OSJ (724-9749) - Good 1nu.sic, ioCormal atm05phcrc. 'l'hc mood is a succcs.s(ul marriai;e ur the tropics o.nd \Va.,hington Square.

Open daily from luncheon unlil lhrcc a.m. cntcrt.ainmcnt from 9:30.

LA CARRETA, 102 De D;cgo (723·9170) - i\ 111naJI, di1nly-lit haven for hands-hold .. ers to enjoy sercoading guitarists Erne,10 Gallardo and .I ulio Rol6n. Open ni(btly from seven tO five. Mu'lic ,tarts at ten.

LA TIERRUCA, 207 Sao Scba,tiiln, OSJ The .E.trly Tennessee \Villi;uns dfcor or this spnciou.s art gallery - bar - restaurant - theatre makes it an inctrcsling place to visi1. Luncheon from c:leven to '"'O, dinner frorn seven 10 eleven. Spanish-language plays, ranl(ing fro1n C:\SM to Cheko\.' arc prCKnted on Friday and Sat11rd:iys at ele,•c:n, Sundays at eight. ,\1J'rla Sileo

LA TASCA, Cruz 2$7, OSJ (724-4980) A cht\rtning, typicaJ Spanish t3V<:l"n offering drinks, snack, and the Jo,"Cly voice or lsabc.l SAnehez.

LE CLUB, 1lotc:I El Convcnto, OSJ (723-90'20) The LampHghten (Art Bedard, Lil. Shctidan, Lou OgiJvic and RaJ£i ~fufioi) brighte1\ up the evening with a ,vild 'n' woolly assortment of mwica.l ~1onkcyshinc:s. Sho,vs at nine and eleven ~1onday through Thursday, nine-thirty and twelve Fridays and Sat\lrday. Clmcd Sunday, OCHO PUEfl'rAS, Cristo & Fortaleza, OSJ (72'.J....25.'l) - An exquisite Victorian drawing room which spotlights svelte song,;trc:ss Nydia Souffront, SJnger-guitarist Jos~ Aponte and the Duchjncsque Keyboard rnOO<U of Joe Valiente. Mos.ic from te-nlhirty. Shows at clevc1\-1hirty, one, twothirty and (on Fridays and Saturday,) three-thirty, Closed Mondays..

PlRATE'S DEN, 316 De Diego - Caribbean ja.z,; by Jackie Danois, Charlie Phipps and Jack Parker 'Cl"io. Open from four p.m. until dawn.

I Tht Lamplighttu SIBONEY LOUNGE, Ponce de Lc6n Hotel (724-4000) - Thtte, count 'cm three, acts aheroatc in a musical marathon which starts 3t five and d()CSn't stop until the next morn.

The: protagoni.sts are the John Hamey combo, the Ray Cohen trio and Curly 6c1\ito and hi, AftQ-Ca.ribbcans. Renee .Berrlos sings and p lays all by her lonesome in the chic ups{airS Ca1tilia.n Lounge. She', offTucsdays.

SKIPPER'S LOUNGE, Condodo l.agoon Ho1el (723-0150) - Singer-pianist Gladys Johnson, ,vho rc:mind., OtlC: or :,.1.abcl ~ferctt and Fats \\faller rolled into one, leads a trio trom eleven to thrcc·thirty nightly except Sunday. On Saturday ni'(hts at an>llnd midnight Charlie Rodriguez. and his co1nbo 1nove in to jazz it up unt.il quite late:. The club is open from noon.

THE OWL, 151 Tcruin, OSJ (723-5943) Riru,'lng the doorbell nt4) gain you admittance to lhis Jm:\.l't upstail'$ evening spat o,-er1ookin'{ San Juan Bay •.J ctry ~falta's happy voice and piano featured niRhtly.

Also guitar 1nwic a11d dancing to a t.iny effc,·,·csccnt combo. Open front seven until 4 :t.m. Downstairs is J>rJN's Blur JronJ, fVl,iskq & .]a:.:, an open-air patio featuring drinks, draft beer, a charcoal grill .and fine American and l:.uro1xan ja.7,z. Pepe', is open from noon until 2 a.m.

THE SAND AND T H E SEA, 62 Son Francisco (723-8302) - Life iJ just one wild mctencp.,c .after another here ns owncrpiani..st Hal Hester and his e.ncr-Retic steel bandsmen play the role ot pied pipers (or the nightly New Year's Eve-tsh erowd.t.

