Guest Contributor: Axel Torres
The Scene? A gloomy, but interesting, Thursday in Río Piedras. El Boricua was filled not to capacity, but I could easily walk around and see familiar and particularly new faces. I was talking with some acquaintances, because they took pity on this lonesome soul (I wanted to dance and none of my friends like El Bori). I was dancing (badly) and then started a conversation that revolved around the history of salsa and the importance of some of the most universal songs of the genre. This group of people I knew started talking to me and I was swept away in the group.
After a couple of drinks and self contemplation about why do people drink to have a good time (myself included). me and the acquaintances I bumped to kept taking mostly because I ditched my group and i needed to add som color to my jangueo. The group I bumped consisted of myself, two guys, and four girls. One was an acquaintance who I met through some friends, and the other guy was some random guy one of the girls met in Cultura They will factor in the story soon enough in the worst way possible.
We finally went to the bar that is upstairs from El Bori, which I usually dismissed as the techno and heroin haven of Rio Piedras. I danced (Even worse). One of my friends went off with some guy and they did the deed in one of their friend’s apartment.stayed for what could have easily been an hour and a half. Everything was great, until we went to El Bori once more.
One of the girls in the group was talking to some other guy. I talked to the guy before we went up; he flat-out told me he was drunk from 15 beer bottles worth of alcohol. How is this important? You will see soon. The guy was telling the girl from the group that he had to go, and wanted to see her again. She gave him her phone number. That should have been it, but it wasn’t. The guy was hesitant for a kiss and she gave it to him so that he would finally go away. The thing is he wouldn’t. The more he held her in his arms, the more he wanted from her. I didn’t know what to do, I wanted to pull her away from his arms,but I didn’t want any troubles. I signaled her friends so that they knew what was going on. They quickly pulled her away and we continued our course.
We were in front of the Burger King that is just a few minutes outside of the campus. group of argentinians started talking to the girl that was just recovering from a guy wanting to do more than what he should have. The conversation went great, except for the moment they asked if she wanted to participate in an orgy and if she would suck everyone’s d*ck in the group. This wasn’t the kicker. The turning point for me was when one of the men asked her for a kiss and tried to make a move on her. They easily overpowered the three women and were determined to get that sloppy, drunken kiss. This time, I took some action. I pulled the man from our friend. He looked at me woefully and called me “a guardian angel” in a mocking way. After we processed what had happened, we went inside the Burger King.
The girl I was with dismissed the two events as part of what happens during “un jueves de Rio”. I got so angry because this goes way deeper than some silly little one-night stand. I saw her eyes; they were still trying to wrap her head around what happened. She kept smiling, but I knew it was just an act…
While the group I was with was discussing what had just happened and then expanded into stories utilizing inside jokes. I gave some thought about what happened and brought back some other memories. Another friend of mine went through a similar experience, but it was a bit more heavy than the one I experienced. After awhile, the guys that were doing the deed arrived. I got tired, so I made my way home to sleep because I had to get up for a class at 8:30.
Women are obligated to put on a strong front every time that a man, that is so drunk that he might as well pee in his pants, makes a move on her. They are supposed to stand still and let it happen, all so that they won’t start a “papelon” (what this generation call problems that need to be discussed but, since they have a heavy nature, no one bothers to talk about the subjects that makes people react negatively). This has to stop; women should speak up whenever they feel uncomfortable around some creep. The social stigma that women are made to be submissive to men still exists, and we have to fight against it.