The Weekly Journal - Wednesday, December 14, 2022

puerto rico’s

new provisions that members of the real estate industry consider to be even “more dangerous” than those included in the previous version.

t a time when interest hikes have severely impacted the real estate industry in Puerto Rico, the House of Representatives has just introduced House Bill Num. 1416, (“P. de la C. 1416”), which would impose new requirements on the closing of properties sales, inheritances or donations in cash.

The bill, introduced by the Speaker of the House, Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, which had been previously judged unconstitutional by the court, was filed again with

According to financial attorney Rafael Ferreira Cintrón, the bill, if turn into law, it would not only make the closing transactions more expensive, but also the division of community assets and inheritances, which would be required to present an appraisal and a survey of the property to be inherited.

The attorney explained the bill requires the buyer to certify the origin of the funds or present

Ileanexis Vera Rosado, The Weekly Journal

“After arriving to this beautiful Island that my family and I now call home, we have worked directly with local charities in different philanthropic areas. Once hurricane Fiona strike us I took action to help families in great need through an economic donation to United Way of Puerto Rico. Just as I did, we urge the Act 20 and 22 grant recipients and the foreign investors community to contribute to other many important causes that United Way of Puerto Rico supports through its 123 non-profit partner organizations that service our community, our help is very necessary. ”

At United Way of Puerto Rico we acknowledge, witness, and very much appreciate the 20/22 Act Society commitment to giving back to Puerto Rico in full appreciation for the benefits living here provides. They are very sensitive to the needs clearly seen, and we look forward for them to continue to provide and fulfill those areas of need through our charitable arm.

a week in review

“El TEch Guru” launchEs firsT physical producT

The well-known blogger and technology communicator Obed Borrero, a.k.a. “El Tech Guru,” has launched a voltage protector and charger for the Puerto Rican market. This is the first physical product from “El Tech Guru” brand to arrive on the island. Borrero chose the voltage protector and charger as the first product to launch in Puerto Rico because of the energy situation in the country, which creates high demand for such items. The product offers protection against voltage fluctuations, blackouts, and instant spikes that can damage electronic equipment. It is also a charger for cell phones, tablets or any other device with a USB connection. The “El Tech Guru” voltage protector and charger is now on sale in Dr. Tech stores in the Mall of San Juan and Mayagüez Mall.

hEndricks Gin invokEs

ThE maGic of ThE sEas

Taking its name from Neptune, the Roman god of the seas, Hendricks Neptunia is the new iteration of Lesley Gracie’s Curiosities Cabinet. With a strong mythological charge, the surprising and unusual gin, inspired by the magic of the sea, is rich with notes of cucumber, rose, and lemon. Neptunia is a blend of Scottish coastal botanicals, creating a rich and evocative sensory history, which will become the indispensable ingredient to create your best drinks. Hand in hand with Hendrick’s, Neptunia is Project Seagrass, a marine conservation charity dedicated to ensuring that seagrass meadows are protected worldwide. This alliance seeks to raise awareness and funds to support marine pasture meadows and spread word of the vital role they play in providing food and habitat for thousands of marine species.

Powered BY El Vocero de Puerto Rico, 1064 Ave Ponce de León 2nd floor San Juan, PR

Postal Address: PO Box 15074, San Juan, PR 00902

President Salvador Hasbún shasbun@elvocero.com

Vp of Marketing and Business Operations

Michelle Pérez Miperez@elvocero.com

The Department of Consumer’s Affairs (DACO for its Spanish acronym) web portal and its social network pages now have a link to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) website, where you can review the latest information about product ‘recalls’ in the United States and Puerto Rico. The link (https:// www.cpsc.gov/Recalls) can be found on DACO’s Facebook and Twitter pages at @dacoatufavor. Using the link is easy — users can review the list of products claimed for review and can find out if an item has been recalled by using the search function. DACO will continue to notify citizens of any recalled products sold to Puerto Rico through traditional media.

VP of Accounting Félix A. Rosa frosa@elvocero.com

VP of Production Eligio Dekony edekony@elvocero.com

Human Resources Director

Arlene Rolón, PHR arolon@elvocero.com

VP of Editorial Content

Juan Miguel Muñiz Guzmán jmuniz@elvocero.com

Multi-Platform Graphic and Technology Director Héctor L. Vázquez hvazquez@elvocero.com

Multi-Plataform Digital Director Rafelli González Cotto rgonzalez@elvocero.com

Phone: 787-622-2300, 787-721-2300

Customer Service: 787-622-7480

daco now TElls you abouT rEcEnTly rEcallEd iTEms

six bank statements demonstrating where the funds come from. Should the buyer be unable to present said evidence, he would be forced to submit an affidavit.

“Nobody goes to a notary public with $100,000 in cash to buy a property. That money is delivered in a manager’s check and the bank already has its regulations to ensure this type of transaction. Now they want to transfer the responsibility of watching over the notary [to the buyers], which is not their responsibility. There is a lot of people who have saved for years to get their own land or their home,” Ferreira Cintrón said.

The attorney, who is the spokesperson for the different real estate sectors –real estate brokers, title deed investigators, notaries, and former members of the Real Estate Brokers Examining

The alleged legislative purpose is to curb transactions where the value of the assets is lowered for the purpose of the sale transaction in exchange of an undisclosed cash transaction.

