AVISAJ

Unete a AVISAJ

Estimado Vecino:

La Asociación de Vecinos del Viejo San Juan (AVISAJ) es una entidad comunitaria para el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida, sin fines de lucro ni políticos y que se ha constituido desde el mes de agosto con la participación de más de 75 miembros. Ya se ha constituido una Junta Coordinadora y diferentes comités incluyendo los siguientes: Urbanismo y Ornato, Deambulantes, Seguridad, Actividades Culturales y Educativas, Comerciantes y Profesionales.

Es nuestra meta que tenga la máxima representatividad con vecinos de todos los sectores y calles del Viejo San Juan. Mientras mayor unidad tenga nuestra comunidad, mayor será la atención de las autoridades municipales y estatales para identificar y resolver nuestros problemas comunes.

Por ello, te extendemos una invitación especial para que te unas a nuestra asociación. Podrás recibir mensualmente información de las gestiones realizadas y participar de los comités y reuniones mensuales en la medida que te sea posible.

Lo mínimo que esperamos es que ofrezca su nombre y correo electrónico para considerarle miembro de AVISAJ. Deseamos que expreses tu aceptación al dorso de esta carta ofreciendo tu información personal y mencionando, si así lo deseas, lo problemas comunitarios que te afectan y que deben tener la mayor prioridad y cualquier comentario.

A nombre de la comunidad del Viejo San Juan, gracias por tu solidaridad, entusiasmo y respaldo. Cualquier información adicional, puedes comunicarte con el vecino que te hizo llegar esta carta o con los correos electrónicos que se identifican: solnancy@gmail.com o josevarelafernandez@yahoo.com.

Cordialmente;

Junta coordinadora:

Michelle Lavergne José Varela

Janice Petrovich Flor

Blanca del Valle Liany Fernández

Ramón Olivencia David Ortiz

Miriam Torres Dalila Rodríguez

Zaida Perez Sol Nancy Marrero

Próxima reunión: Jueves 8 de octubre en el tercer piso de la Universidad Albizu

Este es un recital poético musical utilizando viejas canciones llamadas del ayer y poesías de todos los tiempos.

El diseño de este concierto es muy ameno y representativo de una diversidad de estilos musicales diferentes, entrelazados con poesía puertorriqueña e internacional. Las canciones serán iterpretadas por el cantautor argentino, radicado en Puerto Rico por más de veinte años, Carlos Lazrte. Los compositores escogidos son: Eduardo Falú, Félix Luna, Ariel Ramírez, Brunilda García, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Violeta Parra y otros.

El conocido declamador David Ortiz Angleró tiene a su cargo la selección y la declamación de las poesías de poetas tales como: Alberto Cortez, Julia de Burgos, Luis Cernuda, Paul Éluard, Mario Benedetti, Pablo Lanco, José Antonio Dávila, Alfonsina Storni, Pablo Neruda, entre otros.

De Corazón a Corazón se presentará el 19 de septiembre en el Café Teatro de La Fundación de la Cultura Popular en la Calle Fortaleza esquina a la Calle del Cristo, al lado del Restaurant La Danza en el Viejo San Juan, comenzando a las 8:00 de la noche. El costo del boleto es de $15.00 por persona. Esta es una actividad para ayudar a la Fundación en sus finanzas para que pueda continuar su trabajo cultural.

A friend of mine had a big problem when she moved in to an apartment in Old San Juan. The street in front of her building was being re-paved during the first few months of her stay and it caused her apartment to become infested with the little visitor everybody hates: cockroaches.

Now I know what your thinking: “ohh come on, he isn’t going to talk about insects, is he?”, and to answer you briefly, yes I will talk about insects. Because I will show you how to get rid of them!

This post isn’t specifically about San Juan in the way that most of my other posts are, but it’s no secret that old buildings in general attract those little creepy crawling visitors, and in a 400 year old city there are a whole lot of places for them to hide. The good thing is that dealing with bugs, and roaches specifically, can be easy with this simple Do It Yourself method that can be used in all kinds of places: from private residences to businesses!

First: you will need: Boric acid powder, rice flour, Karo or pancake syrup, a Popsicle stick and a mixing bowl. By the way, I think its kind of obvious that dealing with boric (or pretty much any) acid is dangerous. So use it outside or in a well ventilated area, wear a mask for protection, and obviously at your own risk. In fact read its Safety Data Sheet before even thinking about trying this.

Second: Using the bowl, mix all the ingredients. The correct mixing order is : 2 parts boric acid + 2 parts flour and enough syrup to make a peanut butter like consistency.

