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Coffee place YOU HAVE TO visit: Café Don Juan at Hato Rey. Café Don Juan is a very known coffee shop with several locations in San Juan.  I usually frequent Café Don Juan at Hato Rey and the one at the Medical Science Campus. They have their own coffee brand and let me tell you their coffee is delicious. Café Don Juan at Hato Rey is my go-to place when I want to focus on reading. People go there to read and do work so everybody is working on their things and that usually keeps me going. If you want to sneak out of your daily routine you should go for a quick read and a coffee at Café Don Juan. 

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Coffee place YOU HAVE to visit: Café con Alma, located in Cupey is a coffee spot you shouldn’t miss out. The taste of their coffee is really peculiar, there’s really no other like it. It’s a strong coffee served with so much love. The baristas make you feel like home and they treat you amazingly. It’s a perfect place to study for a long period of time, they have a lot of space and the atmosphere is really calm. Is just the perfect study spot.

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Coffee place YOU HAVE TO visit: Café con Cé at Santurce. This coffee spot is located at Calle Loíza. It is a nice, quiet, small place ideal to grab a coffee and read the news or just simply grab and go. They offer breakfast and brunch as well. I visited café con cé past week to do some homework and I found myself really relaxed and unbothered. They use Gustos for the confection of their coffee, which is a semidark roasted coffee, not too strong. You definitely have to visit!

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Reflection: The Science of Near Death Experiences

For some, including me, being near death must be a really scary experience. There are so many things I want to do before leaving this world, so many things I want to accomplish. This reading brought up to my mind many existentialist questions. What does it mean to be alive? What will we encounter after death? Will I see the ones I loved again? Near death experiences (NED), according to the reading, consist of people that have encounter death and have managed to come back to life. There are people who don’t believe these testimonies, others belief in them strongly. Science has tried to explain lately what happens in the brain at the moment of a NED but they argue that we don’t have yet the instruments necessary to study it. While reading some of the testimonies what captured my attention was the many things that the experiences of different people had in common. Some examples are: out of body experiences, seen a bright light, fast thoughts, and hearing voices. So, I wonder if none of those experiences are not real how come they share similar events? I think science won’t be able to explain this type of events completely. For the simple reason that these events are based on people senses and involve spiritual believes. People senses are unreliable and many of the things people tell they experience when facing death are based on their religious beliefs. For me, the brain is the most interesting and unexplained organ. It is so complex I find hard the idea that someday we will understand it completely. Nonetheless, I am aware that conducting research on NDErs will shed light on how the brain works and how consciousness works as well. There are many things in this world we simply don’t understand. To believe there’s something more after death is beautiful, it gives you hope, it makes you feel optimistic but sometimes we need to learn how to be comfortable with the unexpected.

Lichfield, G. (2015). The Science of Near-Death Experiences. The Atlantic. Retrieved April 18, 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-science-of-near-death-experiences/386231/.

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Title: Sipping on the Cuban Coffee!

During Holy Week I had the opportunity of visiting Cuba. When people talk about Cuba they usually highlight their economic status, the conditions in which they live, among other problems Cuban people face the day. But having experienced Cuba on the first hand I can say they are so much more than that. Cubans are very hospitable, humble and happy people. Since my blog is about coffee I couldn’t let the opportunity of discussing my experience of having Cuban coffee in Cuba in my blog. 

Cuban coffee is delicious, the seed is really dark, they usually roast it until the seed is really toasty. Once made the coffee smells amazing, it’s smell is almost a fragrance. Cubans usually drink it black or they make a cortadito which is black coffee with a little bit of milk. When I had the first sip of my black Cuban coffee I was amazed. I asked the woman who prepared it if they had put sugar in it and she told me no. I don’t know how the coffee managed to be so sweet yet so strong.

On the other hand, my trip to Cuba was amazing. It was my first international trip and I loved it. I am already wishing to travel again and keep on learning from other cultures through my experience. 

Here is a poem I read in Cuba that captured my what I felt and the journey I lived while I was there: 

Moved by the guiding hands of the wind, While avoiding the living room box's trend. Although fixate with this generation's iPad, Or impulse to explore the Xbox's dungeon, And glimpse the pages of the Forbe, the Facebook, and the likes. Make time to be in the moment of solace, A time to dream to explore ideals, Like floating in nebula avoiding the all powerful black hole. Navigating the void of the sense of inner torment, Or charting the boundries of the next voyages of personal task. One does need to depart from disparity of news, Or lose sense of humanity by deprived reality TV, For satirical movies like Idiocracy prophesied seem realized. One does need to regroup in personal cocoon, Meld by the silent melodies of beating chest, Like metronome syncing the keys of the piano to Bach, While breathing upon the horizon of rebirth, And find your enshrouded foggy path by beacon of self enlightenment.