Board– considers such requirement “a direct invasion of the buyer’s privacy.”

Ferreira Cintrón insisted it is unnecessary to force the buyer to present evidence of the origin of the money, because banks and other financial institutions have those provisions regulated by the Know Your Customer laws, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) monitors them. “Once the institution issues a manager’s check, a close monitoring of the transaction and

the institution has occurred,” he said.

“Many transactions with financing have already been affected because they [buyers] do not qualify after the hike in the interest rate. That will continue to happen. To this crisis they [lawmakers] now add these new requirements that affect divorce processes, inheritances, and donations. This is the perfect storm against the real estate sector,” he argued. Ferreira Cintrón also assured the bill would delay these processes, from 30 days to over

Nobody goes to a notary public with $100,000 in cash to buy a property. That money is delivered in a manager’s check and the bank already has its regulations...

Rafael Ferreira Cintrón, spokesperson for the real estate industry

In fact,

90 to 120 days.

According to Ferreira Cintrón, the alleged legislative purpose is to curb transactions where the value of the assets is lowered for the purpose of the sale transaction in exchange of an unofficial cash transaction. The lawyer argued such transactions are difficult to detect because nobody knows what is being agreed between independent different parties. Also, any person can sell an asset for whatever price he or she estimates appropriate.

“That is a constitutional right. A transaction between two people is exclusively between those two parties, and it cannot be conditioned by a third party. This is a country where the private industry is separated from the government and the state cannot interfere in the slightest,” the lawyer said.

Realtors React

Rubi González, president of the Realtors Association, agrees with Ferreira Cintrón’s arguments. González considers the bill could be “detrimental” for the consumer and for the industry in general.

For the realtors’ leader, including the appraisal report, the surveyor’s report and the certification on origin of the funds as new requisites not only makes the process more expensive, but also delays the transaction.

“This bill has neither a beginning nor an end. The parties agree on the price. At this time, when bank sale transactions are slowing down, this is another blow to the real estate industry. Many legislators, the banks and the people are very active against the passing of this bill,” González said.

The realtor pointed out there are mechanisms already in place for the government to detect this kind of transactions. Also, the government has means to collect property taxes, like the Municipal Revenue Collection Center (CRIM, for its Spanish acronym).

Realtor Milton Serrano Jr. said on his part “the state’s intervention” harms the “natural rhythm of the real estate business” and has an adverse effect on the appraisal of real estate.

Serrano Jr. pointed out the proposed bill affects the wealth of Puerto Rican families and causes

These new requirements are an undue and unconstitutional interference of the state in the negotiations between private citizens for the sale of private real estate.

Milton Serrano Jr., realtor

delays in the process of buying and selling properties and imposes additional charges for sellers and buyers.

These additional expenses, which could amount to thousands of dollars in residential transactions, may very well make transactions “unfeasible” in many cases.

“These new requirements are an undue and unconstitutional interference of the state in the negotiations between private citizens for the sale of private real estate,” said Serrano Jr.

He further explained that currently there are not enough professionals to comply with these new requirements.

“These professionals are already facing difficulties in presenting their evaluations with agility and promptness,” he said.

Both realtors understand the proposed

legislation would also affect emergency transactions, those where owners resort to selling their properties in order to cover medical expenses or to avoid loss due to bankruptcy or unexpected unemployment, among other reasons.

Mortgage Bankers

The president of the Mortgage Bankers Association, Luzmarie Vélez, argued that the state’s interest in preventing people from reporting the real amount of cash transactions or reporting lower values to evade tax responsibilities is not necessarily remedied with this bill.

“This measure does not promote the real estate industry or Puerto Rico’s economic development. It imposes on the notary public the duty to inspect what is not his responsibility, imposes additional economic burdens and delays the processes. It impacts adversely all of the components of the sector,” Vélez said.

These additional expenses, which could amount to thousands of dollars in residential transactions, may very well make transactions “unfeasible” in many cases.

In fact,

George Music Lounge: new entertainment venue in Paseo Caribe

Small bites and tapas in a loungey atmosphere with live music

Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal

gastronomy, mixology, and fresh entertainment to the Paseo Caribe in San Juan. Around 40 to 50 people worked on the project’s development, and another 65 will be employed by the venue.

In fact,

very night, one of a kind,” promises the George Music Lounge, a new spot at Paseo Caribe. The new venue, identified by the logo of a peacock — an homage to the birds that once roamed the space — whips up small bites and tapas in a loungey atmosphere where live music gives the experience its soul.

“E

George Azih, the owner of the new venue, got into the hospitality industry for the same reasons he moved to San Juan — loving the city and its unique offerings, especially its culinary ones. Although he grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, Azih is originally from Nigeria. “I’m proud of all my heritages –Nigeria, Atlanta, and now Puerto Rico,” he stated.

The idea of the music lounge was born while he was in the process of moving to the island. He often visited the island prior to the move, when he realized there was a lack of entertainment options. Once he made the leap to officially move to the island, he thought George Music Lounge would be a great concept to build and a great initiative to create more local jobs.