Open from ni1te until hostess Bcrlene linter helps the IMt reveler sidestep out the (ront portal.

JUl<E,

1964

f5

GALERTA

COLIBRI

FILMS Poor Tom Jones uTon1 Jones,u the Academy 1\"iardwinning film which is breaking boxoffice records in many pam of the world, lirnpcd through three weeks of

CALLEJON DE LA CAPILLA (FORTALEZA J 19)

SANJUAN PUERTO RTCAN GRAPHTCS Wo,,ld Agent fo,, the island'• 1no1t outstanding «rtiat,1.

Luigi Marroz.z1ni1 Director PRINTS BY CARLOS RAQUEL RIVERA

rnediocrc business at the Para1nount

in May. Not only ,vas the piclure an intel-

lectual's cup of lea, but it also had aJJ the ele1nents to make it a rnass 111arket success: pell-n1ell action, broad comedy and some of the bawdiest scenes ever captured on cc11uloid.

Yet it did no better than Ingmar Bergman's "\Tirgin Spring", an admit-

ESCUELA LAS NERE IDAS NOW ENROLLING POR SUMMER SCHOOL NURSERY THRU !OTH GRADE Pull nl'tulf'mic program in Engli.111 June 15 • July 24 hourt1 9 · l2 ~fonday lhru Frida.)' f;Hgli11h for Spnni'fl~ spcaJ..-in9

rhil,lrttn nnd att nrla tJ11d crafts

program,

al&o registering for Fall 196·1 Eve Scott, Director

Tel. 72-1-9211

205 CALLE DEL CRISTO

don

Roberto TELEPHONE 124·0194

=('.-,.,~e, FINE CHINA

SHOP

r~~ Fi11t Chiiu, M<lhot1nr & Gilts

H1ndkuf114 u, hlt110 lbco

121-m1 1350 Ashford Avenue • Cond,do 46

Tug SAN juAN REVIEW

The Fa" of War

tedly limited-appeal film which also had a shon life at the Metropolitan la.~t month.

The tragedy of the situation is that there do.:s exist a market for quality fiJ,ns hcte. Ho,,·cverJ the 1narket is not quite big enough to make it economically feasible for our Santnrce first-run theatres \\'hich need mass

appeal products to keep their yawning ,paces filled.

What is needed here is a small ( no 111orc

than ·JOO seats)

Lhratre

,,·hich

would dC'dirate it<elf exclusiwly to quality films. lt would have 10 be well-located, tastcfully dccorMed and rnanagcd by a live-,\·ire pron1otl'r ":ho could extract n1a.x:iinuna nlileage from limited ad,·crti<ing funds. i\rl exhibits and coffee breaks in the lobby rould be the l)pc of lag11iappc needed to draw a steady follo";ng.

One dc1c1·rcnL is a C!on1mon,\·ealth (1ovtrnn1ent tax of 2 cents per linear foot on all imported film. But, if the governn1ent is as sincerely intcresu.-d in "'Operation Serenity" as it is in "Operation Bootstrap,0 perhaps son,e type of tax advantage can be devised for theatres which consistently present l,igh quality film fare. The film tax is negligible for those pictures which arc played and re-played here over a long period of time, thus an1ortizing the cost; bul for a film brought in for a one-,veek sho,ving, the ta.x is prohibitive.

1\nother even u1orc iinportant need is for some civic-mindcd ( and wcllhcclcd) private citizen to bankroll the project. I t might, after all, tum out to be a Jucrativc investment ir handled well. Anyone interested?

Cuin,:u.s in u Kwo,... • Andr1.ss, Sinntra and Elcbrrg in "4 For T1xas"

The following is a list of some noteworthy films scheduled during the month of June. Those ,vith rinn dates at press time have been put first in

,•

line. However, to avoid disappoint1nent in the e\'ent or latj:·minute chancies ( and they are frequent) ii

•

pay, to call and confinn before you set out.

June .5: The Sound of Trumpet.a (11 Posto)- A masterpiece of a tragicomedy by Italy's new blue-chip director Ermanno Oloti. The etot - how a young boy sew. and geu, h11 first job - 11 si11'plc. But at the end. when the youth fint 1iu down at his desk - a desk which he will occupy for the rC$t of his life - the taJm blossoms jnto t'ln e;loqucnt protdt against dehumanization.

