I
arose early because I did not want to be late for the bus. Little did I know
that there was very little chance of this. I dressed and went downstairs to
the lobby and found few people there. Pedro Perez, a delightful and intelligent
young man from Inter who was assigned to be our liaison at the hotel, was there
trying to count heads and get people into the bus. The last person arrived at
the bus about 40 minutes late. I was wondering why the schedule was so spacious,
and now I was beginning to understand why. Finally we were on our way to the
Inter Law School where the day's events would take place. It was much closer
to the hotel than the Bayamon campus, which means we didn't spend nearly as
much time in traffic.
The law school was a very
lovely facility, with a spacious courtyard surrounded by modern buildings. We
were led to a cafeteria where a lovely breakfast was served. I was concerned
about where the lectures would take place and so I went to set up my video camera
in advance before breakfast. When I returned there was only time for a croissant
and some water, but that was sufficient for this morning.
We adjourned to a lovely small
theater for the first of the day's events. The dean of the law school, Dr. Luis
Negron Portillo, welcomed us. He then delivered a fairly short address on the
subject of arguing ethics. He was well organized and full of information given
that he spoke without notes. After hearing Alegria and others I began to realize
how eloquent many of the speakers here in Puerto Rico are. His talk is available
online at Debate Central (http:debate.uvm.edu/ )
It was now that the formal
training portion of the tournament began. Because so many of those attending
are relatively new to the debate activity (although already quite skilled) the
first two tournaments have featured a substantial training component. Jose Julio
Leon of Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile gave the next address.
Jose Julio had been a successful lawyer in Chile but had been attracted to the
academic environment and to debate. Together with Rodrigo Rojas, Roberto Vega,
and Benito Escobar he had helped form a large and active debate program that
prides itself on outreach to high schools and other universities. Jose Julio
had been there a very short time before being promoted to vice-rector of academics
below the famous rector of UDP, Manuel Montt Balmaceda, who has been a strong
supporter of debate and has been so very kind to me and supportive of my work.
Well, cream rises to the top, they say, and Jose Julio is certainly one of the
most intelligent and expressive people I have met. Of course, it helps that
he is totally committed to debate. His lecture concerned basic elements of argumentation,
but done with a style and flair all his own. His talk is available on Debate Central (http://debate.uvm.edu/ )
We
then adjourned to one of the model courtrooms at the law school, a lovely wood-paneled
spot for training and debating. I wish I had one like it to use on my campus!
Someone I would come to know better and really become fond of directed the next
presentation. His name is Charles Zeno and he is a professor at the law school,
having been trained in Puerto Rico and at Harvard. He is intelligent, charming,
and (as I was to find out) easy to work with. He presented a workshop on argumentation.
He invited Jose Julio to join him along with two of his colleagues, Carlos Ramos
and Enrique Velez. First they presented some advice on case building for the
"gobierno"side (government, proposition, affirmative), and then another
presentation about how to refute while debating as the "oposicion"(opposition,
negative). Prof. Zeno then reviewed the format for the debates to come, and
this generated quite a bit of interest. The question format was discussed, as
it was experimental. In this format each team is given one minute to ask a question,
and then the other team has three minutes to answer the question. Several debaters
wanted to do it "like we do back home"but Prof. Zeno was firm in sticking
to the format, because that is how it is done "in Puerto Rico." Some remarks were made about judges in
general (no debate tournament is without such requests) concerning competence
and fairness. After that the same panel of speakers heard a very brief mini-debate
and offered their comments and criticisms. It was clear from this performance
that the precise nature of the format, especially the questions needed more
refining. It all seemed much clearer after this demonstration, and it was time
for lunch. This talk is available on Debate Central (http://debate.uvm.edu/ )
At lunch Charles Zeno and
Maria Rosso asked me if I would join the committee that had been established
to administer the tournament. I was a little hesitant to go from being guest to host (with attendant obligations)
but I thought that my debate experience might prove useful. It certainly did seem to come in handy,
as I was able to look ahead to problems that occur at every debate tournament
(people complain about decisions, judges get tired of judging, judges are late
to their assignments, the winners love the way the tournament is run and the
losers do not, etc.) to let the organizers know that these are eventualities,
and not really their fault. We discussed how some wanted the question format
changed and decided that this was the format, and we should stick with the announced
format and not change just because it seemed "different"to some.
The schedule was running a
bit late, and so I tried to start the next event, my lecture on special considerations
for this format, a bit early. I did not succeed, but we were able to start on
time. I had my lecture translated into Spanish (click here to see the Spanish
text) while I delivered it from a text in English (click here to see the English
text). In actuality, I tried to insert as many Spanish words into my presentation
as possible to keep their attention. It was right after lunch, so attention
could be a problem, so I turned up the dynamism and inserted more humor elements
(as best I could). The lecture seemed to go very well, and I had time for some
questions. Walter Murray asked a very important question that I appreciated,
as did several others. We ended on time, and the day of work was over. My talk
is available on Debate Central (video at http://debate.uvm.edu/; text in English at http://debate.uvm.edu/ ; text in Spanish at
http://debate.uvm.edu/ ).
Carlos drove us back to the
hotel so we could change clothes and prepare for the evening. There was a scheduled
visit to the museum in old San Juan, and then some free time in old San Juan,
before a dinner scheduled for the entire tournament at a famous restaurant in
that neighborhood. We piled into Carlos' SUV and took off for old San Juan,
hoping to meet up with the rest of the group.
