Greetings friends of The Beat Within. Welcome to another one-of-a-kind double issue of The Beat Within. We are honored and thrilled to connect with you all through these special 72 pages of writing and art. There is no other publication like this. Our magazine truly touches and inspires many lives to write, read, reflect, discover, and hopefully make the necessary changes to lead a healthy and safe life.
We are excited to receive the beautiful black etched glass award/plaque our founder, David Inocencio, received on behalf of The Beat Within! He was recognized for last month in New York at the 17th annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America.
The award states…
2022 Justice Trailblazer Award, Outstanding Career Achievement in Media, David Inocencio, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Center on Media Crime and Justice, The Crime Report, Your Criminal Justice Network.
Past winners include, David Simon from the HBO series, The Wire. Piper Kerman for her book, Orange Is The New Black, and Van Jones from CNN. This is some amazing company, and an incredible acknowledgment to the great work being done daily by The Beat Within and you amazing writers and artists. It is truly a team effort. We hope one day, (if you have not seen the video), you can witness the love David has for all of you and how he acknowledges how important and special everyone is to the great success of The Beat Within. All right, lets pass the keyboard over to our dear friend, OT!
Welcome back readers to another double dose edition of the one and only The Beat Within! This is the only, I do mean only, magazine keeping it one thousand with you readers and writers. This is OT reporting live to you from the sizzling tectonic plates of Managua, Nicaragua. Allow me to sip my lemonade really quick!
First and foremost, I hope when you all read this missive that you are in the best of health mentally, physically, and spiritually. I know it’s Spring break for many of you. Many of you already had it, but point is, there is a holiday-ish buzz around this time of the year and this particular Spring season. The hot weather is starting to kick in, Easter is here, the NBA basketball playoffs are kicking off, and the NFL draft right around the corner, what more can I ask for? Baseball season? Ha!
Well first off, I want to talk about something special, and someone special and dear to me. My grandma just turned 95 years old on April 11th. Yeah, this ain’t a typo, 95 years old, gosh darnit! It’s truly a blessing for her to live all those years and truly a blessing for me to call her my grandma and be raised by her.
We were able to FaceTime and I sung her happy birthday. She lives in South San Francisco, CA., with my aunt, and my mom is currently staying with them because she was in a recent car accident. So basically, I got to see my whole family on FaceTime. Shortly thereafter my sister arrived with all the kids, and the only people who were missing were my cousins (well me too, but FaceTime made it possible for me to be there).
It felt good to be a part of the celebration given the fact that, I would have been there, had I not found myself deported to my native country Nicaragua, back in December of 2013. But the topic of this missive isn’t about that, matter of fact, I wanted to share my Grandma’s birthday with you all because my Grandma means the world to me. My Grandma is blessed to be living this long, and she basically got to see her kids, grandkids, and great grand kids grow up, and you know, not too many people get that honor or privilege.
Life is precious, but we all don’t get to live that long, and for various reasons. I figured that my Grandma is so special, that she was so impactful, that she’s kind of cheating Father Time right now, and she’s doing over-time, still getting to see her kids every day.
This motivates me to want to reach that age. I want to get to 95, or 96 years of age and see my great-grandkids grow up and be a pain in the rear end to them, (not saying that my grandma is, he-he). See my Grandma has been through a lot in her life. My grandma grew up in the struggle, poor, with little to no support, and was able to still rise above all of the adversity and travel to different countries, start her own business, put food on the table for all her children.
I remember being seven eight years old and going to the airport and my grandma would fly in from Nicaragua with a bunch of Nicaraguan products, toys, souvenirs, clothes, and even alcohol. We would anxiously wait for her outside the airport gates, not caring what she brought us (me, my little sister and cousins) because we knew she brought us something, but we were just anxious to give her a hug and kiss.
During my elementary school years, when summer was out, my grandma would be the one to take care of me, my sister and my cousins. She would teach us how to play cards and we would sit there at the dinner table playing cards for hours and sometimes we’d even put a couple dollars on it as a friendly wager. She would tell us stories about the war in Nicaragua, as she lived through the whole thing. She would tell us jokes and make us laugh. She would let us play outside all day, whether that be playing basketball, football, riding our bikes, or roller-blading, but she was the one that we had to ask for permission to go outside.
