Virtual Gypsyz

The children sit in a circle with the lights turned off in the basement of a small Iglesia de Pentecostal, where tambourines and adult voices stomp through the floor above. The children’s brown and black faces shine with expectant adventure as the teacher explains the game they are about to play.

Camera stops on a brown girl with long ponytails with a blank look on her face. She searches the faces of the children for clues. She closes her eyes tightly as if praying.

The teacher hands a pen to a little girl in a white lace dress and pigtails with curls. She recites a series of words in Spanish. She smiles and passes the pen to a boy with a bowl haircut, who mimicks the girl’s words before passing the pen to the next child.

Camera zooms back to the little girl with long ponytails. There is sweat on her brow. Visible panic on her face. She wrings her hands.

Voicover: I was visiting my grandparents in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, a small town on the eastern side of the tiny island in the Caribbean where my parents grew up. I had only known the suburban lawns of Long Island, the yellow school bus I took to school and Brownies, baton twirling, ballet and tap classes when I suddenly found myself feeling alienated in the basement of the small church my grandmother frequented at least four times a week.

A blond girl with green eyes holds the pen with confidence as she recites the indistinguishable words in perfect Spanish.

Voicover during montage: If only I had paid more attention when my cousins were watching “El Chavo”. Slow motion scenes of brown kids laughing at the TV while the girl plays on the marquesina with blond Barbies. She holds her nose before camera pans to the kitchen where grandmother is frying bacalao in the kitchen. Scene changes back to church where timid girl kisses grandmother and says bendicion while aunts and cousins shake their head with disapproval and say “gringa, jibata.”

Scene snaps back to present. The pen is only two more hands away from the girl. She closes her eyes and fantasizes escaping to the bathroom and she stutters to ask the teacher: “El bano?” She shakes her head as the fantasy erases like an Etcha Sketch. The pen is one more hand away. The girl fantasizes a scene of Helen Keller being deaf and mute.

Scene snaps back to the present just as the little boy sitting next to the girl is finishing the last few words of the game. Camera zooms in close up to his lips.

Voiceover: Aha! That’s what the game was! Each person adds one extra word to the list of words said previously! I got it! “Bonzai! Bingo! Lasagna!” Scenes of Garfield comic strip pop up.

The pen is now in the girl’s grip. Slow motion. Camera zooms in to all the children’s eyes staring at the girl. She takes a deep breath and recites the first four words: “Escuela, iglesia, manzana, pajaro….blah blah blah,” She sticks her tongue out, shrugs her shoulders and laughs nervously. The children laugh with her.

Triumphant music.
Voiceover: Whew! I got away with it. The list was so long everyone thought I just forgot the rest of the words. And no one knew I couldn’t speak Spanish. Mission accomplished.