Not All Puerto Ricans Dance

         There is this misconception all Puerto Ricans know how to dance.  Well, like all stereotypes which attempt to lump everyone under a certain category, this one also is not true.  We can probably say that  most but not all do.  But there are always exceptions.  For example, I am Puerto Rican and I can't dance and never have been interested in dancing. Wish I was and wish that I could though. Looks like a lot of fun. But it never appealed to me due to my tendency to be shy and because the body motions accompanied by sound seem irrational.  I mean, why should a human body be making all those contortions just because a sound is happening? I did play in a band where others danced to my music though.

      But when invited to dance, I had to pass and put up with the looks of astonishment on the faces of the girls who invited me.  So no, all Puerto Ricans are not dancers. For example, my father, who was  an island-raised Puerto Rican, was as clumsy as hell when he tried to. Resembled un caballo desbocau, a horse running out of control, when he repeatedly and stubbornly attempted to execute the dance motions of the popular dance of that time-the Pachanga.

      During the attempt, he seemed to have been always on the verge of toppling over and hitting the floor fac-first while doing so.  Kept both his arms stiffly extended in what resembled a doubled-Hitler Nazi salute, torso almost parallel to the ground, legs shuffling like some frenetic rooster scratching the ground for seeds and his pale face contorted into a grimace of fierce concentration. It seemed a miracle that he was never actually overpowered by gravity and toppled over and landed on his Puerto Rican head. 

     In stark contrast, my mother was fanaticaly addicted to dancing.  But apart from her, nobody else in my extended Puerto Rican family showed any interest in dancing.  Well, I guess there are always exceptions to the rule.