Discover the Secrets of Success: From Puerto Rico to Education and the Arts
What are we talking about today, mark? Today we're talking about Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, have you ever been? Yeah. One time when I was working for this company, positronic, I got sucked into having to go down to Puerto Rico. Ouch. That's where I actually learned to play crap. So, I got the casino, the casino in Puerto Rico. Yeah. I actually read once in some kind of a portfolio on Hilton Hotels that Puerto Rico casino, at least at that time, maybe 15 years ago, was the most profitable by far property that Hilton owned.
Get out really the most profitable property that they owned. It was neat. It was all open air and stuff like that, and I believe you were there at the time, but I was working for a different company. Yeah, I think you working for down there was a totally different, I've heard of that other company you just mentioned,
They tried to hire me, but I had bigger and better things to do, hence Place was a hellhole, that's for sure. There's no doubt about it. They treated me terribly. Oh, don't say that . I'm, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I've been, they'd still be there if they hadn't fired. Um, no they didn't. No, no.
Yeah. So anyhow, Puerto Rico. Senior, I used to go down to PK and our company had a factory down there. But the amazing thing is how much I think Puerto Rico's really changed, because back in those days there were so many giant multinationals, mostly pharma companies and electronics companies doing their manufacturing down there.
Because they had, the government, Puerto Rico, which is an American territory, had tax incentives. They had greatly reduced tax on profits. It was a busy place. I was going down there as a sales guy and,, , calling on big customers, Intels and HP’s and storage techs. Well, what, what year was that and when did you go?
I'm gonna say this was like in the 87-88 range. Okay. 87 range. I think the factory was set up down there around 83, 84. Remember Mark Martin? I was just gonna say there, Mark Martin was the guy that had that kind of, was, I don't wanna say in charge of everything, right? Yeah, he did.
I mean, we, that was, he was a good guy. A good guy. Yeah. One a sound solid engineer. Easy to get along with just a great, great employee that I worked with for many, many years. Yeah, it was such a big thing going down to, to say even remember digital equipment, the, the kind of, the inventor of the mid-sized computer back when people had computers and they'd never had a cloud.
Back in those days, all that clouds produced was rain, rain and snow. Now, now over Ohio, it's producing acid rain, so, That's snack. Well, the hippies probably appreciate the acid, rain, All right, so we're talking about Puerto Rico today. So you and Puerto Rico, I can see what a marriage is. What a marriage. Well, I'm telling you, I can see you just fitting in there like, OJ Simpson in his glove.
For God's sake, it was a fun place. OJ you mean, you mean,, what's his name? Michael Jackson in his glove. Well, I was, yeah, probably oj’s if it doesn't, he has a glove too. Did he just wear one glove? I think he wore two when he was driving. We'll have to ask Johnny Cochran. I don't know, so one thing I will say,, as, as I, progressed around the world and tried to become,, a successful salesperson, as I, as I studied, On countries, and I studied up on cultures before I would, dive in and, and just not go in there and pound my way through and say, Hey, I'm, I'm a I'm an American.
You, you wanna do business with us, Cabron, you do it our way or the highway. So I would, I learned, and it was very interesting because I also, at this same time, Was traveling down to Mexico. Guadalajara mostly in a little bit. Mexico City was trying to see if there was some business down there and there was in Guadalajara and now Guadalajara.
Guadalajara is a huge technology center, mostly for automotive electronics, but yeah, different doing business in. Latin America than it is in America. As I remember, there were only three countries in the world where business is the top priority for a person, a family, a culture's list, top priority.
It's like the U.S, Japan, and Germany are at the top. Well, Latin America business is like level four, really his family. Or religion. And number two is family or religion. And, and, and, and number three is family again cuz they have a big family and baby religion. , it's all family business down there.
So, it's not a big deal to go down there and get frustrated and we got your tempo, the American tempo. Hey, I wanna see that report back tomorrow. I want you to call me back tomorrow. Hey, it might be two weeks and chill out. You do business. I, I've, the only experience I've ever had and I think was down there in Puerto Rico, and maybe you can talk to this a little bit more, is, is that, I think you're right.
It is that the one thing I don't wanna say it's taking it back cuz you say you don't, it's, it's, it's not on the totem pole of things. Right. It's not really what they eat really, you know what I'm saying? Like, these Latin, Latin America, yeah. Like 10 o'clock there . I know. O'clock. Not a 10. I'm ready to go to bed.
these people are, these people are serving a giant dinner. And I'm like, why? they're not, they don't get acid indigestion or anything like that there. Maybe religion prevents that. But anyway, that was interesting. I think it is a sin. It's to send before 10 o'clock ingestion, period.