Azih has been working on creating the lounge for approximately a year and a half. His vision is to curate a high-end lounge bringing premium

By trade, Azih is in the technology industry, but, as he puts it, he’s also in the business of people. “What that means to me is that I’m in the business of creating jobs. [Your] people are the most important asset that you have. Your commitment to your customers is empty if you don’t have a commitment to your people,” he explained.

To combat post-pandemic hiring challenges while also increasing the chances of attracting good potential employees, George Music Lounge offered a referral fee to employees.

This commitment to people was apparent in Azih’s hiring practices. To combat post-pandemic hiring challenges while also increasing the chances of attracting good potential employees, George Music Lounge offered a referral fee to employees who brought somebody in that was hired and stayed for at least 90 days. “We hired 67 people,

and in order to do that, we had to let them know we couldn’t do it ourselves. Good people hang around good people, know good people,” said Azih.

George Music Lounge inaugurated last week and will be open for business everyday of the week from 5:00pm to 11:00pm with live music, except on Sundays, when it opens at 11:00 for the quintessential Sunday Brunch.

Challenges of doing business

Doing business in Puerto Rico presents its own challenges. While in the process of opening another location, receiving permits was one of the most frustrating barriers to get through. “It took us a year to get permits. So I was paying rent on a place that has no income,” Azih explained.

It took Azih about a year and a half to complete the Lounge and an estimated $1.5 million to have it ready to operate.

Azih encountered challenges not only with getting permits. He experienced the friction of doing business on the island. “Everything gets slowed down. [I’ve opened] five business accounts here and each and every one of them has been very challenging,” he expressed. “It’s not that it can’t be overcome. But when you combine all these things together, it slows everything down. So that can be frustrating, because I’m just not used to that.”

George Azih,

Yet the slower pace, when compared to the States, isn’t necessarily a bad thing in his eyes. Though Azih acknowledges that one can’t say which way is ‘right’—work to live, or live to work— he appreciates the perspective that the change of pace has given him.

It took us a year to get permits.

So I was paying rent on a place that has no income.

owner of George Music Lounge

Puerto Rico’s crypto community is not a lost cause

Despite current crises, the technology supporting it all remains legitimate

Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal

As the island grew a critical mass of Web3 related innovators and business people over the past few years, a vision appeared of Puerto Rico becoming the next Silicon Valley for technology related to the developing iteration of the internet. Part of that was a large influx of crypto-related investors and businesses who saw both the growing community and the generous tax benefits offered by the island.

Yet you need only glance at a few headlines and that vision, even on a global scale, seems to have been replaced by a far less promising one. Within the crypto market, $2 trillion of market capitalizations have been lost over the course of the year-long crypto winter. As of December 2022, both Bitcoin and Ethereum were down 65% yearover-year.

So what’s in store for Puerto Rico’s crypto and Web3 community? It starts with highlighting other uses of the technology underlying cryptocurrency markets.

“Crypto, at the moment, won’t be the on-ramp for Web3,” said Keiko Yoshino in an interview with THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. “Unfortunately, crypto has made a lot of headlines and it has done severe damage to the reputation of the technology as a whole, because a lot of people only know enough to know that crypto is tied to it.”

Despite the hellish situation for crypto investors, there are upsides to the incidents of the past year. With the initial shininess of crypto dulled, and while the bad actors are being weeded out, it’s necessary that the industry’s threshold of legitimacy rise and to focus on innovating.

“When everything’s going well, and there’s a lot of hype, there may be some inspiration. But when it’s not, we go back to the drawing board and ask

‘how do we make this better? How do we make sure that this is safe? Everyone should be looking at their own product right now,” Yoshino said of creating opportunities during hard times.

Yoshino came to Puerto Rico to join the crypto community with the goal of improving and increasing access to education relating to blockchain technology. Leaving behind Washington DC, she moved to the island in 2021 and founded the Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association (PRBTA) and “CryptoCurious”, a free weekly educational program to help people get to know more about crypto, NFTs, the metaverse, and Web3. “This is my first crypto winter. So I didn’t know what to expect. But I came for the crypto and stayed for the technology, right? Because I believe in it,” Yoshino said.

“For this space, the technology is there, it’s just [a matter of] finding adoption of it in ways that are beneficial to not just one individual, but to the community, to governments, to everybody,” explained Yoshino.

From solving the island’s energy crisis using micro grids on a blockchain to saving money by using decentralized storage through Filecoin, there are already numerous efforts that have the community front of mind, as was originally intended with the emergence of these technologies. “The energy was very positive seeing and drawing the nexus of where technology could

be part of the solution for Puerto Rico, but also just bringing together people that were interested in the future of Puerto Rico, the true builders,” Yoshino said of the past Blockchain Week organized by the PRBTA, where a diverse group of 300 attendees discussed regulatory and public policy issues, financial inclusion, and utility NFTs.

Additionally, legislation is critical to supporting adoption of blockchain and related technologies. On Wednesday, the PRBTA will present a bill to clarify the language from a similar bill passed earlier, regarding the following issues: creating another crypto international finance entity (IFE), amending the money transmitter act through the ‘Innovation Sandbox’, codifying the SEC’s ‘how we test’ to determine whether something is a security, and amending the foreign corporations act so that an entity isn’t required to register in Puerto Rico if they don’t have an office on the island and people work remotely from home.