I.

7 :3-0 p.m. at the UPR.

& Da1.'lS in IJ'lw ls Buritd In Aly Craw?"

Dar:,'1 u

Sandro Panun' ,'n "The Sound of T rumptl.s" St,wart

,n "Vulrgo"

June 12: T he Face o f War - A grisly, yet absorbing, doc1,1mcntary about war £tom \Vorld \Var I tO the present, including heretofore. rupprcs:scd footage taken in Hiro,hima and Na~aki (Qllowing the A-bomb explosions. The Olm conclude1 with the question: Will man learn? 7:30 p.m. at the UPR. June 19 - The Catholic Circle of Cine Foru.tn &. Pro-Arte will p-rC$Cnt a film at 7:30. The title wa., unavailable at presstimc.

The date is noted because this group consistently prcscou films <>f high quality.

June 23, 2•: ln the Circus Arena A 65-minutc color documentary directed

by Rws.ia'5 Leonid Va.rl3.mc>v ,bowing the thrilling spectacle of a giant circus. Bring the kiddies. At the ,\tcnco; 7:30 p.m. on the 23rd, 8:45 p.m., on the 24th. 'l"h c Bridge on the River Kwai - A welcome revival of the prize-win ning prisoncr-of·w-ar adventure atatTing Alec:. Cuinncu, William Holden, J ack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa. At tfie Ambassador.

Under the Yum•Yum Tree - Jack Lemmon as the landlord of an apartment house ruu of ptetty chicles. The light comedy romp also features Imogene Coca and t d ie Adams. Early in June. lt'a A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World An o ften funny film about a chase staffing MUton Berle, Sid Ga.csar, Buddy Hackett, MicJccr_ R.ooncy, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvcn, Terry-l"h omas, Jimmy Durante, Joe E. Brown and (or all people) Spencer Tracy.

At the M etropolitan.

T he Br.ass Boule - Tony Ran dall, as a ~ im young architect, and Burl 1vcs., a, a Jolly old genie, CCHt-ar in thul fun..ny rant3Sy which also features a camel caravan. a buUioo-filled treasure chest and an eyepopping belly danecr.

Who l s Buried in M y Grave? - Bette Davi!!, atiH o n th e "&,by Jaoe" kick, p lays twin $.isters in this chiller diUcr. Her aocom· p liccs .;1tc Karl Malden and Peter Lawford.

Opens June 10 a t the Puerto Rico.

Seve n Day1 in 1.fay - What happens when a group or high-ranking generals conspire to overthr0w the U.S. government by force? Th.is adaptation of the best-selling novel by Fletcher K.nebd and Chnrlcs W. Bailey 11 !ltars Burt Lan caster, Kirk Douglas, F~deric ~{arch, Ava Gardner and Ed.mood O'Brien. At I.he Puerto Rico.

Vertigo - A revival of Alfred Hiu:hcock'• th.riUcr !!tarring J amcs Stewart atid o. bru· neu e Kim Novak. Opens June I 1 at the Lorraine.

Four fo r T cxa, - A Ratpack western starring Frank Sinatra 3.1 a gambler (nanirally). Pc.an Martin as another gambler (n.tiuralJy), Anita Ekberg, Unula Andrea (prooounecd like uundrcss") and the Three Stooges.

•

But .she'Afeel

elatect whetl

they Refurll froM El ESPEJQDEORO ( Where • II her Jewel,y gets repaired)

CALLE ITALIA 501 • KATO REY • 767-7420

REYES QUALITY PHOTOGRAPHY

-...

MANUEL REYES lining up the Vieques cover photo for the June issue of the San Juan Review.

623 PARQUE • 723-8368 j UHE,

1964-

47

El Morro ~

Charm

----, ') .. ·~

RADIO-TV

_

Figh ling CiJy Holl

~~

If "Station A" had daily live broad· casts of sports, news and public affairs from the mainland, plus Arthur Godfrey and Johnny Dollar, would )'OU listen to the recorded music and local patter programming of "Station

Another

A 11~Lk J

~ riginal

1350 Ashford Ave. • Condodo • 723-078l

11

IJI~ ID®llilliil~® Native and American Cuisine

OPEN DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAYS 11 A. M. TO 2:30 A. M. 207 CRISTO

~/.,2

OLD SAN JUAN 724·1128

«IIJi:''!fN1'

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ANPfkffeA I I - QUI

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D••illl from 9 I'll Toi • C...N11 S111l loN

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• ltrllM llosttr ,... H1ltSS

BER N & TOR'S

Qcho Puertas ~ y..,1o2.....,&e.wt: CRIS'tO & FORTALEZA i!a C..-:,, C:-.. ........., ~ c.,..,,:::, C:-c..,oo,..........,t-J.

