02/28/08

The Origins of the Spanish Phrase...

   It was March 2002, and some of my friends had a hankering to learn some ess-pan-yole. I decided to send them some funny Spanish phrases every couple of days to help them learn the language. It seemed like a natural thing, being half-Cuban and a big fan of the language. The first Spanish Phrase was this:

    Mi mono no sabe conducir el auto (My monkey does not know how to drive the car)

   Real genius, eh? The acronym SPOTD was born in the second edition, and soon there were other things creeping their way into the e-mails, from random quotes to various thoughts to movie reviews. My political views didn't manifest themselves in the e-mails for some time, but I am too much of a political junkie to have avoided it for too long. These days I try to keep the politics to the weblog and save the light stuff for the e-mails. I have a particular interest in issues involving Cuba and other Latin American states.

   The following is a poem by a Cuban patriot, José Martí. My decision to start the SPOTD is reflective of my love of the language, and Cuban culture in particular. Martí died while trying to make Cuba free. Sadly, his vision has not yet been realized. Perhaps someday it will.

   So why do I write the SPOTD? There are a few reasons, but I think one of the most important is that I love to learn new things and share those with others, whether that means something funny, interesting, or inspirational. It allows me to keep some kind of contact with people that I know and like, even if I don't have the time to send individual e-mails with the same frequency.

   The SPOTD takes some time to prepare, usually spread over a few weeks. I try to update the website more frequently. In July 2005, Lacy and Io welcomed Joseph Edward Lowry, III to the planet, and in April 2007 Camilla Jane. As you can imagine this eats into the SPOTD time. The SPOTD is here to stay, even if sometimes sporadic. In June 2006 I finished the 100th SPOTD e-mail.