“We’re here to build. And slowly but surely, we’re building community and that was in a large part what we were hoping to accomplish,” Yoshino emphasized.

Unfortunately, crypto has made a lot of headlines and it has done severe damage to the reputation of the technology as a whole…

Keiko Yoshino, PRBTA founder

Within the crypto market, $2 trillion of market capitalizations have been lost over the course of the yearlong crypto winter. As of December 2022, both Bitcoin and Ethereum were down 65% year-overyear.

In fact,

Wholesale inflation in U.S. further slowed in November to

Latest figures reflect an ongoing shift in inflation from goods to services

Christopher Rugaber –The Associated Press

WASHINGTON —

Wholesale prices in the United States rose 7.4% in November from a year earlier, a fifth straight slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures across the economy are continuing to cool.

The latest year-over-year figure was down from 8% in October and from a recent peak of 11.7% in March. On a monthly basis, the government said Friday that its producer price index, which measures costs before they reach consumers, rose 0.3% from October to November for the third straight month.

Still, a measure of “core” producer prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs, accelerated, rising 0.4% from October to November. The core figure had risen just 0.1% from September to October. Looked at over the past 12 months, though, core producer prices were up 6.2% in November, less than the 6.7% in October.

The latest figures reflect an ongoing shift in inflation from goods to services. The cost of goods

rose just 0.1% from October to November, with wholesale gas prices tumbling 6%. (Food prices were an exception: They jumped 3.3% last month, fueled by costlier vegetables, eggs and chicken.)

By contrast, services prices rose more, up 0.4%, led mostly by more expensive financial services. The wholesale cost of airfares and hotel rooms both fell, though, and overall services prices have slowed in the past three months.

“Overall inflation is moving in the right direction, though at a slow pace,” PNC Financial Services Group said in research note.

“The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy tightening plans will remain aggressive until clear, consistent signs of inflation’s demise have been demonstrated.”

Rising prices are still straining Americans’ finances, particularly for food, rent and services such as haircuts, medical care and restaurant meals. Yet several emerging trends have combined to slow inflation from the four-decade peak it reached during the summer. Gas prices have tumbled after topping out at $5 a gallon in June. Nationally, they averaged $3.33 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA, just below their average a year ago.

And the supply chain snarls that caused chronic transportation delays and shortages of many goods, from patio furniture to curtains, are

unraveling. U.S. ports have cleared the backlog of ships that earlier this year took weeks to unload. And the cost of shipping a cargo container from Asia has fallen sharply back to pre-pandemic levels.

As a result, the prices of long-lasting goods, from used cars and furniture to appliances and certain electronics, are easing.

Friday’s producer price data captures inflation at an early stage of production and can often signal where consumer prices are headed. Next week, the government will report its highest-profile inflation figure, the consumer price index. The most recent CPI report, for October, showed a moderation in inflation, with prices up 7.7% from a year earlier. Though still high, that was lowest year-over-year figure since January.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in a speech last week, pointed to the decline in goods prices as an encouraging sign. Powell suggested that housing costs, including rent, which have been a major driver of inflation, should also start to slow next year.

The Fed chair also signaled that the central bank will likely raise its benchmark interest rate by a smaller increment when it meets next week. Investors foresee a half-point Fed hike, after four straight three-quarter-point increases.

Rising prices are still straining Americans’ finances, particularly for food, rent and services such as haircuts, medical care and restaurant meals.

In fact,

U.S. sanctions firms for human RIGHTS ABUSES

Those sanctioned include the 15-member Russian elections commission

By Fatima Hussein – The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Friday it is imposing sanctions on a broad array of people and companies around the world for corruption and human rights abuses — from illegal fishing operations in Chinese waters to kickbacks in Guatemala — in recognition of International AntiCorruption Day.

Those sanctioned include the 15-member Russian elections commission, which oversaw a sham referendum in Russia-occupied Ukraine in September, a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters and a church founder in the Philippines charged with sex trafficking.

Other people and firms from Iran, the Western Balkans, Liberia and El Salvador were also among those identified by the U.S. federal government for financial penalties and blocks on property located or managed in the U.S.

The wide-sweeping sanctions announcement comes on the day that the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and aligns with Biden administration officials’ participation in the International Anti-Corruption Conference this week. The conference lineup includes speeches by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House National Security adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials who endorsed various anti-corruption efforts domestically and worldwide.

The sanctions targets announced Friday include a group of companies accused of illegal fishing and worker abuse in Chinese waters. One company, Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd., maintained working conditions so dangerous that five workers died after 13 months at sea, with three of the workers’

bodies dumped into the ocean rather than repatriated to their homes.

A senior department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the U.S. action, said on a call with reporters that Dalian employs crew members who work an average of 18 hours a day, live off expired food and drink dirty water.

Illegal unreported fishing is associated with distant water fishing, where boats fish in other countries’ or international waters. China’s distant water fishing fleet is the largest in the world.

Additionally, three politicians from Guatemala, including Allan Estuardo Rodriguez Reyes, the country’s former president of the Congress, face sanctions for alleged corruption and using political influence to get kickbacks and other favors.