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Some San Juan broadcasters. backed by the Puerto Rico Broadcasters Association, think not. Their feelings arc strengthened by the reported reluctance of a fe"' advertisers to sponsor sho,,fs on "B" and "C" \\'hile Willie Mays is batting home runs for "1\'s listeners.

11 1\11 in t..his case is Army radio station .,\CE, ,,•ith studios at Ft. Brooke in San Juan. Its 50-watt sig· nal covers most of Metropolitan San J uan AC E's live stateside programs co1ne from the short-,vave stations of the Armed Forces Radio Service.

"B" and "Cu are the Englishlanguage commercial radio stations WHOA and WKYN. Fonner WKYN station manager George Mayoral claims it's perfectly legal for commercial stat.ions 10 carry rebroadcasts of AFRS programs, as long as no commercials are sold. That would even the com~tition. Bu t neither station is trying iL At recent FCC hearings in San Juan, a Pentagon representative ,vas quite vague on whether such re-broadcasts by com· mercial stations are permissible.

WKYN, the younger and lowerpowered of the two commercial stations, has been hurt financially by the ACE programming, according to Mayoral.

He questions the legality of the Army operation. Stat.ions like ACE are permitted in uisolated" and c.overseasu areas, according to Pentagon rules. Mayoral a nd the other Puerto Rican broadcasters are unhappy with the Defense Department interprcta· tion of tl\CSC t\YO ,vords in relation to San J uan.

They wrote the Pentagon, and got a reply that ACE was going to stay on the air. T hen they wrote the White House. That reply is still forth· coming.

Th e commercial broadcasters wouldn't have a case if ACE's signal

OE IT )100R1S II, $ PANJSU

f

OR PU £RT0 RICAN J't'S • • .

c)

Calle Teluiin cor San Jot1l

~

THE OWL I

Ab..

Rin.r hfll 1-4 a.m.

A. 'l31'4 ,-7 ro..:> a,..,,, ........:) c - , ,c,,.D~-.D ~

LA "GALLEGA" RESTAURANT

Spanish C~isine Our Specialty 203 San Sebasti~n • San Juan• 724·2670

were confined to the boundaries of Ft. Brooke. Ft. lluchanan and the San Juan Naval Base. That's how the FCC restricts unlicensed "carrier current" stations at many stateside colleges. The stations broadcast their signals through the campus electri· city lines-and don't go outside if the system is operating right. Yet anyone inside the campus can hear the programs through a radio plugged into a wall socket.

ACE is right there at 1200 on the dial for everyone with a radio, despite the frequent announcement that it is just "serving the military co1nn1unity."

Major James Devitt, Antilles Command Public Information O fficer, and the man in charge of ACE, gives the anny view ,vith the con1ment that the coJillllercial stations "just play music." That's not enough for the information and education of military personnel and their families, he says.

A logical extension of this reasoning would permit similar Army stations at isolated posts in the west· ern states of the U.S. - where the local radio fare is often dominated

by DJs and the same wire service newscasts that the San J uan stations use.

No one can deny the infonnative or educational value of the AFRS news broadcasts, since they combine the best products of the four state· side radio net,voi:ks' ne,"s departrnents.

Yet one ,vonders ho,v 1nuch education Arthur Godfrey provides. And the only feasable excuse for sports broadcasts is that they improve troop morale - providing the listener is rooting for the ,vinning team.

Sympathy for the local broadcasters aside, few of San J uan's Englishlanguage audience should be unhappy at the variety of programming that ACE airs.

The commercial stations aren' t giving up, however. There was. a lull in their anti-ACE campaign during M ay, which was National Radio Month. But soon they expect to be at it again, " fighting city hall."

Arc you a su ~scriber to ~he Review? To U1surc getting your copy each month, fill out and mail the attached postcard. We 'II gladly bill you later.

•

I

MON.

SUN.

WED. TUES.

THURS.

FRI.

SAT.