- Unknow author

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Hacienda Buena Vista

Hacienda Buena Vista, also called Hacienda Vives, was a coffee plantation located in Ponce, Puerto Rico. This plantation was started by a Venezuelan called Don Salvador de Vives in 1833. He migrated from Venezuela to Puerto Rico in the search for independence. With him, he brought two slaves and started establishing the plantation. This coffee plantation holds as a National Historic Monument a hydraulic turbine. So due to this and their good coffee, this place was frequently visited by tourists from other countries and Puerto Ricans. Reflecting on this, and after reading The Ethics of Sightseeing by Dean MacCannell, should we visit a place that was developed and worked by slaves? Slaves suffered from mistreatment, unjust pay and lacked essential rights. Should people ignore the past of a place and value it for what it offers in the present? Like this, there are many other places in Puerto Rico. Another example is the Central Coloso in Aguada, Puerto Rico. This place was also worked by slaves and is now a touristic place. In my opinion, visiting these places is important to learn about our past and know that there were people that suffered to made us able to have the rights we have today. I believe history should be learned in an active way not passively. The perfect way to do this is to visit places like this. This coffee plantation is still open today for visitors, but their focus is the coffee tours not the history of the ‘hacienda’. I would like to visit the place and get the chance to talk to the family of Don Salvador to see what they think about the start of the plantation.

Dean MacCannell, from The Ethics of Sightseeing

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Essay #2: La casa de Charlie

When I was a little kid my parents used to work a lot. So, most of my childhood I spent it with my grandparents, in their house. I used to spend there the whole day. After coffee hour, which was religiously at 3pm, my grandparents used to take a nap. When my grandfather woke up he would take me to buy candy to a place called “la casa de Charlie”.It was like a magic place for me. He would let me take all the candy I wanted. I remember taking ice cream, gum, lollipops all the same day. The rush and the joy I felt were amazing. Now that I think of that time I realize how happy I was and how I thought that place would stay there forever. I will go back in time and take you with me as I recall the journey I used to take with ‘abuelo Miillo’, as I used to called my grandpa, when I was a little girl.

We go out the house and he takes me by the hand making me feel the safest girl on earth. We start walking and as a kid I remember asking all sorts of questions and after every answer I used to ask “but, why?” like a million times. And a million times he would answer each one of the questions. The sidewalk was really bumpy and messed up so I remember we were careful and watched our steps. We used to count the cars that passed on our way there and as we heard the sounds of cars approaching we would predict what color was the car going to be. It was so much fun, but the memory feels so vague. On our way to “la casa de Charlie” there was a pond and we use to stop there just to watch the water. He would joke around saying he was going to throw me to the water and I screamed so hard (wishing he would do it but knowing he wasn’t).

My grandfather was a man with character. He was serious but so sweet at the same time. He had a tough life, he was abandoned by his parents because they didn’t have enough money for all the children. Due to this he was left with his grandmother who raised him. When he was 18 years old he was called into war and decided to join the army. He was there a couple of years, but he hated it. So, he came back to PR, and met my grandmother. They got married and he opened a colmado just were “la casa de Charlie” was. That went well for some time but the he had to sell it and it became “la casa de Charlie”.

La casa de Charlie was a red house with two doors at the front. There were always two men sitting down at front of the place drinking beer and playing domino. They seemed to like a lot the place too. After I grew up I realized the focus of the store was never the candy. They actually had almost everything you would need at home: bread, milk, canned food, beverages, ham, cheese, etc. But as a kid I seemed to focus only on the candy. There was candy of all sorts: ice cream, cake, caramels, chiclets, lollipops, all you can imagine. My favorite was an ice cream I have never found again. My grandpa used to buy some candy also for my grandma and then he wouldn’t let me eat any of until we got home.

Trying to think about what was so special about the place I can’t seem to find physical reasons. The place was not appealing to see, it was plain, plain red. What was special was the experience I had, the journey to get there, the walk, the conversations, feeling safe, feeling loved and without a single worry. I would give so much to go back in time and take a walk with my grandfather I would say so many things I didn’t know how to express before. It doesn’t seem like that many years has passed by, but my grandfather left the world when I was 13. After he died my grandmother wanted to take us to la casa de Charlie but it just wasn’t the same.