I knew if I was outside on the courtyard playing ball with the other fellas, and my grandma came outside to look for me, she didn’t even have to say anything. I had to automatically stop what I was doing and go back inside.
Even though my grandma spent countless hours keeping us busy, making us read, letting us play, having fun, she also showed me how to fend for myself. She also taught us discipline. My grandma taught me how to iron my clothes the night before I had to go to school, so the next morning all I had to do was shower. Yes, my grandma taught me how to crease my khakis, my jeans, my button shirts, my regular shirts, how to turn the ironer on low, medium high, depending whether it’s 100% cotton or polyester.
My grandma taught me how to make my own coffee in the morning and my own breakfast. If I had a field trip at school, I wasn’t given money by my mom to buy lunch, I had to make/bring my own lunch, and thanks to my grandma I didn’t starve on my field trips. So, as you can see, my grandma played a very pivotal role in my life, not only as a care-giver but teaching basic life skills that I needed, so I wouldn’t have to depend on no one else.
One of the most important things that my grandma taught me was good manners, respect for others, and the importance of being humble and polite. Because of my grandma, I mostly never talked back to my mom, or aunt, nor any elder in my family, even as an adult, and that’s why I remain the family favorite ‘till this very day.
I don’t know how many years my grandma has left and just the thought of this gives me anxiety. I know when she passes away, I will not be able to say goodbye in person and this puts a dent in my heart. But after all I’ve been through in my life, I should feel blessed that I have gotten this far. I should feel blessed that I got to see my Granma turn 95, heck I should feel blessed that I’m about to turn 37 myself in a couple of months! Only 58 more years to catch up to my grandma!
I’m proud of my grandma for the impact she has had not only in my life, but in the lives of others, because till this very day, when I walk through the mercado (Market), or through my neighborhood, random people, neighbors, people that I don’t even know, always ask about my grandma. I always tell them she’s still going strong at 95 and people always tell me to tell her that they said hi and that they send their love and respect.
As I am about to draw to my conclusion, I am fully aware that not everyone is blessed to have their grandparents alive. Many have passed, especially with the way this Coronavirus Pandemic has terrorized the elderly these past 2 years. It’s important that we all stay cautious on our very own actions to make sure we don’t transmit the virus to anyone.
Also, even if your grandparents aren’t alive, that doesn’t mean those precious memories are lost. Hold them tightly in your heart. Make an impact on another elderly person’s life, maybe a neighbor, a friend of the family or someone you don’t know. I haven’t seen my grandma since 2015, but that motivates me to make an impact on the elderly here.
Whenever I can I try to help out the elderly poor folks. On payday, when I walk around the streets to run my errands, I normally always bump into an elderly person hustling – selling cookies, selling gum, selling chips, and what I do is I buy up like $10 of whatever they’re selling and let them keep it, so they can double their money back.
If I see some real homeless elderly folks, I will buy them lunch, and not no snack lunch, I’ll buy them some chicken wings, or a hearty plate of food. We have to take care of our elderly, because if we don’t then no one will, even the ones that we may not even know, because that is somebody else’s grandma or grandpa. If you couldn’t/can’t be there for your grandma or grandpa, you would appreciate it if someone else looked out for them on your behalf.
So, appreciate your grandparents and our elderly. Even if they’re gone, the love doesn’t go away. Put into practice everything they taught you. Appreciate those around you, and remember, we’re all going to get old one day, eventually, so we must set the example for future generations to come.
I dedicate this to my abuelita. I love you abuelita and to all the grandmas and grandpas out there. You all are truly special!
One love to everyone going through the struggle. OT is signing out with utmost love and respect…and The Beat keeps going and going…
A beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman. Thank you OT! If you have it in you, please reach out to us and tell us about your special elder in your life and what she/he means to you. We always welcome your stories. All right, enjoy the rest of this issue.