And in Russia, several presidential administration officials and the country’s elections commission will be blocked from the U.S. financial system. A U.S. Treasury statement says that for years the Kremlin’s elections commission has touted “clean and transparent elections in Russia that have been riddled with irregularities and credible accusations that the Kremlin has carefully managed the results.”

The sanctioned people and companies’ property

and interests in the U.S. will be blocked and American companies that do business with the sanctioned entities will have to wind down their ties with them.

The administration uses a Trump-era executive order that implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as its authority to issue the sanctions.

“Over the past year, Treasury has made combatting corruption and serious human rights abuse a top priority,” said Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson in a statement. “By exposing the egregious behavior of these actors, we can help disrupt their activities, dismantle their networks, and starve them of resources.”

Treasury is pursuing more anti-corruption efforts in the future, by soon creating a database that will contain personal information on the owners of at least 32 million U.S. businesses as part of an effort to combat illicit finance.

Sullivan said at the anti-corruption conference earlier this week that the administration supports the ENABLERS Act, which would expand the definition of the Bank Secrecy Act — and would require accountants, lawyers and other professionals to conduct due diligence checks on their clients’ money, to ensure it doesn’t derive from money laundering.

Right now the Bank Secrecy Act only applies to financial institutions. “We encourage Congress to enact it into law as soon as possible,” he said.

The Treasury Department says it’s sanctioning a group of companies and people linked to illegal fishing operations and human rights abuses in Chinese waters. >AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File

The sanctioned people and companies’ property and interests in the U.S. will be blocked.

In fact,

opinion

Eduardo Burgos-Suazo COO of ABEXUS Analytics and Professor at UPRCA

A fresh perspective for the future

As a student of social constructs, social dynamics, and one’s relation with who we are as a species, it is astonishing to detect the abundance of complexity in our highspeed, underrated day-to-day activities. As the current year draws to a close, one tends to take the time to observe and reflect over the near past, as well as develop expectations for the forthcoming future.

In a year in which the United States reached a 40-year historic inflation, was plagued by quick interest rate hikes, with the cryptocurrency industry on the brink of collapse, climate change, questioning social media as a tool of free speech and democracy, a war in Ukraine, the fear of a new war, Hurricane Fiona, the markets’ wild ride, expectations of a possible recession, and Trump officially running for office (just to name a few things), it would seem that it couldn’t hardly get any worse. Even though discussing these issues is compelling, what is mostly missing is the exploration and debate of the method and approach that’s used to understand social issues. Since the social construction of the “new year’s resolution” is just around the corner, let’s approach it from another perspective called “social imagination”.

In the year that President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state, the average cost of a new home in the US was around $12,500, and an American Professor at Columbia University named Charles Wright Mills published a book called “The Sociological Imagination”. In it, one finds a spellbinding proposition to understand the social world that far surpasses any commonsense notion we might derive from our limited social experiences.

On a greater scale, the sociological imagination framework makes the connection between what one might call “personal challenges” and their relationship with larger social issues. In other words, it provides the ability for individuals to realize the relationship between personal experiences and the bigger society in which they live their lives. Without getting too deep, but risking oversimplifying Mills’ approach: how then could this be achieved and why is it important?

Firstly, one needs to view society not as a member of society itself but from the perspective of an outsider. In essence, imagine that you are seeing everything for the first time. You are an observer, without any clue of what and why things are the way they are. In theory, when one uses this

approach, new answers (and, therefore, a new understanding of how and why people behave the way they do) start to arise by limiting our biases, cultural factors, and personal experiences.

For example, if we take a cup of coffee and see it through the lens of sociological imagination, one can clearly see that it is much more than a stimulating liquid. Coffee in Puerto Rico is part of a family’s morning ritual; it serves as a social bonding and socializing tool. It is also a socially accepted drug; its addicts are called “cafeteros”, and, while it is still a drug, “cafeteros” don’t have the social repercussions of other drug addicts.

It also speaks to our political history, Spanish heritage, and why you may drink coffee instead of other liquids (vis-à-vis other colonized nations that drink tea). While I hope the reader gets the point of the exercise, what remains is the question of how personal decisions are directly or indirectly affected by social norms, history, and social structures.

Maybe if decisionmakers start to reflect on social issues such as crime, social and economic inequality, access to education and healthcare, and migration through the eyes of sociological imagination, those future expectations for 2023 could be based on a much clearer understanding of what these things are and why they tend to

happen. One can’t expect different results by engaging in the same techniques over and over again. Constant reimagination is necessary to solve complex problems.

Finally, why is this important? Even though no formula is perfect, it could serve as a hint to visualize the reconstruction of Puerto Rico not only as revitalizing buildings and paving roads, but as an opportunity to redevelop and implement the social norms, values, and culture one expects to leave for future generations. Wouldn’t you say that’s worth it?

[Sociological imagination] provides the ability for individuals to realize the relationship between personal experiences and the bigger society in which they live their lives.

In fact,

Jazzy ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ swings on after 57 years

The Christmas special and its music have become an indelible holiday tradition

David Bauder – The Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Mendelson family would love to find the envelope where their father, Lee, scribbled some lyrics to jazz musician Vince Guaraldi’s composition “Christmas Time is Here” for an animated TV special featuring the “Peanuts” gang in 1965.