Now, you may wonder…who is Charlie. Well as a kid I was always confused I never knew if Charlie was a man or a woman and I never asked. Now that I think back it seemed more of a woman I guessed I was a little confused by the way she dressed. She was always very serious I think I never saw her smile. I would give her the candy and I remember she used a calculator to let my grandfather know how much he owed for the candy.

One day as I looked to her fingers I noticed she was missing one of them. As a kid, innocent and ignorant, I asked her why and my grandfather yelled at me. I never asked again and till today I don’t know what happened to her. It wasn’t so long ago that my father told me Charlie closed the business and went to the US. Since my grandmother had also died I didn’t have a reason to go to the place or near. It wasn’t until past month that I visited the place.

There was nothing left of “la casa de Charlie”.  Now it’s a house where a family lives and close by there is a food place where they sell typical Puerto Rican food. I decided to take the walk I used to take with my grandpa and nothing was the same either. The pond dried, the vegetation decreased significantly, I no longer felt safe, I felt empty, and alone. I wished I would have appreciate it more when I could. Now I know that in simple things lie the biggest of joys. I know I will never feel the same way, the place is not the same and neither am I.  This will sound weird, but I am glad I don’t have pictures of the place. It forces me to remember every detail, even things I never thought I would be able to remember.  

        Thinking of the reasons why I loved so much going to that place my mind went all the way to the discussion of the text “A small place” from Jamaica Kincaid. I realized that when we are kids we have the spirit of a tourist. One example of the way I felt is reflected in this quote: “You emerge from customs into the hot clean air: immediately you feel cleansed, immediately you feel blessed (which is to say special); you feel free”. Although going to la casa de Charlie became part of my weekly routine I always saw it with a tourist eye. By this I mean I always saw it with excitement and amazement. As a kid, I could never see bad characteristics about the place I always focused on the good. “A person at home at your own skin” but as Jamaica expresses with this quote I might have felt this way because I was treated as extraordinary.

My grandfather made sure, I felt special so that is what made the place amazing for me. For my grandfather, probably, the place had nothing special about it. Thinking on the readings we have discussed in class I remember the text “A small place” by Jamaica Kincaid. Reading the text, I noticed that Charlie represents the citizens of Antigua and I am the tourist that enjoys too much that doesn’t realize the bad characteristics of the place. Charlie was at the store every single day so as Jamaica said in the text “they are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live” he was a native to that place. He could never see it with the eyes of a tourist as I saw it. For me going to her store was an escape for her it was the day to day. Maybe he was serious all the time because she wished to have the “ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” a Jamaica said. Going back to la casa de Charlie and seeing it wasn’t there anymore made me nostalgic, that place I saw with tourist eyes every time I went had disappeared and its never coming back.

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Reading and sipping: Click-Clack the Rattlebag

I told a friend: hey, I am planning on going on Saturday to a café to have some coffee and read for pleasure. By that, I meant I was planning to read something not related to any class. I asked him: can you recommend me a short text? He recommended me this gothic text called Click-Clack the Rattlebag. At first, I wasn’t excited to read it, the title didn’t seem to attract me too much. I was wondering why my friend recommended me the reading, but I went with it, took my coffee and started reading and sipping.

Surprisingly, for me, I enjoyed the reading very much. It’s a short story of a boy who asks his sister’s boyfriend to tell him a scary, but not too much, a bedtime story. The kid Asks the boyfriend of his sister if he knows stories about Click-clack the Rattle bag to which he says that he doesn’t recall. The kid starts describing that click-clacks are the best monsters ever. They come from the dark when you don’t pay attention. They suck people until they leave only their bones and then they hang the bones for them to rattle in the wind. Suddenly, the boyfriend was pulled away by the kid to the attic where he could only hear things rattle. As I finished the reading, I was thinking about what it could mean. So. you don’t pay attention and you end up being a rattle bag, maybe the author it's telling us to be more precocious with our choices. I just know I really enjoyed reading from a genre I didn’t experience before and although the reading was kind of strange and spooky it left me wanting to know more. Can’t wait to read and sip again

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Reflection: This is America, this is Puerto Rico