That's, that's true. But I, I could see that,, you, you get in there and Americans are all about doing the deal in Gungho, and these people are, they're in, they're in second gear. just, I mean, when it comes to that, from that standpoint. So why don't you tell me some of your business experiences down there?
I, I think that's, And maybe describe the people and the culture. I mean, I think it's beautiful and it's a great culture, great place. You got Picardi down there and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Puerto, Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, nobody knows, or everybody just,, the word Puerto Rico is, is mentioned and it's like,, a fun place, vibrant.
Passionate, fun to be around people, a little bit, maybe extreme sometime in the passion and, but, it's, Puerto Rico's before it was involved in all of this,manufacturing, it was, one of the biggest spots for Americans to go on vacation. That's true. Yeah. I think it was at, it's where they invented the pina colada.
Was that really San Juan? That's one of the greatest inventions ever. A top hundred dad in the world. Dad and j. I think these are the two greatest inventions that ever came out of Puerto Rico. That's enough set. one. One of the things that, cuz I traveled with locals and we'd go around to account and, um, and you'd get to, I'd get to know the Puerto Ricans who worked for our company down there.
And it always became shocking to me that their passionate relationships become at a point too passionate. They break up and then she has a restraining order against him and he. Training order against her, and it could be marital or it could not even, maybe it wasn't marital. There's,, it's almost part of their culture to get overly wound up about the passionate relationship.
So we'd be driving around town and the guy I'm traveling with said, oh, hey, we can't take a left here. We'll have to go around. And I'm like, why not?, the map says go left here. She says, well, no, my, my ex-girlfriend's over there and she's got a restraining order and I can't come within five blocks of her house.
or I could be put in jail. So then, oh, okay. So, we circumvent that. His,, the, the no-fly zone that he's got evicted on him by her and the, and the, the police. And then you might go to another part of the town, he's like, oh, no, no, no, we can't go right there because my other girlfriend before the last girlfriend, she's got a restraining order against me and we can't go over there either.
And I'm going, wow, this is some intense love down here. And. And I'm not joking. This is, and, and I knew a lot of people who, it seemed like everybody, by, by the time you're 30, you really haven't had an adequate love life. If you don't, if you haven't had at least one or two restraining orders put against you.
Well, it's, that really is, is the term hot, hot-blooded Latino? Does that, kind of, come on you, you've, you've never had, you've never met a Puerto Rican girl? I've only seen them on tv. I've met them. Yes. I've met JLo several times. , she wasn't interested. Well, I had a few. I've actually, having lived in California, had a lot of dates with a lot of different Latin women, but I had,, well, I can talk about it later.
Okay. A relationship, a, a couple of dates with a Puerto Rican who lived in San Jose, California. So, that's got a funny twist to that story. Okay. So I'm traveling and I, I'm, I'm at this time, I've, I've been given the nod to. The Latin American sales manager for the company, right? The family business, the Latin American sales manager.
And that meant that I was probably overseeing a hundred thousand dollars worth of business. . That's right. There you go. It wasn't a lot back then. We were, we were, to give you a very high responsibility position, I was the groundbreaker and,, and I got, I got pretty good at that. There was not really, other than Puerto Rico.
And then what developed, for us in Brazil, where we had a joint venture and actually made Positronic products down in Brazil. But that's another story. But I started going to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey, Mexico, which is a big industrial center. And, and now, Very, very, very big for,, American companies down there, manufacturing.
But back in those days it was all very fresh and new and it was, it kind of an experiment,, manufacturing in, in Latin America originally. Wasn't it just an assembly facility down there originally. And then, eventually they moved screw machines and it was a whole, even I think they had, peka, you remember Peka at all of, and Peka is what you're talking about.
Peka, yeah. You're doing,, peak am may interest,, , but they did cables down there still. So when Puerto Rico was set up, I wasn't working with the company. I was actually, so when I was living in LA trying to make it as an artist, and,, not doing too bad, but I, I worked in a company that was on Atlantic Boulevard in South la.
Next to Watts, pretty close. And I worked at a glass company and I was an artist. And I would say there were 12 different Latin cultures. I was the only white guy in the, other than the top boss. I worked with the team, which were what they call glazers. They were the guys who set the glass in and then me and another guy down there.
