Morisoñando

Today, February 27, marks the 167th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Dominican Republic from Haiti. It is a very important date in Dominican history, as this is when the three founding fathers of the DR, led by Juan Pablo Duarte, sought to release their country from all foreign intervention (HA!). Jessica's History Lesson of the Day ends here but if you want to keep reading about the Dominican Republic and its history just go here.

As you may know, I am Dominican. I was born and raised in New York City (Washington Heights - aka American Santo Domingo) to Dominican parents who met and were married in the US. They migrated to NYC separately, (my mother with my grandfather and my father with his cousin) and then met through common workmates. They worked pretty much as soon as they got to this country so never had time to take any English classes, and so I grew up speaking Spanish in my home and with my family.

But why am I bringing this up? Because for the past year and a half I have not eaten any platanos. Because I had a dream last night in which I was guesting at an Azeri friends' house, and on the television was a woman speaking in Azeri and Spanish, and she was talking about DR. And in the dream I thought, "wow this woman sucks." I don't remember what she was talking about, but I remember thinking that she was horrible. And then when the show finished, they mentioned that she was a television host from DR who had come to be a special guest on the show for two weeks. And the first thing I thought when I heard this in my dream was "Oh my God YES! That means I'm not the only Dominican who has ever set foot in Azerbaijan!!"

And then my dream suddenly changed (because that's what dreams do) and I was standing at one of the stores here in Zaqatala that I like to frequent, and I was looking through some items on one of the shelves and I noticed a large can that said something in Spanish. It said "Lobia Guisada con Longaniza," which was weird because 'lobya' is Azerbaijani for beans, and in spanish beans are "habichuelas". When I realized what I was seeing, aka a can of beans made Dominican-style with pieces of PORK in it, I got mad excited and bought the can immediately.

From this dream I can infer a few things:
1) I am actually vain enough to think of myself as the first Dominican to come to Azerbaijan.
2) I dream of Dominican foods being available in my local Zaqatala stores.
3) I apparently like beans so much that I dream about them.
4) 18 months is truly too long to go without eating platanos.