My passion blog for this semester will be based on conversations I have with one of the wisest men I know: my grandfather (abuelito, papo, etc.).

José Antonio Hernández de Gómez was born in February of 1948. He was born in the rough and tough neighborhood of Spanish Harlem, colloquially known as El Barrio (the neighborhood). Eventually, he and his family would move across the Harlem River to the Southside Bronx. The same place where Jennifer Lopez is from for reference. During his entire upbringing, he and his family would take trips to Puerto Rico to visit family in the pueblos of Trujillo Alto and Río Piedras. He recalls climbing trees in the tropical climate of the island with his sisters and picking fruit right of the trees.

Eventually, he would graduate from high school and join the navy in 1964. Now, as many of you know, the United States engaged in a little conflict known as the Vietnam War during this time. In fact, he volunteered to be among the first troops in Vietnam but was deferred to a ship bound for Europe. Instead of fighting in the jungles of SouthEast Asia, he visited the fjords of Norway, the bars of Germany, and the vineyards of Italy.

After his service, he lived in Washington D.C. during the chaotic year of 1968. He remembers the city burning after the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy like it was yesterday. The next year, 1969, my father was born in the nation’s capital.

A few short years later, José moved with my father to Carolina, Puerto Rico. There they enjoyed everything that the poverty-stricken island had to offer. The bombings of the independent movement and abuses of power by the federal government caused my family to flee, yet again, the homeland. This has led to my grandfather’s disdain for the likes of Oscar Lopez Rivera and others tied to the independent movement for the island. My grandfather wants statehood for the island, and if you ask any Puerto Rican, they will have an opinion on the subject.

Back in the mainland, my father went to 1st grade speaking no English and was subsequently held back. My grandfather would struggle with alcoholism during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. This would leave my father to my bisabuelos, Eusebio Hernandez y Flores and Justa Gomez de Perez.

My grandfather would eventually break his addiction with the help of a rehabilitation church called Peniel, which is where my parents left (as there is also a congregation that is not in the rehab program).

After a long story of chaotic family relations between the 1990’s until 2010, I reconnected with my grandfather after he moved back to Pennsylvania from North Carolina. I love him dearly and do not remember his mistakes that other family members recall with fervor.

Since 2010, my abuelito has instilled knowledge into me that I could not find elsewhere. Therefore, this Passion blog is dedicated to him, a man that has been through a lot, and can make a mean domino partner.