We were the sand. I was the designer and he was the glass etcher, but was. Round about Cubans. My best friend at the company was a Cuban. There was the Dominican Republic, there were Nicaraguans, there was just all of the Central American and, and some of the countries like Venezuela, Columbia were covered. And I'll, I'll be honest with you, None of them were legal.
Okay. And my boss told me he'd hire a Latin guy from south of the border any day over the,, the, let's say the white Americans who were untrustworthy in coming into work. These guys worked hard. He'd pay 'em even better than minimum wage. But I, I thought I, at some point was becoming sort of an expert in Latin culture.
And I, and I, and I, I got, well lay it on physically hard. We're assuming that was true, but go ahead. Yeah, well, you're pretty fly for a white guy, that's for sure. I can tell you . Well, once I get that final, finally get that rat tail to grow in the back. Well, that will be the final touch. I was, you're an expert on that around Latin America.
I'm trying to build some business, find business. There was a, , there was like a, a bus manufacturer outside of Mexico City. That we tried to get some,, product,designed in, but it, it really, it would only really take off in Puerto Rico and then,, later in Brazil. It was one of the interesting side stories.
Okay. Probably the master of all these restraining order types of employees for our company, down in Puerto Rico, Rico and all, and I won't mention his name, but because let's call him a name. Let's make up a name. Make up a name that we can call Wapo. Let's call him Wap. Wapo. Isn't that an Italian slang?
No, Wapo means handsome in Spanish. Oh, and this guy was, that's a very fitting name for him. He was, he worked out in the gym, kind of like the equivalent of a Gold's Gym, and he had a goatee and he had like perfect hair all the time. and he was a master at, at talking with women, El Wapa. I arrived in, you'd fly into San Juan, somebody to pick you up, drive you down La Poe, and he's like, bill, we're gonna go out to dinner tonight.
I got, I gotta go visit some of my, some of my ladies. I gotta go visit some of my ladies. So he took me over to this house, probably an. Side of pk and there's,, we, he kisses and they, we talked for a while with his girlfriend and there was a child, I think it was his, and then, then we would go to another one of his, his,, little haunts where he had another girlfriend.
And may, , I don't remember. What are you doing? What are you doing? I just kinda like hanging out, going, when, when's, when's it time for the mofongo? let, lemme wrap up the mof. Let's finish this story. So when anyhow, find you can go to his wife's house. This is actually his wife and he's got kids there.
And, and that's the worst place. And he acts like it's all normal. This is normal. That's the worst place, normal life. Wow. So El WaPo, he's a, is it like a, it's like a, a tour. Kind of right. so really what, so it's a tour of his harem, his Puerto whatcha har or whatever. He's in the back making love to, , a lady.
And what are you doing? You're sitting there playing with the kid or something like that? . Yeah, I'm playing on the floor with the kids. We're doing some Legos. Hey, time to go man. What? Doing some Lincoln logs laid out. We're, we're doing it. So anyhow, the, the, that was, wapo and Wapo became,eventually our factory manager and.
Think he, the end of it all had,, had some restraining orders put against him, by some of the ladies at, at work. What was that term we talked about earlier? Oh yes. Sexual harassment. Yeah, sexual harassment type stuff. He was a little bit too friendly with too many, I or so I heard, so I heard just, I, I was way, way away living in Asia by then.
But the, one of the funny stories is that we were trying to get Wapo to be our salesman in Latin America, cuz, he is fluent in, in Spanish and. So it would be better if WaPo, who's got all the charisma and so forth, becomes our man. So I took him on a training trip down into Mexico, and I think we went to Monterey and I think it was day two.
Yeah. He, he comes up with, there's no way, there's no way I cannot do this. This, I just don't feel right here. This is, this is, this is not my country. I cannot be a salesman here in Mexico. But what it was, is I noticed there were a lot of arguments between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. And how the other one spoke horrible Spanish and the other one spoke the correct Spanish.
And, and, and I noticed this when I was working at that glass company. It didn't seem like to me any of the Latins from one country respected or liked the ones from the other country. They were always kinda like making slams against each other and all but Wapo, alright, he, he, he. He just didn't feel at home in Mexico.
He wanted to go back to where he was, the king, which was in Puerto Rico. But when we'd go out to eat, we'd be out at a nice restaurant, let's say, and he could not control himself. He would have to, at some point in the dinner, get up, walk over to a table, and at that table would be the most beautiful girl in the room.
