A 1 2 3 Portrait of a Legend

Our deity Ciguapa arrived in New York too.
The subway steps changed her nature. In the ups and down to and from the
silver-grey fast worms, her feet became as everybody else's in the rush hour crowd.
She did not notice the drastic change.
This was the first sign of assimilation
--a concept not to be understood but experienced.
And Ciguapa cut her hair; maybe to be in vogue or just to simplify her rituals.
Her lover was not a hunter as the legend goes.
He was a medical doctor by profession turned taxi driver by necessity.
He, the gypsy Caribbean, worked for an uptown car service: La Base Tuya.
In this base, our deity was codified to a mere 10-13. It meant mistress or wife.
We never knew and she never cared.

Their love was filled with few words, passionate actions, fast merengues, tasty
sancochos and predictable trips to la remesa El Sol Sale Para Todos.
These trips energized by green dollars reforested the island.

Ciguapa works in a factory making pinkish dolls.
Dolls that she never had. Dolls dulled by the unique smell of new.
Earning less than the minimum, she managed to pay an immigration lawyer that she never met.
She got her green card.
It was not green.

Now she prepared herself to visit the Dominican Republic. What a triumph!!
She made it.
She made it! She made it?
Huge suitcases, bought at 14th Street were filled with unthinkable, unnecessary items.
Items to be sold at laughable prices. Prices calculated in dollars, paid in pesos.
Laughable reality. She whose laugh is based on a constant and bitter cry.
Constant nostalgia. Bitter reality. Unheard cry.

Here is no man's land. Here is no woman's stand. You can become what you
are not by circumstances, opportunity, luck, unluck, karma.
You can become a saint or forget your divinity.

My telephone is being checked for trouble
the ATM machine coldly informs me
in Spanish informed me there is not enough funds
no it did not clear out yet and out-of-state check 4 working days
dispossess dispossess
premises must be vacant if money is not received before 5:00 pm
Susan B. Anthony and Kennedy coins were traded by their face value 1971 1973 1980
issued by law treasured spent by dawn
2 dollar bills were the personified luck
2 dollar bills were the great surprise
the educational loan people/voice activated machine got my address
no tokens no tokens MTA does not accept pennies
mine from this pockets shaven not from heaven
there's no black box to swallow my Dominican quarter

every letter is a bill threatening me to mess the credit that I don't have. My face
and my hands told the ATM line that I did not have money
hope is never transformed in dollars

he dissed me he left too as the days with extra money for pints of ice cream
he dissed me as the nights with $12 for 2 foreign films from the video-rental

I told you so I told you so filled the wire
I told you so I told you so screams my mind tired

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Josefina Báez, actress, writer, and educator, was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Ms. Báez is the founder and director of Latinarte / ay ombe (1986), an art troupe that promotes the arts, artists and culture of latinas in general, Dominicans in particular. Her written work has been published in Vetas (Caribbean Magazine), Brújula/Compass (Latin American Writers Institute-NY), and Ventana Abierta (University of California), among others. Ms. Báez also publishes PoesiAlmanaque (Poetry Calendar). As an educator, she has taught workshops in theatre and creative writing in schools throughout the tri-state area, at the Alvin Ailey summer dance camp, and in Hyderabad...