The producer always said it had taken less than half an hour to write, and he likely tossed the scrap of paper away. He was in a rush. Everything was rushed. No one even knew, once the special aired, whether it would ever be seen again.

Instead, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” became an indelible holiday tradition and so, too, has Guaraldi’s music — perhaps even more so.

“Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas without hearing that album in the background,” said Derrick Bang, author of the biography “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano.”

The special itself was a bit of an oddity: a cartoon story of the meaning of Christmas soundtracked by a sophisticated, mostly instrumental jazz trio of piano, bass and drum. Yet it worked. Guaraldi’s cascading piano evokes both motion and lightly falling snow on “Skating.” The driving melody of “Linus and Lucy” is the eternal backdrop to a swinging party. “O Tannenbaum” shifts from the traditional carol to a bass-driven groove. A children’s choir adds charm to “Christmas Time is Here.”

The soundtrack has sold more than five million copies. Its nostalgia-fueled popularity has only

grown, getting a crucial boost in 1998 when Starbucks began selling it in stores, and fed steadily by new products. The latest, a box set of outtakes from Guaraldi’s recording sessions, was released this year.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” has aired every year since 1965, although that tradition is about to change.

The special’s run on broadcast television ended last year. Apple TV+ bought the rights, and streams it exclusively starting this year. While a recognition of television’s new direction, will that reduce the chances of new generations of children happening upon the story and music?

illustrator Charles M. Schulz’s classic comic page characters, time has made it traditional holiday music.

It all started in the San Francisco area, home base for Guaraldi, as it was for Mendelson and Schulz. Mendelson’s popular documentary on Willie Mays — Schulz’s favorite baseball player — convinced the reclusive cartoonist to participate in a “day in the life” film about his work. One of Mendelson’s favorite songs was Guaraldi’s breezy hit, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” so the jazzman was recruited for a soundtrack.

In the days before cable and streaming, Mendelson couldn’t sell the documentary, so it went unseen.

After the popularity of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in 1964, a sponsor asked Mendelson if he’d considered making a “Peanuts” Christmas special. He lied that he had. Schulz agreed to outline a story, and Guaraldi came aboard, too, recycling “Linus and Lucy” from the documentary.

Animation is time-consuming, so the team had a tight deadline to make it onto television. It was Mendelson who decided that “Christmas Time is Here” was missing something without lyrics. He asked several songwriters to take on the task, but the deadline was too daunting.

“It was actually an amazing opportunity for music like that to be heard by a lot of people said Harry Connick Jr., who covered “Christmas Time is Here” for his own holiday disc just out. “It was not necessarily the kind of music that would be played on regular radio.”

That’s even less likely now, as jazz recedes into the history books or the background of dinner parties, said Nathaniel Sloan, musicologist at the University of Southern California and co-host of the “Switched on Pop” podcast.

The music Guaraldi created for the soundtrack is ambiguous and more complex than most holiday music, Sloan said. Tied to warm feelings for

So Mendelson sat in his office and did it himself: “Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer...”

Some at CBS were nervous before the special aired. Executives wondered if viewers would accept their favorite comic strip characters come to “life” with voices and movement. Schulz’s insistence that the show quote from the Bible gave it a religious focus that television entertainment typically steered clear of.

But it was a hit, winning Peabody and Emmy awards, and never went away.

Guaraldi never had the chance to see his music age into standards. He died of a heart attack in 1976, only 47 years old. Lee Mendelson died at 86 in 2019 — on Christmas Day.

>Peanuts Worldwide via AP

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” has aired every year since 1965, although that tradition is about to change. Apple TV+ bought the rights, and streams it exclusively starting this year.

Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas without hearing that album in the background.

Derrick Bang, author of “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano.”

Del Toro takes his ‘Pinocchio’ to very dark places

The character is more interesting-looking than the blue-eyed, bow-tie wearing puppet we’re used to

Jocelyn Noveck – The Associated Press

Let’s face it, “Pinocchio” has always been an odd choice for a children’s morality tale.

Of course, lying is wrong. But that’s not the only message the story sends. Even the classic 1940 Disney version — lighter and more kid-friendly than the 1883 Collodi tale — still sends the message that if you’re not “good,” you don’t deserve to be human.

“A boy who won’t be good might just as well be made of wood,” the beneficent Blue Fairy admonishes Pinocchio in that film. Really? What happened to the idea that “to err is human?” Not to mention second chances, or learning curves? And what does “good” mean, anyway? Have they heard of value relativism? But we digress.

Because now comes Guillermo del Toro, with his blazing creative talent, to really stir things up. And boy, this is not your Disney “Pinocchio” — not the 1940 classic nor the remake of a few months ago. How will your kid feel about fascist salutes (or you about explaining them?) A guy named Mussolini? Bombs falling from the sky? A father handing a gun to his son and saying “Shoot the puppet?” (Yes, sweet Pinocchio — THAT puppet.)

Of course, del Toro, whose take on “Pinocchio” is so distinct that the movie is called “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” has just the visual command you’d expect, partnering with co-director Mark Gustafson in this gorgeous stop motion project with a starry voice cast (including three Oscar winners — Christoph Waltz, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.) The movie often looks stunningly beautiful, in color and texture. And you’ll want to get on a plane right now and find the Italian village where Geppetto lives, with cobblestoned alleyways framed by snow-capped mountains jutting out in the mist.