And he would talk to her, and then he'd come back and I, and I'd go, wapo. What's that all about? obviously that was her husband standing there. I mean, you're not hitting on her, and he said, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not hitting on her. I'm just letting her know that I'm in town and I'm around, and if she has any needs at all, Wapo is here to take care of her needs.
Wow. Did he talk in a third first, that is, That's a man. That's a man for you there. Yeah. . you're a man when you talk in the third person, right? Wapo is here for you. . I am wapo. I am here to help you if you have any needs. There you go. My number, listen, she was smart.
She'd ask him for 25 bucks or something like that. What's going on with WaPo? What kind of food is that? When we talk about all these cultures and stuff like that, I gotta restrain myself. One of the things that I love besides wine, and maybe someday we can talk about that. And I know you like wine too, right?
We will talk about wine, mark. You stick around, the wine will be covered. But the food, I love food. All different kinds. I think you can get an understanding of a culture by their food, right? Oh yeah. what they eat. And, and just because you, you think of Latin American, Puerto Rican food is not like Mexican food.
It's not like Brazilian foods not like that. So not. I'm interested to know, and now one of the things down there is, did you like the food there? the fried plantains I could do without, but the rest of the stuff I thought was pretty interesting. Well,, I'm, I would say Puerto Rican food is more similar to Brazilian food, or let's just say Caribbean style.
Okay. Cuisine more than Mexican cuisine. Whereas Central Americans will be more like Mexicans. There's more that influences down the peninsula. But there's,, a, a crazy unique cuisine in Puerto Rico. And, you mentioned it when we were talking, prior to this show, about Mofongo. Yes.
Mofongo. Fungo, my fungo. I mean, if you go out at 10 o'clock at night and finally the mofongo is served and Mofongo is, it is like roots and plantains. and, and,, and the sliced roots. The and, and the plantains are like lasagna almost. And I was looking at my old notes and, and I compared eating maf, fungo would be like a, a walrus eating a whale
No, you would be, that, you would feel that hole. I mean, you would, you, you couldn't get outta bed for like two days because the mofongo was just waiting for you down Wow. Heavy stuff. And, and another thing is, I think there's like a hundred mangoes, different types of mangoes. Indigenous to Puerto Rico just, and, and mangoes are a superfood bro.
Nothing like banana lasagna. That's delicious. I got into some of their grocery stores cuz I went a lot of times. I bet. I've been to Puerto Rico 20 times and got in, in their grocery stores. They have this section. Where it's just like, what the hell is that? you're looking at this gigantic display of what, what looks like tree roots?
Well, what? Its tree root was. Their roots are as big as your thigh, and they're stretched out for like six feet. And people come in there and it's like buying lumber. They get these gigantic roots and they take 'em home and slice 'em up and it's their food. One of it's a, a main staple or a starch, I think, in Puerto Rican culture, and I think the maf fungo is in there.
Tubers baby life with tubers . I'm telling you. Hey, on that note, the only reason I say this is that when you talk about grocery stores, which again, I think is interesting, Leslie, and Leslie, but it doesn't matter, but she lived in Japan for four years, right? Hmm. Not that I'm switching gears, but she told me that in Japan they have underground grocery stores and that they ever been to anything like that.
And she said they'd have facts. You mean underground, like illegal or they're just underground? No, no, no, no, no, no. Like, like a real, like a grocery store that it was. You would go underground and they'd have vats of tofu and it's just everything. In Japan, in my experience, everything could potentially be underground.
And when you're in downtown Tokyo and the real estate is so expensive and, and a lot of these downtown stores are gonna be down with the subways. So you go down to a subway station and there's anything imaginable you can buy. Yeah. That's just a store like a whole nother world or something like that.
Yeah. That exists underground and stuff like that. It's just, and we're talking about cultures and your trips and stuff like that. And sometimes these little antidotes you say, make me think of other things. And, it's interesting. Like I say, you go there, you're Americanized, you go to a Hy-Vee or something and they're high, they're all the same, but local markets and all that stuff, and you.
Chickens jumping or speaking of chickens, man,, not to get off track, but have you ever been to a cockfight or anything like that? Let's talk about that one in a minute. I got one more thing. Tell me. I wanna mention, talk to, and then we'll talk about that one Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican lady I had a date with.
And then we'll talk about my experience, which is, maybe hard to find in this day and age, but, 30 years ago. 30 years ago, I went to see a special show in the Jungle, the Mountain Jungles of Puerto Rico. But, one of the things that our company had, one of the last trips I took there, pardon?
