August 08, 2003

let's try this one more time
by sabater

at one point, WRITING OUT LOUD seemed like a good idea for a blog. upon making a search here or there, i found that there are many sites with the same title. on the other hand, my old and trusted BURUNDANGA still gets hits with my name attached to it.

so what did i learn today? never to forget rule # 1 in b'ness: stick to your brand.

so here it is, ladies and germs: B U R U N D A N G A.

in puerto rico the word is used to describe a mess of things; as an in 'boondangle' of things. it is also used to describe a mulatto, mestizo, or someone who is such a mixture of races that you cannot tell anymore just by looking at them whether they have black or indian blood at all.

growing up, this word was actually used as a pejorative and i was called in puerto rico a burundanga more than once, because i am bi-racial. then one day, sometime in the eighties, something changed. after a conference with the anthropologist Sylvia del Villar i decided to embrace the slur and swing it back at people. a typical reply would be : "yeah, i'm birracial, yeah i'm burundanga, do you have a problem with that ... and oh, by the way, is your grandma still hidden in the closet?"

what's intertesting is that, if you google the word, burundanga you will find that in south america it is a plant (Datura arborea) from which a hypnotizing drug can be made. or as a site said: "it can be any hypnotzing drink used to control a victim and turn them to illicit acts".

so mixed race, puerto rican, snappy and may i add sexy!

are you feeling sleepy?

Posted by Liza in Blogs
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Say it loud, say it proud!