© Brandon Joel Queen, 2013
Rich Port. That would be Puerto Rico’s name in English, but thankfully one strength of Shakespeare’s language is that it doesn’t need to translate everything it comes into contact with, especially when the original is just so right.
Puerto. Rico.
And rich it is. The post-card friendly qualities this island possesses aren’t its only attributes - simply the most obvious: the beaches, the biodiversity, never-ending summer and a population far more beautiful than should be genetically possible. But there is more – and this “more” runs deep.
Puerto Rico has a rich artistic and cultural heritage (cultural in the Enlightenment sense of the term), a cuisine that is as complex as it is mouth-wateringly delicious, and some of the best musicians anywhere. In addition to some very talented fashion designers and photographers, the local cinema can also boast some amazing productions (disclaimer: film and I are on nodding terms only, so forgive any oversight in this area).
In short: rich is the right word when talking about Puerto Rico. And talk about Puerto Rico is what I intend to do.
I hope that this blog will provide – in our global lingua franca – information that will be interesting, useful and above all enticing; enticing in that I hope people of various creative bents will stumble upon this little collection of snippets and run with what they find. From linguistics to literature to art to architecture and beyond, Puerto Rico offers an inexhaustible supply of inspiration for whatever your intellectual peccadillo happens to be.
Buen provecho, dear readers.