I say, I dunno. My mind, when we said a special show, I wasn't thinking of EOR or anything like that. Right. I don't, I just keep the audience lingering. Special show coming up folks. Yes. I went a few times, I think it was called our department 51, maybe mistaken with New Mexico's, area 50.
Area 50. Is it fair or was that the disco in New York?, studio 51, area 50. We were all, they were all 51? No, I think it was an area, actually, I think it was Studio 54, now that I think about it. Okay. Let's just call it,, department 51 was actually about 80 young men. Let's say the average age was 25 in the federal maximum security prison.
In Poe, outside of Poe on the outskirts Puerto Rico,, like one of the two most high security prisons in all of the American prison system, federal. The guys who were never getting out, basically they had, they had killed so many people and done so many bad things. They were there. And so we, we went in and we had, they were doing some.
Intensive labor work and to get into this, this thing where you can actually, they took an old basketball gym and they set up this, this assembly line for a company and,, it was all legit. it was, it took a lot of red tape and to get approval to do this. So we had somebody going there every day delivering components, maybe doing some training and then, and taking the product that was.
And so I went in there, I went in there a couple times just to see because they were working on some pretty, important projects At some time. We, I think they were doing some of our waterproof connectors and,, the harrowing thing, well, the two really things of note is that not far from that prison is a, is a local,, grade school, which looked like,, a rundown garbage dump, but it was just so underfunded.
And then you go. Amazing grand federal prison that is, which, which is basically a, a giant building. And inside you have a prison, which is where you have the towers. The towers are all inside overseeing a, a, a special,, Walking area in the middle, super maximum security prison. And most of the guys that were working on our products who had to,, maybe spend three, five years before that, they, were given the permission of, of good behavior to make a dollar a day or whatever it was, and, and, and work on our projects.
And, and most of these guys, mark, they worked out with so much weight and they were so young and it was so tragic to see these guys who could have. A huge future, but some, somehow they did something really wrong. Got involved in a gang, their 18, 19, 20, and their lives are, they're, they're done. They're gonna stay in that prison probably the rest of their lives.
But in a way, it was, the conditions were pretty amazing. And, and they kept that prison in my assessment around 64, 65 degrees all the time. Huge bill to, to, keep that. He's so cool, but I'm on, I'm only guessing that they do that because it makes it, it weakens the mind and the resolve of the inmates.
Wow. Because you're always walking around half frozen,? Well, I'll tell you what, it's, that's kind of a contradiction, right? You got a, a maximum security prison, all the money, and then quaker school for the kids is Yeah. Way underfunded. Well, hopefully tie that into what we're doing here, right?
So at the end of the day, if you. In youth, whether it's in education, mathematics or the arts that we're trying to promote as far as, yes, I think our world., pay me now, pay me later. Right? We have, we've, we've heard that before, right? Yeah. You invest now when they're young and you, you get to,, are you teaching man to fish?
You, you feed 'em for a lifetime and I don't think we put enough emphasis on that. And hopefully, like I say, if people see this stuff and you could see the beautiful artwork. That you do, obviously, I think that's, that's your artwork in the back, but, the, what your students do,, taking the time and resolve to donate to, to this cause and, and,, money and time and effort and mentorships and those types of things.
Maybe, maybe we won't have to build as many prisons in the future. It blows my mind. And I see it almost everywhere in the world, it seems to be a lack of attention to education. Now, some parts of America do wonderfully, some parts,, Japan, Germany, other, other,, cultures, put a lot of time and money into the,, building the hope and the future for the youth, cuz that is the future.
As a youth, I try to do what little I. Mostly we, in our project, I think we, we, we give young people hope. Yeah. , we give people, but what I, I think so too, is that we also get caught up on what we think is important to fund as far as education. And, to me, yes.
Reading, writing, arithmetic, all those things are super important. But as human beings, right, what do we take our most greatest pleasure in? We don't take our greatest pleasure. And doing, writing, solving our checkbook, leisure or that we need to fund the arts. \ that's what we, we go to, that's what we take pleasure in, right?
I mean, philosophy, painting, music, all the things that are the finest as a human being, it seems like. We forget that that's, But we don't want to fund, we, ah, that's, they're not gonna do anything. It's not a matter, you make a,, you don't necessarily have to make a career out of being a painter, but your level of enjoyment, your quality of life, as you explore yourself and can paint and stuff like that, it may take a person instead of, like you said, you got that prison and say, Hey, maybe I want to join a gang and do this and say, Hey man, I got talent that I can paint or play guitar or anything.