Third: Using the Popsicle stick, dab portions of the paste on the places usually visited by the roaches, under sinks , in dark spots, behind the fridge, underneath the counters and anywhere else you might have seen them. The trick here is to put the paste in dark places so the roaches are always tempted to go to it, day or night.

Using this simple and cheap method you can guarantee that your house and/or business will be clean from pests, and wont smell like pesticide all year long!

A very special thanks to instructables.com where you will find this and other helpful tips!

Mi Viejo San Juan – Performed by Danny Rivera & Andy Montañez

Written by Noel Estrada, this is the quintessential “Bolero”, world famous as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and considered by many Puerto Ricans as the second anthem for the island. The audio is a little low, but watching these two great Boricuas perform together more than makes up for it!

La Perla – by Ismael Rivera

La Perla – Performed by Calle 13 & Ruben Blades

One of the most recent songs dedicated to the Old San Juan “barrio”, La Perla. The Lyrics are a gorgeous description of life in La Perla, and with a performance by the legendary Ruben Blades, makes this the hymn of Puerto Rico’s most famous “barrio”.

Do you have any other videos, songs, poems, or pictures, relating to Old San Juan? Send them our way and share them with the world!

Play it loud!

During the summer, the Company for the Bussiness and Cultural Development for the Isle of San Juan, known as CODEVISA, does not sponsor this event since it works partnered with the Art School of Old San Juan. Still, some art galleries do open late on summers and keep the tradition alive.

Those of you who are not art fans or connoisseurs can still enjoy one of the favorite party nights in Old San Juan. Similar to the San Sebastián Street Festival, celebrated on January, Gallery Nights is characterized by the special appearance of many local musical guests, big party drinks, and gigantic crowds. It is mostly located in the San Sebastián Street, but other bars around the city offer a festive crowd. For instance, bars and restaurants in Cristo Street such as Don Pablo and Bodega Chic keep their music up and their drinks on with a different type of crowd (a little bit more chic). My favorite bars on this night, “El Batey” and “Karamelos” also put on a fiesta with more of a artistic and indie motif for those of you who want to enjoy the party, but not be part of the large multitude in San Sebastián Street.

As your day to day blogger, I’ll be sure to go tonight to my favorite bars mentioned above in order to do some “research” (by that I mean, drinking and partying) in order to comment on it tomorrow. Be sure to make a trip today to Old San Juan and have a few drinks. And if you spot a short guy drinking heavily, be sure to buy me, I mean him, a drink!

Sources: CODEVISA <http://www.codevisa.org/nochesgaleria.html>

*Picture(s) taken from Google Image.

I recently had seen on television a program where the characters play a game that they have to name the fifty states of the United States (redundancy excused) in a six minute time frame. Even though it is compulsory to take a United States History class in high school at Puerto Rico, I gave us a chance to break two rules: (1) it was a two player game (actually, three, since the bartender joined us), and; (2) there was a fifteen minute time limit. I though it was not going to be a challenging game, so I ordered another Rioja glass of wine and set the stopwatch in my cell-phone.

Seven minutes later, we were short on ten states. My father kept saying that we were missing “the tornado alley”, as if that would help me or the bartender. Still, I should give our friend the bartender (she has a name, it’s Jessica) for helping us with at least twenty of the states. Eight minutes later, we were missing six states only. I tried to argue my way out of my losing spree by saying that “those states were not important”, and we googled them. They were the following: Iowa, Oklahoma, Delaware, Montana, Oregon, and Mississippi. I couldn’t believe I had Maine, and not one of those!

It seems to me that in Puerto Rico we have forgotten the importance of history. I assure you many Puerto Ricans cannot name all fifty states, but then again, a third of Americans cannot locate the United States in a world map. Hence, what’s all the fuss about with the Fourth of July celebration in Puerto Rico? It seems to me we have found an excuse to lay in the beach, drink, and party. But, when in Rome, do as the Romans. So, come to Puerto Rico, and join me anytime at Rosa de Triana to celebrate any African country’s independence with a great glass of wine!

We’ve been busy the whole day trying to put this out as fast as possible and the efforts of the team have been remarkable. Hopefully this will be a place where residents and visitors can share the happenings of this great Old City.

We have some goals we would like to see fulfilled. Being this the landing page for the city, it can be used as a daily checkup on events, concerns, and generally serve the purpose of a bulletin board for the community.

Ultimately we would like to see our rich community unfold.

This is our first post, we’ll try to keep the content fresh and constant. If you live in the Old San Juan area and would like to put in your two-cents feel free to send an email to pablo@wifiwyg.com or just create an account you’ll immediately become a contributor.

Thanks a lot,

Your Wi-Fi Team