Bobby Grant at age 95, a few months before his death. God bless him.
The mysteries surrounding the care and treatment of women that I had learned earlier on in my life from that terribly pragmatic pimp in Marañon were working like a charm. I was keeping the beauties of Abel Bravo at bay and clinging to my studies as I had never done before and, what’s more, my mother seemed to respect my apparent alone-ness although genuine conversations between us were quite rare. Continue reading
Posted in Abel Bravo School, Colon
Tagged Abel Bravo School, family dysfunction, teenagers in trouble
The following week was a good time to adjust and to get to know more people intimately at The College. The school had become my main focus of interest and I was infatuated with the idea of being able to attend classes right alongside the girls as I remembered doing in elementary school. At the National Institutee, it was all boys. Undoubtedly, I was still thinking about the girl who had given me her photo and handkerchief, and her boldness even though I was doing my level best to avoid girls this early on in the game. Continue reading
Posted in Abel Bravo School
View of the City of Colon from the northern point. Image thanks to wikipedia.org
Tito, I soon learned, came from Westindian Panamanian parents who had the physical characteristics of the culizos. Culizos in Panama bear the racial attributes of East Indians and my new friend had that distinct swarthy skin color, chocolate-brown, with a slight curl to his mostly straight hair. These features all combined in Tito to make him a good looking guy although he was a little shorter in stature than me.
We walked in silence towards the center of the city where we both lived when we were suddenly met by another guy, a mulatto in appearance. “Hey, this is my friend Riri who came here from Panama,” says Tito gregariously. Continue reading
Posted in Abel Bravo School, Colon
Tagged Abel Bravo School, Albert Bryan, culizos, Tito Johnson
The kindness in Tito’s voice was clear and made the guys in our group pay attention because, I suppose, they were wondering the same thing. I answered, “I am a transfer student here from the National Institute, and I’m living with my mother.” Continue reading
Posted in Abel Bravo School
Tagged Abel Bravo School, racial mixture in Panama, Riri, Tito Johnson
Chart of the male reproductive organs. Image.
That first day at Abel Bravo College I found myself in our classroom pretending to read a book in my attempt to isolate myself from the rest of the boys. This, after all, had been the way I had developed to protect myself from any emotional attacks I feared would follow me from Panama City. Continue reading
Posted in Abel Bravo School, Colon
Tagged Abel Bravo School, family dysfunction, teenagers in trouble, Tito Johnson
Image thanks to Wikipedia.
Those events of my youth and our history, as West Indian Panamanians, up to and following my experience in Abel Bravo College, had always managed to shock me. It had always been difficult for me to understand that what unfolded before my eyes were the first steps toward madness and family dysfunction in the making. So that all those years in our upbringing had us hauling around all that emotional baggage and, in fact, tripping over it. Continue reading
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