What do I mean? Sing even, like I say, write poetry. It doesn't make any difference. If you could change one child's life with the arts, I'm off for it, man. Well, well said. Thank you, mark. And, and, what it teaches about man's soul. Yes. Inhumanity. And I think I've been reading somewhat about how the world is.
Becoming more and more advanced, but we're forgetting about nurturing our own souls. Yeah. Wow. We're so, like I say, when you talk to people about doing art or something, it's always tied monetarily, right? Oh, I, I wanna, I wanna do a song so I can make money, or I wanna sell this painting, or something like that.
But to me, when I play music, or I draw, whatever you do, I do it because it makes my soul feel. I'm not doing it for anybody else. I don't care if anybody else sees it or hears it. I do it for, can't put a price on that. Hey, I'm gonna do my little break and let's start back up here in a minute and we'll,, we'll get into some of these, these, events I witnessed in the jungle.
And, and I'll tell you about my date with the Puerto Rican girl.
Woo.
There you are. What's happening? You got your dingle dangle going. There you go. Naan. Yes. Okay, so back. Thanks. Thanks. mark. Puerto Rico is a place where people think about it. Fun people, from Puerto Rico. When I am around, when I think about Puerto Rico, I don't necessarily think about business.
I think about rum, Bacardi, dancing, music. Is maf Fungo and this special adventure El jugo, El negro jungle, right? Absolutamente. Absolutamente. So tell us, this is what, hi. Lemme tell you, this is, I'll try to make this one brief, but it was, it's funny, I met a lady at a, at a buddy of mine's party and she was attractive, vibrant, similar age to me, let's say late twenties at the time.
And, She's from Puerto Rico and so we had a date lined up. So about two hours before I'm supposed to come over, she calls me up on the phone and this is back, way back before cell phones and so forth. She calls me up on the phone and Bill, bill, bill, you gotta get over here now. Good. Over to my place now.
It's crazy. What's going on? Oh, I can't believe Phil, get over here now. I've got what I said. What's that?, Anita, what's,, calm down. What's, what's wrong? How can I help you? This gigantic mouse. It's a gigantic rat. It's in my house. Ah. I can't stand my house with this gigantic rat in my house.
Get over here. Get over here. Get over here. Immediate, immediate ende in your, it's not El Wapo, is it? No, this is not wapo. This is actually pre W. This is pre WaPo., she was Bonita though,, which would be an equivalent. So I'm like, this is, this is cute. This is I'll go and I'll be her, her savior, her, her, her macho man who will come in and take care of this little mouse and then we'll go out and have a wonderful night.
Well, I grab an eight iron,, as a golfer. What, what is your, , your arsenal of weapons. It's your golf set. Yeah. So I grab an eight iron. I thought that would be,, good. I could do a little chip shot, open the window and knock this little mouse out. Out the window. Yeah. You could ship me. So I'm, I mean, she's living like 45 minutes from me.
I'm up towards San Francisco and she's in the bowels, in the heart of San Jose. So I drive down there and,, I, I get into her apartment and she's like, oh, I, this is just so crazy. I can't believe this, this, this mouse is in my house, and it's right now. Right now it's behind the couch. You go take a look at it.
You don't tell me if that's like. A monster back there. Okay. Okay, Anita, I'll, I'll take care of this. So I walk over to the couch and kind of pull it to the side and I look behind and go, oh my God, was it a mouse? It was a rat this big,, it was like as big as a cat, this rat back there. And it's just like,, he's, he, he pretty much was acting like he didn't need to move anywhere too quick.
He's in charge. This is his place . So I,, I, I kind of turned my head and I said, holy, holy moly, Anita, this is a, this is a Holy mofongo baby. Holy mofongo . I get my courage up. I grab my eight iron and I start poking back there and the, and the rat just runs and goes and hides in her bedroom under her bed.
This is perfect. So are you and the rat working together? I think, trying to Yeah, actually I had him planted there. , there's, there's a, there's a company where you can have rats. put into,, pretty girls' apartments and then you can come see and they run, they run under the bed. You go chase 'em in there.
Is that how it works? Yeah. And then I get bit and I can't leave and I have to stay in her bedroom for the night. Well, eventually, long story short, I,, I'm, I'm whacking at the, the, the rat with my,, With my club and, and whacking here. And he runs back behind the couch and then he runs into another room and then he runs back.