Pinocchio, too, is way more interesting-looking than the blue-eyed, bow-tie wearing puppet we’re used to. He’s a lanky masterpiece in striated pine, with wooden curls, too, and something about him is heartbreakingly lovable. Maybe it’s because he

makes mistake after mistake. And to err is … oh, never mind.

We first meet Geppetto (David Bradley) as the happy father to a real son, Carlo. “All they needed was each other’s company,” says the narrator, namely Sebastian J. Cricket, voiced by Ewan McGregor. They spend their evenings reading stories by the fire, and Carlo accompanies Geppetto to his job restoring a huge Jesus altarpiece in the church. It’s there that tragedy strikes one day; a warplane drops a bomb onto the church, killing Carlo. Geppetto withdraws to drinking and mourning.

In grief, Geppetto cuts down a pine tree and makes a puppet. In the night, the Wood Sprite (Swinton, not to be confused with her sister, Death, also Swinton) comes to visit. As in other versions, she asks the cricket to watch over Pinocchio and serve as his conscience.

Geppetto brings the puppet to church, but he’s greeted with hostility: “Where are his strings? Who controls him?” At home, Pinocchio wonders why everyone loves the wooden Jesus but not him. A fascist town leader pronounces Pinocchio a “dissident” and “independent thinker.” Not as a compliment.

Like in other versions, Pinocchio gets caught up with a money-hungry impresario, Count Volpe (Waltz) who puts him in a puppet show. Unlike

The Blue Fairy in Guillermo

Del Toro’s Pinocchio

other versions, one audience member happens to be Il Duce (Mussolini.) Also unlike other versions, he orders Pinocchio shot. Pinocchio also gets hit by a truck. Luckily, Swinton’s Death keeps sending him back to life.

If this seems a bit unsavory for the younger kids, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet — Pinocchio ends up at a fascist military camp, where the boys are set against each other in deadly war games. Compared to this section, the time he and Geppetto later spend in the belly of a whale seems rather quaint.

But “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is clearly not aimed solely at kids, but rather is banking on the fact that adults, too, will be drawn to the striking visuals and mature themes at play.

Del Toro is also making clear references to the danger of groupthink. Indeed, he seems to have chosen the background of fascism to point out that the narrowminded townspeople who suspect Pinocchio because he’s different are the real puppets, not Pinocchio.

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” a Netflix release, has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America “for dark thematic material, violence, peril, some rude humor and brief smoking.”

The film is clearly not aimed solely at kids, but rather is banking on the fact that adults, too, will be drawn to the striking visuals and mature themes at play.

In fact,

A boy who won’t be good might just as well be made of wood.

Nancy Pelosi’s career chronicled in new film by her daughter

The film offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at her political life

Michael Balsamo – The Associated Press

NEW YORK — For Alexandra Pelosi, the brutal attack on her father earlier this year was a culmination of vitriol that had been building for decades. Her family’s name, she says, has been weaponized for years, turned into a curse word for Republicans.

Then, in October, a man broke into the family’s San Francisco home and attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, leaving him unconscious in a pool of his own blood.

The bubbling political rhetoric that led to that moment is chronicled in a new documentary premiering Tuesday night on HBO. The film, “Pelosi in the House,” directed and produced by Alexandra Pelosi, the youngest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s five children, follows the elder Pelosi’s career over three decades.

The film offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at her political life, chronicling major milestones from her election to Congress in 1987 to becoming the first female House speaker in 2007 to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win.

“There’s a thread from the very first time they started taking ads out against Nancy Pelosi and turning her into a witch and turning our last name into a curse word. You can follow that thread 20 years later to my parents’ doorstep to my father getting attacked,” Alexandra Pelosi said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Pelosi’s film follows her mother, literally, through the Capitol and behind the scenes as she negotiates key votes for major pieces of legislation. It also depicts threats the family received, including a severed pig’s head that was delivered to the speaker’s San Francisco home just days before the attack on the Capitol.

The camera was also rolling on Jan. 6 as the House speaker prepared for the certification of the presidential election and as rioters began smashing through the doors and windows,

violently shoving past overwhelmed police officers, leaving many officers bruised and bloodied.

The film includes extended clips recorded as Pelosi and other congressional leaders are rushed out of the Capitol and evacuated to Fort McNair, a nearby Army base. It captures frantic leaders calling the defense secretary, attorney general, then-Vice President Mike Pence and other officials trying to get assistance to the Capitol.

Some of the footage was played during a hearing of the House panel investigating the attack on the Capitol. Alexandra Pelosi and her team provided the footage to the committee.

“When they took Nancy Pelosi out of the chamber, she didn’t even get to take her cellphone. They rushed her out. And she was making calls to the defense secretary, the attorney general, the vice president, and I thought there should be a record of this,” Alexandra Pelosi said.

“She didn’t get to take the House clerk, who has a transcript of all this, to record what was happening. This was historic what was happening, and somebody needed to have a record of what was said,” she said.

