Month: November 2025

I spent my early years in Puerto Rico; this tropical island holds my earliest memories.  My family spoke Cantonese at home; this is the first language I learned.  My father ran a Chinese restaurant, which was also our home.  I learned some Spanish while chatting with family friends and patrons.  However, I officially learned Spanish when I enrolled in Catholic school.  All the other children learned the subjects taught in school; I had all those in addition to learning a foreign language.

Once they started teaching English as well, it proved to be too much for my brain; I failed that class.  While I understood early on that my sisters and I were different from the remaining students, classmates didn’t really treat me any differently.  I mean, we spoke Cantonese and were obviously different races, but it wasn’t a thing.

Continue reading “Donde cabe diez, cabe once” →

Drosophila melanogaster.  The biological name of a common fruit fly used for biological research due to its rapid life cycle.  I learned that in high school biology over forty years ago.  I don’t have it tattooed on my arm; I simply remember it.  I’ve occasionally described the random facts in my head to a landfill.  Save for perhaps a trivia game, knowing the scientific name of the common fruit fly will never be useful.  I should just jettison it like jetsam.

I retained a disproportionate amount of civics, which is the study of government.  I remembered details about the branches of government and how they all functioned.  Strangely, I don’t remember if that class was in middle school or high school, nor do I even remember the teacher who taught the lessons; I just remembered the facts.  Though much of this also came through osmosis on Saturday morning cartoons and Schoolhouse Rock.  Where I learned about how bills are passed, and even the preamble to the US Constitution.  I can still hear the tune in my head.

Continue reading “Race ≠ Nationality” →