COCKTAILS IN MORNINSIDE HEIGHTS

There are people who have lived or continue to live in oppressive situations and do not fall into the trap or the colonizing or mind conditioning that those in power try to impose upon them, and, furthermore, do not lose perspective of the process itself or mechanisms being used by the controlling forces. "Están claros" was the expression used in the 1960s lefties circles in Puerto Rico. And there are those who feel the need to save those under oppressive situations because they see them as impotent or incapable to separate themselves from the powers being used to control them. I have a neighbor, a professor, who is obsessed with educating poor Puerto Rican women in El Barrio Latino in East Harlem. She brags about her research and development projects in poor communities. Last night, after passing by her apartment, seeing her windows lights on and a group of people with what seemed to be glasses of wine in their hands, I continued my walk and went to my Morningside Heights very trendy café, and, while drinking sauvingnon blanc wine, eating some Spanish olives, Prosciutto di Parma, and miniature empanadas, I thought of the professor and the fact that she most probably did not invite any of the poor ladies from El Barrio Latino to her cocktail party.