Among those historic moments: discussion about whether to move the entire Congress – all 100 senators and 435 members of the House – by bus to Fort McNair and convene the joint session there to continue the certification of the election.

For the House speaker, the attack on the Capitol

was one of the worst moments of her career, as her panicking staff members fled for cover, hiding silently under tables as rioters trashed the speaker’s office and called out “Nancy!” as they searched for Pelosi.

“She thinks that the Capitol is sacred ground,” Alexandra Pelosi says of her mother. “That’s why January 6 really tore at her soul. Because to her, the Capitol is sacred ground, and the rioters literally pooped inside the sacred ground.”

Less than two years after that attack, a man broke into the Pelosi family home in San Francisco, roused the speaker’s husband and reportedly demanded “Where is Nancy?” Officers arrived at the home after Paul Pelosi called 911 and they arrested the intruder, David DePape. He appears to have made racist and often rambling posts online, including some that questioned the results of the 2020 election, defended former President Donald Trump and echoed QAnon conspiracy theories.

Documentarian Alexandra Pelosi is releasing a new film focusing on her mother’s rise in Congress over three decades. >Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/ AP, File

Pelosi’s film follows her mother, literally, through the Capitol and behind the scenes as she negotiates key votes for major pieces of legislation.

In fact,

There’s a thread from the very first time they started taking ads out against Nancy Pelosi and turning her into a witch and turning our last name into a curse word.

Alexandra Pelosi, documentary director

Pilgrims wait their turn to enter the Basilica of Guadalupe, in Mexico City.

>AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo,

File

Devotion to Virgin Mary draws millions to Mexico City shrine

The date is the anniversary of one of several apparitions of the Virgin Mary

María Teresa Hernández – The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — It is one of the world’s most visited and beloved religious venues – the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with a circular, tent-shaped roof visible from miles away and a sacred history that each year draws millions of pilgrims from near and far to its hilltop site in Mexico City.

Early December is the busiest time, as pilgrims converge ahead of Dec. 12, the feast day honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe. To Catholic believers, the date is the anniversary of one of several apparitions of the Virgin Mary witnessed by an Indigenous Mexican man named Juan Diego in 1531.

The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the number of pilgrims in 2020. Last year, even with some restrictions still in place, attendance for the December celebrations rose to at least 3.5 million, according to local officials. Bigger numbers are expected this year.

For many pilgrims, their journey to the site is an expression of gratitude for miracles that they believe the Virgin brought into their lives. Around the basilica, some people light candles while praying in silence. Some kneel and weep. Others carry statues of the Virgin in their arms as they receive a priest’s blessing.

Among the first-time pilgrims this year was Yamilleth Fuente, who entered the basilica wearing a yellow scarf decorated with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Fuente, who traveled alone to Mexico City from her home in El Salvador, said that she was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and recovered after praying to the Virgin. When she suggested making the pilgrimage, her husband and two children encouraged her.

language, Nahuatl, she asked for a temple to be built to honor her son, Jesus Christ.

As the church teaches, Juan Diego ran to notify the local bishop, who was skeptical, and then returned to the hill for more exchanges with the Virgin. At her suggestion, he left the hillside carrying flowers in his cloak, and when he later opened the cloak in the bishop’s presence it displayed a detailed, colorful image of the Virgin.

That piece of cloth currently hangs in the center of the Basilica, protected by a frame.

In an annotated edition of the apparition story, the Rev. Eduardo Chavez – a leading expert on the topic -- said the Virgin’s appearance occurred in a time of despair. By 1531, 10 years after the Spaniards’ conquest of the Aztecs, smallpox had killed nearly half of Mexico’s Indigenous population, wrecking their pre-conquest social and religious systems.

To many Mexicans, the Virgin’s image became a symbol of unity because her face looks mixed-race -- neither fully Indigenous nor European, but a bit of both.

“I’ve loved the Virgin my whole life. I even used to dream about her,” Fuente said. “My daughter’s name is Alexandra Guadalupe because she’s also a miracle that the Virgin granted me.”

For the Catholic Church, the image of the Virgin is a miracle itself – dating to a cold December dawn in 1531 when Juan Diego was walking near the Tepeyac Hill.

According to Catholic tradition, Juan Diego heard a female voice calling to him, climbed the hill and saw the Virgin Mary standing there, in a dress that shone like the sun. Speaking to him in his native

Some academics have said that the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe intertwines Indigenous and Catholic beliefs, though the Catholic Church rejects this theory. At the foot of the hill that today accommodates the basilica was a temple for the goddess Coatlicue Tonantzin, and the date of the apparition coincided with an Indigenous festival.

On a recent day, numerous motorcycle taxis were parked on one of the esplanades outside the basilica. Abraham García, a 45-year-old driver from the nearby city of Nezahualcóyotl, was there, accompanied by more than 70 colleagues.

“We come year after year to thank God, the basilica and the Virgin, and to ask her for help,” he said. “This was a good year for us, so now we’ll leave even more blessed.”

Some academics have said that the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe intertwines Indigenous and Catholic beliefs, though the Catholic Church rejects this theory.

In fact,

We come year after year to thank God, the basilica and the Virgin, and to ask her for help. This was a good year for us, so now we’ll leave even more blessed.

Abraham García, a 45-year-old driver