And then finally this big rat, and this is what an amazing thing about rodents, this big rat. He goes up right next to the refrigerator and slides into this little hole like that big. And I'm like, how could a rat this big get into this little hole? And you. That's it. He went in there, he's gone. We go out on our date, if my memory's correct.
We never had a second date . I don't know why, but probably I, my, my mouth got too carried away at some point or another. That is Puerto Rico. He's ex vibrant, excitable, kind of off the wall. Passionate, passionate people. That's Puerto Rico. That's all right. So now about the, I know you're, you're, you're, excited to hear about the dark jungles,
I can't wait. The mountain. I was hoping at the end of that story you said you. You took 20 bucks on a block of cheese and shoved it in the mouse hole and said, thanks. We gotta get out here. I like your ending . You and the rat. the rat. You get a little high five at the end. Wapo, we're going back to wapo, my friend Wapo, our, our,, employee at, at the company.
Now, little do people know that there is a part of Puerto Rico that some years receives the most rain of anywhere in the. Over 200 inches of rain. So when you're talking jungle and you're talking moisture and you're talking remote and, and forbidding sort of terrain, Puerto Rico's got some of that really, and it's in the central and mostly towards the, the east.
And, it's not the most populated part of the island. Well, WaPo, his dad has one of the so-called. Strongest, best Coxs birds. Don't get excited. Coxs fighting Bird on the island and there's an event this weekend. And, bill, do you want to come? You wanna come and see a cockfight? There'll be a bunch of cock fights.
We're gonna go back into the remote roads through the jungles, and we're gonna come to this place, which we did. We drive,, on the bumpy roads in the, in the, the giant, roots are hanging out in the, in. The monkeys are watching us in the, wait a second, leaves from the rains. And we're going deep into the jungle, the mountain jungles.
Whose route was hanging out?
I dunno how this talk about, wapo, Wapos a show off? Well, I'll just put it that way. Wapos a how This talks about Cox, I dunno whose route . So we get into this, this place where there's all kinds of trucks and, and beat up cars. And these are, these are giant betting events. All right? Everybody's got, Not everybody, but a lot of people have their fighting cocks and, and they've, and there's bleachers all around and there's a guy there.
It's like being in a,, it was, I felt like I was in a James Bond movie., it's kinda, you, pivotal, pivotal moment when,, bond starts a chase scene or something to that effect. and he's accompanied by a gorgeous woman. Anyhow, I, the, the gorgeous woman was imaginary and I pretty much always travel with an imaginary, gorgeous woman,
She's part of the entourage, but,, So we sit down and,, there's like chicken wire all the way around., Let, let's say the cock, the cock ring is maybe,, 20 feet circle. You. You just didn't say cock ring, did you? ? No. I, I know you've heard me wrong. You heard me wrong. This squared circle is this squared circle.
Let's refer to it as the squared circle. . No more cock ring talk. This is, so, I don't know, there's maybe, I don't know how many,, fights are there, but we're not, we don't. They're the first ones and we don't know the last ones. We show up for wapos dabs bird. Okay. And my memory's correct. I think it was a big white cock.
It was a big white cock. There's no such thing. Keep going. Well, let me tell you, in Puerto Rico there's big white Cox, I imagine there is. And so, it's kind of an inhumane sort of event. No,cuz I would say at least half of the losers, Cox, they, they don't last probably more than a week we're talking about.
Is that a subtle jab? You just call 'em roosters? Is it cock a rooster? The same thing. I'm, I'm not sure we better look that up. I think so., so here's what they do. They just don't throw these, cocks or these roosters into the ring on that shal? No, no, because the, the, the birds, they have their,,, their feet and their, and their, I dunno, do birds have, and then it's on the backside here that they've got the most.
Painful say in, in, dangerous inflicting, claw that comes out the backside of their, of their feet. And the spur. The spur. The spur. That's it. Absolute dement. Alright, so, but the spur ain't enough. They tie a razor. A razor blade to the spur. Okay? And they know what they're doing, so that when the fighting bird wants to start swiping at the opposing bird, that razor starts to do some pretty serious damage.
All right. Inflicting pain on the, on the face, the body, the other legs, cuz these birds are really going at it. To get the birds even more wound up before the birds are let free into the ring, the, the owner will get a, a, a ball, a cotton ball, fill it, douse it with rum, and then they open up the, the beak of, of the cock and they squeeze the rum into the mouth and then they let 'em free.
