Joyanna Adams

Rousa and Me

Nobody’s Opinion

St. Louis gets very hot in the summer. Most of the time it’s hotter here than in Miami. And last Sunday, our friends from Puerto Rico came over. Eli is a good mechanic. He fixes my old 2004 Santa Fe, and Rosa comes to drink and smile, and share an afternoon of laugher and drinking.

I usually end up giving her MY favorite bottle of Disaronno, and by the end of the day, it’s gone.

Rosa has the prettiest smile that lights up her whole face. She is learning English, and it doesn’t matter if we understand each other…we both laugh so hard, like one of those giggles you cannot STOP and we havn’t a clue why we are laughing.

But, it’s not all laughs, Rosa’s life is hard. While Eli is outside fixing my car, Rosa talks about her job.

She works in a hotel, cleaning rooms. She sighs, heavily, her big eyes in pain. They can’t find workers, and she has to clean 18 rooms a day, by herself.  She tells me that the Mexicans are the worst. They live like dogs. She finds shit on the floors. She must take down everything, to clean, because they smoke and stink up the room so bad. The curtains, bed, mattress, rugs, everything has to be sent to be cleaned. Some rooms take up to two hours.

Last week they destroyed a picture worth over $100 dollars.

Rosa speaks Spanish and English, so she is in high demand. But it’s very hard work. When she was in Puerto Rico, she was studying to be a pharmacist. But her classes did not count in the U.S. She would love to go back to it, but she knows–the money. Impossible.

Eli and Rosa met online. In a phone conversation. They talked for a year before she ran away with nothing but a suitcase and ran right into his arms: to America to start a new life. Her husband in Puerto Rico had hit her so hard, he broke her leg. She even left her car.

Eli, like a hero, came to the rescue. They now have been married a year. They want to buy a house. He calls her his “Queen.” And she looks at him with adoring eyes, and touches his face with the tenderness that only a heart full of love could do. Her eyes sparkle when she looks at him.

 There is no doubt that Eli would die for Rosa. No man DARE hurt her.

Eli, lucky for us, is a great mechanic. With the cost of repairs being so high, he’s a godsend.

But he can’t get a license here for some reason. Money, I suppose. He is against the Democratics wish to make Puerto Rico a state. If that happened then HE would become an illegal, and he would lose his status as an American, and all that goes with it. It would hurt his chances to keep his good job.

Both Eli and Rosa talked about Puerto Rico, how they miss their home, and how it was destroyed by Hurricane Maria. The whole island was out of electric, and it was never fixed even after a year. FEMA was nowhere to be found. The people were left to suffer basically. You won’t find MSNBC going out to help the people of Puerto Rico, will you?

So, it’s clear, we live in an oligarchy of rich, tyrannical elites…sucking the American people dry. Only a handful in Congress care about the people. And we sit back and watch while our country is destroyed, city by city. They could care less about our country becoming a third world country. And now, with the borders of the United States being invaded by unknowns from everywhere…the Spanish who came here legally, are just as worried as the Americans.

Both Eli and Rosa are very hard working. As were the Cubans when they came here.

Nobody Wonders…will they be able to get their house before and IF the democrats manage to steal the elections again?

I don’t know. But…I remember, long ago, my mother gave up some rooms for two young musicians from Costa Rico to our home, and they couldn’t even speak much English.

There are good people everywhere….I guess I’m like my mom.

But Rosa? Eli? They are the kind of people we want in our Country.

Let’s hope we can save it for them. And Rosa can finish another bottle of my Disaronno!

(I love you Rosa…hope you get to read this.)

May 26, 2024 - Posted by Joyanna Adams | Uncategorized | poetry, Puerto Rico, relationships, travel