carribean culture day!!

               Today we went to Columbus Circle, in the city.  A lady gave us a tour to show us the statues coming from African, Cuban Dominican, Haiti, Trinidad and Tabago and Puerto Rican.  She told us the meaning of the statues and the pictues that were on the wall.  In a picture, a man(I forgot the name) with a cane standing next to a road, can help you to walk on the road or he decides if he closes the road on you.  If you pray for him and you do what he wants, he'll open the road for you.  If you do something bad sooner or later karma will come back.  He is quite shady.  The picture is a Haitian version by the veves on the drawing.  Veves are  these designs that represent the various powers and attributes of the Loa.  Loa are God, goddesses, spirit, and Orisha.  The African Diaspora refers to the forced enslavement of Africans from Africa to the Western hemisphere. The slaves brought their traditional religions and spiritual beliefs with them, which eventually became cloaked in Christianity in an ingenious move to avoid further persecution.  They made people believe that their religion was mixed with Christianity.  We did a traditional dance form Trinidad and Tabago.  The dance is mixed with Fench and African movements. 

              After that we went to meet up with an old friend named Caridad And her Husband Roberto at a Cuban Chinese restaurant.  We ate either Cuban or Chinese food.  I had both mixed.  After we ate Caridad was talking about her migrating to Cuba.  Her father had worked in a farm, raising animals.  Her father had won a lot of money from dog races.  She said that her dad had long hair and if a man cuts his hair he is no longer a man, but since they were at Cuba he had to cut it.  He still kept his hair, which they still have.  Her dad had Won a lot of money and told Caridad that that is going for her education, but Fidel Castro had taken over and told  almost all his money, land, and properties away.  They had to live with a pound of almost everything for a month for a family.  It was really hard in those conditions. 
DAISY G.