The video and song of This Is America caused a lot of disturbance when it came out. It is a direct critic of the things that are happening in America day to day and are constantly being normalized. He starts by entering the scene dancing in a peculiar way when all of a sudden, he shoots a guy that was calmly playing his guitar. Right after he shoots him, he sings “This is America” and two men come and carefully take the gun away representing how America takes more care of the guns than their people. The video is full of symbols that are explicit, and others hidden, but I want to focus on the similarities that Puerto Rico has with the America that is represented on the video. Last year, 2018, a young man went back and forth in his car near a public housing complex and all of a sudden started shooting. In the first four months of 2018 there were more 227 assassinations, this seems unrealistic. In Puerto Rico having guns is not as normalized as in the United States, but hearing that people were killed its already kind of normal. I think it is absurd that nowadays people’s life is being taken as if it meant nothing. There has been an incredible increase in violence in the country and we as citizens should look for ways to diminish it. Maybe we need more police presence, maybe values and morals are not being taught at home. There are so many variables that could be influencing this increase in violence and we should do our part and take them into consideration. Videos like “This is America” open up our eyes so we can be able to see what’s happening around us and stop ignoring it. Like America, I think Puerto Rico’s government is ignoring trauma and the violence increase. The theme of violence seems normal in the songs we hear every day on the radio, is that okay? Maybe as Childish Gambino, we (Puerto Ricans) should make a video that represents the violence we’re living, maybe that would make an impact and boost us as a society to look for solutions.

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Interview: Jose Perez-Torres Co-owner Café Alquimia

1.    Talk to me generally about the idea behind “Café Alquimia”

Cafe Alquimia started as a passion project. My family had bought some lands in Juana Diaz over a decade ago, but we were not actively doing anything with it. Our love for coffee turned into a hobby, and now into an enterprise.

2.    Who came up with the name?

My brother did. It was a drawn-out process of back and forth with ideas, but we all loved Alquimia.

3.    Why Café Alquimia? (by this I’m referring to the name)

The name is symbolic to the process of perfecting the roast. We played with the different roasting and cultivating variables (time, temperature, beans, soil pH, etc) much like an alchemist would use reagents in an attempt to turn iron into gold. For our part, we turned gold into the coffee.

4.    Where is Café Alquimia cultivated?

Café Alquimia grows on the hillside of Hacienda Guindaleza, in the town of Juana Diaz. It is at the optimal altitude to grow coffee, in between three of the highest peaks in PR.

5.    What are your thoughts on the coffee industry in Puerto Rico?

It is sad that such a fertile and privileged land is not invested more in the production of coffee. We have the conditions to grow some of the best coffee in the world, yet we drink terrible coffee.

6. What are Café Alquimia next steps? We want to commercialize the product and take it further. We want people to have quality coffee accessible to their table. 

7. Other than your coffee Café Alquimia which other Puerto Rican coffees do you consider of quality? I really like the taste of Café Lareño from Lares. It has a strong flavor to it. 

8. Do you plan to keep up Café Alquimia as a family business? For now, it is and will be. If otherwise my brother and I would have to talk through it.

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It makes me travel in time

There are things, smells, and sounds that soar us back in time. Coffee is one of those things that has that effect on me. The first time I had coffee was probably with my grandmother. In my family, coffee was something that used to bring us together. I say ‘was’ because since my grandmother is gone we no longer see each other. Nonetheless, in every sip of coffee is almost impossible to not remember her and my childhood. It may sound weird...but it’s like I’m drinking a bit of her. Her warmth, her sweetness, oh and the smoothness of her touch. The effect it has in me, it arouses me, and gives me strength.

How amazing would it be, if I could really go back in time. Just imagine that for a second. Who wouldn’t want to relive those moments that made you happy once? That’s the feeling I get when I drink coffee, its like I'm traveling time. Although, honestly, it's not always that way. We are used to living life in such a hurry that sometimes we are not aware of the little details. It wasn’t until I lost my grandmother that I noticed how much I cherished that coffee drinking moment with her. Even more, it wasn’t until she was not in this world anymore that I realized no coffee would taste the same. 

I want to use this blog as a space for me to express what I feel. Maybe you as readers might feel identified as well. 

