On culture, part 2

The friendliness Elaine wrote about extends to Puerto Ricans off the island as well.

When we were in Milwaukee for the kite festival, we met several Puerto Ricans currently living in Milwaukee (Milwau-ricans?) .

First we met Maritza and her daughter Tashi. They heard about the festival - and that a kite team from Puerto Rico was coming. They came to the festival because of that - to see the equipo de chiringas de Puerto Rico. They also brought Maritza's 95-year-old abuelo (grandfather). They had never been to a kite festival before, let alone seen teams of sport kite flyers. They were warm and welcoming and gracious and very happy to talk about "home." They even brought a Puerto Rican flag for us to autograph.

We also met Brandan, originally from the island but now a graduate student at the University of Marquette in Milwaukee. Seems one of the world's top experts in karst (which is what most of this island is made of) is at Marquette. Brandan went to Marquette to study so he could come back "home" and study and hopefully teach about the karst here.

We spent nearly two hours talking with him, reminiscing about the places we all know, bringing him up to date on changes on the island, and talking island politics.

I'm not sure who was happier talking about the island, Maritza and Tashi and Brandan, or us. We all enjoyed the shared sense of "home."