So I guess that makes the birds go a little bit crazy, a little bit more, intense. And they're fighting and it commences. And some of those fights go on and on and on, and some are done quickly because one of them, the one of the birds, cuts right at the right spot on the net or neck or something.
Blood will be flying, but the bird will fall. So you're telling, I ever saw a bird actually killed in the ring, but they were pulled out nearly dead. It's, but you're telling, you're telling crazy and inhumane under no uncertain terms. You've seen the chicken Lord pouring rum down the head of his. Is that what you're saying?
I just wanna get this straight. I think I would word it differently. I. I for the sake of, of, of my students and, and, I would say that it was a, it's illegal now. I think it was illegal then. Maybe they've shut 'em down now. Maybe there's more now. I mean, who, who would've ever guessed there was music play, the terms that we, we had seen?
Were there a lot of people there? How many people, I'm trying to get this scene. I'm gonna say there were probably 200. Guys, that's two more guys. Watching the event, 30% of them were actually owned or were with the family of a bird that was gonna be fighting that day. Did they, is it like on bleachers or it was kind of going up?
No, it was, yeah, there were bleacher seats going up. Maybe,,, maybe no more than like seven or eight aisles wasn't huge and it was all very like, wood, wood and semi rotting, and that was all. Very deep in the jungle. You would, you would expect to see voodoo,, voodoo, characters flying through the air.
And that's gotta be a pretty interesting experience though. Right. Did you win money? I, I, no, I didn't bet. I was just hanging around with, with, WaPo. Wapo took me there and I've not been back. I, I, I think they were closed down for a while. I think Wapos Dad's bird won, but he got so mangled and maimed, he may have never fought again.
Wow. It's, it's, it's vicious. And bloody to see what these,, these birds will do, with the razor blades, on their spurs. And, and they don't really have a sense of,, oh, okay, he's down. I'll, I'll let, I'll let my opponent kind of get back up and, no, they just keep going. Wow. It's a vicious moment.
And, and I think that blood thirstiness is what attracts a lot of people. Oh, sure., we could even call it a sword. ,, if you think about it, gladiators are two-legged, two wing gladiators. Well, I was thinking of more like, a cockfight could be referred to as a sword fight.
that's another type of, that's something that you, you'll have to, on your podcast, talk about.
I think that's the end of my journey here in Puerto Rico. Thank you so much. Well, I appreciate all the talk about Roots and Cox and, and all that stuff. Has been a pleasure talking about you . I might have to retire. I might have to retire to my bedroom here for at least 30 seconds. I just do that. I'm gonna, I've got a blizzard.
I'm in the middle of a blizzard here and I got, I gotta go get some provisions here in Santa Fe. And real quick, one more time. Yeah. There's two things I wanted to point out that I think are interesting. One, are those people? I think that's the look that we'll get if somebody watches the last part of this podcast and sits those faces up in the corner there to your left or on the wall.
Do you see 'em there? The other one? The other left? Yeah. Right there buddy. You see 'em? Yeah. I see 'em every day. You want me to, these are, I just think, I just think directions talking about,, Latin cultures. You see. Yeah. See that's interesting, are the Extron employees. I think here, again, I'm not familiar with that company.
That was, you worked there? I never worked there.Yeah, I don't know. They, or they were ex customers. , they were the quality. They had been through the, what the, the transition to the new computer . The new software, the new M r P system. That's the luck you get. Yes, they lived through that, but barely.
As you can see, they look like Ghostlike Audio Amigos. What's that? One last thing. What's the thing? Imagineer? What, what's your website for Imagineer Arts? I wanna see the video. A magical arts, www dot magical Arts. I believe it all. I'm in. I'll go there often, but, if you, if you have trouble, get back to me.
But it's,, it was my website for my multimedia company, magical Arts that I had in, in Singapore. I, I've actually, I've got an LLC here in Santa Fe and there's a video on there where we took this, this, painting the creature in that painting. And I had an animation made and it's actually very cool.
Very cool. There's a lady, and the name of the song is Dingle Dangle. Dangle Dangle. Well, that's, I've been caught up in a love triangle. Hey, we all, man. What's your dingle? Okay, see you Bill R Mo Tempo. That's it for now. We hope you enjoyed listening to Earth to Bill. Thank you for tuning in. Your support means the world to us and helps us to continue bringing you fun, informational content for your enjoyment.
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