"NO LLORES POR MI ARGENTINA" Don't cry for me Argentina

I  noticed that a number of people from Argentina were reading my blog and wondered why. I love Tango and I always wanted to go to Argentina but how did they know?  I thought it highly doubtful  that they were enjoying my poetry or even  chuckling at my snarky sarcastic comments.  Maybe they suffered from anxiety and were drawn to my excellent advice on healing.  That was hard for even  me to swallow and I do think a lot of my writing and advice.  I  then remembered meeting a man driving a van from Kennedy airport to Manhattan  NYC who was impressed with my name and looked at me with interest.   He informed me that “MENDOZA” is a major city in Argentina and he was born there. He invited me to visit his home town if I was happened to drop by.  I wish I could just drop by Argentina on a whim or a name, but my finances don’t permit it

What I did feel was a bit  embarrassed that I wasn’t as proud of my last name as he was. I never have been fond of my last name. It never felt  like a feminine or pretty name for a girl.   I remember in my teens  watching the  TV show “The Monkees”  where Mickey Dolan plays “Locksley Mendoza- MAN of a thousand voices.”  Then there was the parody on the Simpson’s based on the Mcbain movies where Mendoza  is the worse kind of Spanish stereotype hunting down corrupt drug kingpin/senator Mendoza    Why are bad men named Mendoza? According to “The Urban dictionary”   Mendoza has a violent urban meaning.http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mendoza   

  A cry of anguish. A man can yell Mendoza in any situation, whether it be his soon to be retired partner getting gunned down by organised criminals, or your dinner falling off the table thanks to an untidy housemate.

Emphasis can be added with a gaze into the sky and a shaking of the fist.

McBain: “Scoey! NOOOO! MENDOZA!”

   My family doesn’t come from Argentina. My father and grandfather were born in Puerto Rico with earlier ties to Spain.  When I lived in Spain I was told my name was very famous. According to history or folklore depending on who I spoke with the original “Mendoza” was the  father confessor to Queen Isabella . I asked how a priest could have children. I was innocent then. The lady in black winked and told me “We call it “the other side of the blanket”  I didn’t get that either. I wasn’t called “Sherlock” in my teens for nada

 Anyway, I want to invite my Argentine friends to join my blog.     bienvenida    I would be grateful and happy to visit such a lovely country; and one with a city named Mendoza where women live. I also  love the idea of cute men(and women) who eat steak and hang out in Tango halls. I met a few men in my travels.  But I have a man now and I can’t imagine him executing a hot gancho leg hook But then, he isn’t  from Argentina. He was born in India. So, let me invite new friends  from India to join me here too. I was told by a history professor in college that  the Dravidians of ancient India, (the Indus valley) had indoor  plumbing when the British aristocracy were throwing their pee out of their windows. 

 But, I love the UK, so please don’t get angry at me if you are British. I love the British. They invented stuff too, and wow tea!  But didn’t they invent tea in China. My  mother always said, ” she wouldn’t  go to India for all the tea in China”. I don’t feel that way. I would love to visit India, wow  the colors; the pageantry; the rich culture; the tea. My man just told me it was India where tea was first discovered.  Sorry India. Namaste and Svagat.  I’m making a fool of myself as always and me with a degree in Intercultural communication and a memoir named “From Agoraphobia to ZEN. As Rodney King so succinctly put it. Why can’t we just get along?” My mother didn’t agree with that.  I will invite all 3 of my Argentine followers to visit me in Hawaii; not to my house, I don’t know you yet; but to Hawaii in general. I know one day I will be in Buenas Aires enjoying the ambience and the people and maybe even try to get a free drink in Mendoza. Just don’t cry when I attempt to Tango.

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