This text was inspired on the poem: Mi Abuela by Sanchez 

My grandma , mi abuela

the only woman who loved me

the one who hugged me when i cried

My grandma mi abuela

she inspired me

she opened my eyes

showed me the world

taught me not to fear the things outside me

My grandma mi abuela

she taught me how to speak

she would sing me a lullaby just so i could sleep

she would always check for the monsters under my bed

she would scare them away and kissed me on my head

My grandma mi abuela

she made me hot chocolate

she made it so sweet

it tasted well as i drank from it

My grandma mi abuela

she smelled like roses

her smile was so beautiful

it was brighter than kids cold noses

i never had a frown when she was around

i loved her so much

she was the woman i looked up to

My grandma mi abuela

she inspired me so much

but when she was gone my world had changed

it was not the same

i knew i was small

but i still understood

she was not coming back

i understood that i would never see her again

Crying every night

waiting for her to come

she never showed up

not even once

My grandma mi abuela

ever since she left

I've never been the same

I've made bad choices

i live with fear that doesn't dare to disappear

My grandma mi abuela

i miss her so much

after everything I've said

i just want to say

i need you right now.

S. (2014). Mi Abuela. Power Poetry. Retrieved April 5, 2019, from https://www.powerpoetry.org/poems/mi-abuela.

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Seeing through whose eyes

Who am I? What is my purpose in the world? Why am I here? Am I following the right path? So many questions… more than one answer comes to mind. To try to answer these undiscovered aspects of myself I need to go back to my roots. I grew up in Isabela Puerto Rico, two hours away from Río Piedras. My mother is a nurse and my father a graphic artist. Both were very hard-working and thus could not be at home as much as they wanted to be. So, I spent most of my time with my grandparents. Most people think that we learn the most from people who hold degrees and have exemplary careers, but that was not the case for me. I learned the most from my grandparents. Even though the circumstances in which they had grown up did not allow them to finish high school, they are as wise as many of the professionals I have met.

When thinking about defining myself I immediately think in what I pursue to become. Right now, I feel I have somehow lost who I was in the search of becoming who I aspire to be. I truly don’t know if that is good or bad, it is what it is. In that pursue I have sacrificed many of the things I enjoyed and also, I have changed my beliefs quite a bit. My goal and dream is to become a physician-scientist. I have not always known that I wanted to become a scientist, but I always knew that I wanted to be better for me, my family and my community. I have also known that the environment that surrounds us has a lot to do with what we can achieve, but, our determination and perseverance determines what we can accomplish. As Puerto Rican, my native language is Spanish; however, I aim to grow and develop in a field (science) whose main language is English. When I started school, my parents enrolled me in a private bilingual school so that I could learn to fluently write and speak English and Spanish. Once my sister was born I started to attend a public high school. To thrive in the public education system of Puerto Rico is very challenging; counselors, if any, seldom mention careers in science that were not medicine or pharmacy.

Moreover, they divvied careers by gender, making it clear that careers in science were meant mostly for males. Upon arriving at the university, I was able to see that there was a wide range of career opportunities in science and medicine. Nonetheless, I still saw men overrepresented in the high positions of the field. To change this extant arrangement, I need to prepare myself the best I can for the challenges that stem from being underrepresented. I have already learned to navigate some of these, through being the first person in my family who intends to pursue a doctoral degree. I want to be an example for generations to come and for girls who believe that there is no place for women in science. For that, I aspire to be the best; as educated as possible but maintaining the humbleness and kindness that my grandparents sowed in me. I believe that is one of my purposes in life. To show others, who can relate with me, that what seems impossible may not be that way. Experiences shape the way we think. I want to show to the world that anyone is capable of achieving what they want. No matter how distant a goal might seem, it is feasible. Having the example of my family and how hard they have worked to have what we do has showed me that there is no other option than working as hard as I can to fulfill my goals.

Usually describing a ourselves is a difficult task, although that may be counterintuitive. Shouldn’t we know ourselves better than anyone? Perhaps other people see things in ourselves that we don’t see. So, I thought it would be good to get a friend’s perspective and I asked him to describe me in three words. He said the three words that came up to mind were: responsible, dedicated and role-model. I believe this is the result of how I was raised and aligns perfectly with what I have been describing. I have always been hard working, dedicated, and perseverant.

Regarding the last question…am I following the right path? Not sure. As a female in science aspiring to work in academia a barrier that has been present are stereotypes. Society expects me to get married, have children, form a family, etc. but from the barrier of stereotypes comes a bigger barrier which is incomprehension. Making us doubt our decisions. People often question me why pursue a career that is so long and requires so much of my time. They insist I won’t be able to fulfill my role as a woman. I believe we are the only ones who can end these stereotypes through our work and example. There is no such thing as a static role, we mold our own role in society according to how we want to contribute to it. I know I still have a long road ahead of me. I will find myself, for now, I will keep working on who I want to become and I know that will lead me to discover who I am.