I

11..----

2

1

3

6

5

20lb 1n.nhierury

of 0·01)'. FIS· BeethoY111,

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Kippy Birthdly

Ylw.ldi,

Mo~rl and

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OPIM

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film: of

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speart Fnth1I bqiu In Stntford, Conti.

Blltti11; lnwdH f'nrtee (1940)

Clue.. Sehubtrt & BfflllOftft at tht C.ub futival to· nlch.t

boldiftl tu (1943)

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Fiim:

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81nk Hohct.-1 In l1lw1n.

Kipp~ Blrltldt)' lo vy lo•·

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dtttptn to the

Cflebntion today 11M1

12111 Wof1d Con· arm of thia In· lt111.11liol\ll Grafld Lodt• ol Druid·

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Circ.-u, Attn1" at the

Russian lllm "In The Altl* toni1ht & ht·

ism.

monow nlallt.

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livtl lo To, 811•·

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Col\J;tm votn All.SU lflto Union ,s 49U1

S•• Ptdto fn· ti'III In Llj11.

stet• (1958).

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C.s.tls

81a.ch

Tenni.J

T011.tn.a111tt1t.

18

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Chlo lrlosb 600

Mendelssohn.

Mozart & Sdw, ,unn

Oocado

a.o" opens at t•e Lorraine

16

23

the

Sen Antonio de P•· du.e Ffitl'l'II i n 81, rt11nq11itas, C.iba, Oo,

.....

redo.

Guayaru,

ISi·

fin1I concert ol C.s.tls f'e,thtal (H.ydtt's "Crt· et.ion")

17

tl11tou1h Jun, 20

21

Ol'I

beaches of H0t·

rundt,

P.------J •-------'

"T he FIN of Wu' ' 11 UPR to,1l1ht

HltchclKk•s " Vlfti•

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Cop,1 Cl•b

livities

13

Italy declares • ., on fttt1e• 111d

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Sin J111n Jau Wort, lhop ctl•bu1tu second •nniw,a,y with '" 111· flis)lt i•m s.euion 1t

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Hott.II

KorHI\S

CtOU l8:tll !)It· 111,1 to inv,de South Kor•• ( 1950),

Btclin Film Festi· nl (lhtou,:tl July 9)

20 C.mp Red Alrow opcM (tbrou-1~ Au-cvs.t 1) for tll.lld11n from I~ ilf.1nd 1b1o,ad.

... .,.

Isidro f'tllffll (tbr0&s1h June 29)

M.su,ubo.

27

••

.

·-------

C~l,~------~.~nith ushers ln a new,el"l'l tn stereo ; si>ul)d reproduction basedonquamy.

QJtalitJ Stereo Hzih Fidelity • 1

a Zen•tll tJ'l'ldition. 1%4 Zenith stereos bring you the Hnesl sound teproduc· t1on ever'ach.Jeved tn quality home stereo. 45-year tradit!on o! quality without <;omprd"11SI!. Zenith, an zis· surance ot the worfd's finest performing stereo instruments.

Exclusive Distributors for Puerto Rico

VELA DISTRIBUTING CORP. BAYAMON

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(,luM print dHtly)

~ ••• NAME _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __

;:°

STRE-ET

CITY

ZIP NO. _ __

{prof,n.lfHI & IIU• of M•d of houwhold) _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __

ALSO,

o Bill me o I enclose check, enlilling me to one extra issue

u nd I ,..., aift 1ubscciptlo11 at $3.75 to

NAME-----------------------

STREET

CITY _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __

Tllt 11fl ca, d 1holllld rHd: " F r o m - - - - - - - - -- -- - - -

"And it's going to be such fun! The place will have swimming pool, tennis court, horseback riding facilities, a 9-hole, 3 par golf course, country club for the exclusive use of EL SENORIAL residents, a thrilling view .. . and the breeze, the grass, the trees ... it's the kind of environment you wish you could have for your weekends. Only that living in EL SENORIAL you can enjoy it every day of your life. And the house ... it's a dream of a place! Can't even begin to tell you about it" EL SENORIAL is a 1400 unit community coming up on Cupey Alto road, only 15 minutes from the city. It will have schools, shopping centers, a section of apartment houses plus other unusual facilities.

LOCATION PLAN

llno1ber proJecl or:

INTERSTATE GENERAL CORPORATION Borinquen Towers, Caparra â&#x20AC;˘ Telephone 782-2717