Old San Juan is most beautiful,
with the castle lording it over that part of town on a grass girded peninsula
facing the lovely San Juan harbor. We found a parking space and went into the
museum complex. We saw Prof. Alegria there as well as many of our party. Prof.
Murray steered us towards the African heritage portion of the museum, a place
that had a very moving impact on all four of us. The exhibits fascinated me,
a depiction of slavery and African
cultural contributions the like of which I had never seen before. I was able
to actually touch chains that had held human beings in bondage, and feel the
chill of the cold steel. I saw a fabulous exhibit on interracial marriages in
colonial Puerto Rico. My favorite exhibit was one that showed about twenty different
faces of Puerto Ricans, of all types, sorts, and colors É and in each face you
could see the touch and the features of Africa. It was a powerful example of
Alegria's contention that modern Puerto Rico carries in each citizen the merging
of indigenous, African, Spanish, and American influences. Alegria had, indeed,
designed the exhibit. We stayed there so long the caretaker was turning off
the lights as we left each section. Realizing how long we had been there, we
hurried to our assigned meeting place at the Institute for Puerto Rican Culture.
We
arrived just in time to join in the group photos. It was a jolly time, with
students posing in various groups to get pictures of their many newfound friends.
As the photo session ended we were told that we had about 90 minutes to burn
in old San Juan before meeting to troop off to dinner.
We headed down the hill into
old San Juan. There had been a plan some years earlier to turn old San Juan
into a sort of plasticized art deco tourist trap, but apparently Ricardo Alegria
(there he is again!) spearheaded the campaign to make sure that old San Juan
retained its charm and traditional architecture. His efforts seemed to have
worked, as I felt I was stepping back in time (except for the few modern shops
tastefully located in old restored buildings) on the cobblestone narrow streets
lined by shuttered buildings with sweeping balconies looking down on the street,
often with residents lounging and watching the crowds pass by while they enjoyed
the cool breeze. We stopped at a charming watering hole for a couple of very
cold Coronas and had a jolly time with the people there. We moved on down the
street towards a viewing area Carlos knew of called "The Park of the Pigeons."
It was, in fact, a beautiful view of the ocean and the bay, and did have hundreds
and hundreds of pigeons cooing and walking about. We took turns feeding the
friendly pigeons that would jump right into your hand or onto your shoulder,
as they are accustomed to being fed by people in a good mood. Jackie looked
especially good with live pigeons all over him. All of us would laugh at the
experience.
It was time to return to our meeting point so we could be off to dinner. We walked back up to the cultural center where all of those involved with the debate tournament seemed to gather. As soon as we were all there, we began traipsing down the narrow streets of Old San Juan on our way to an unknown, but we trust good, restaurant. On the way Pedro Perez told me about the history and the architecture. Old San Juan is now an area very popular with retirees and young professionals. Carlos told us about the festival held in January when every inch of the street is backed with revelers. We passed by a Ben & Jerry's store and got a picture of Carlos standing under the sign that read, "Vermont's Finest."
We soon arrived at the restaurant,
called Jarbito's. I learned later that the restaurant was very old, and that
when the buildings had been renovated it had moved across the street, but that
it had been there throughout the 20th century. I looked about for
a seat and before I could find one Walter Murray, my friendly philosopher comrade,
guided me to a specific table for four amongst the longer tables where the debaters
were gathering. Jose Julio Leon from Chile joined me, and we were introduced
to our dinner partners, the former mayor of San Juan Sr. Acevedo and his wife.
They turned out to be delightful companions, with excellent English and some
good lessons to improve my Spanish. He told interesting stories about the restaurant
and the neighborhood, and also spoke about the joys and sorrows of being a politician
in Puerto Rico, a land of grassroots door-to-door politics. He and his wife
also had good advice on what to visit on our off days. To add to our "Vermont
connection" he showed us a picture on the wall of a Puerto Rican political
activist named Sebastian who had graduated from the University of Vermont. These
coincidences were getting a bit thick.
We were all served pina coladas.
The food was solid and traditional, and I loved the plantains (platanos). They
come in many types, but predominantly green (taste a lot like potato) or yellow
(taste very sweet like very ripe bananas). I had yellow (amarillo) for the first
time on this evening and I loved them.
The students began to sing
before the meal was over. Led by the party conscious Spaniards, the songs soon
began to show a shared culture. Nicaragua offered their songs, and soon Puerto
Rico was offering theirs. They were simple and traditional, and within a verse
or so everyone in the place was clapping the beat and singing the chorus. I
was concerned that the management would not approve of such loud and fun behavior,
but I was soothed to see the owner and the wait staff come over to join, and
even to sing songs of independence for Puerto Rico, songs that we all joined
on with. I am not sure political differences of this type caused many people
to avoid a fun sing along. We stayed there long past our meal's end, and it
was time to go. We trooped to a nearby park to wait for our bus, and while we
did we communed with some locals playing chess and dominoes at stone tables
built for precisely those purposes. People posed for photos with each other
and were in as jolly a mood as I have ever seen debaters.
The bus arrived and we returned
to our hotel. I was happy and tired, but anxious for the challenges that would
come in the days of competition ahead.