Mata de plátano, a tí,
a ti te debo la mancha,
que ni el jabón
ni la plancha
quitan de encima de mi.

Desque jíbaro nací,
al aire llevo el tesoro
de tu racimo de oro
y tu hoja verde y ancha,
llevaré siempre la mancha
¡per secula, seculorum!

~ ~ Luis Llorens Torres poem, Puerto Rican poet

By Yvette Vega

People have been loving their plátanos for a long time, enough to honor the member of the banana family with a poem as Luis Llorens Torres did many years ago. You get the gummy, sticky “mancha” that Llorens talks about on your hands from peeling plátanos. This is my elegy to plátanos--from fufú to yo-yo.

We should thank the Portuguese Franciscan friars who are said to have introduced plantains to the Caribbean and other parts from Africa. Plantains, a staple in many tropical regions, are like potatoes with similar neutral flavor and texture. In Puerto Rico, we also eat unripened bananas boiled or fried. Here are some of the more popular plátano dishes.

Plátanos maduros
The ripened plantain is sliced diagonally and pan-fried in oil until golden brown. The plantains come out soft and even sweeter. Delicious! This dish is found not only in the Caribbean, but also in Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras (where they are usually eaten with the native sour cream), Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Ripe plátanos are also baked (sometimes with cinnamon). In Costa Rica, they are sprinkled with sugar. In Western Nigeria, fried sliced plantains are known as dodo, and in Cameroon, they are known as missole.

Tostones/patacones/tachinos
Tostones--also known as patacones in Costa Rica and Panama, but not to be confused with a form of Argentine currency--are twice-fried plantain often served as a side, appetizer or snack. Tostones are fried in oil like ripe plantains. The slices are then removed and individually smashed to about half their original height, resembling patties. The patties are passed through salt-seasoned water and fried again, sealing the taste. In Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba, and Dominican Republic, tostones are served with a Creole sauce, which can be hot or not. It’s a savory complement to the dryness of the tostón. In parts of South America, tostones describe this food when prepared at home and also store-bought plantain chips. Patacones are very popular in western Venezuela, where they are used to make sandwiches with pork, beef, chicken, vegetables and ketchup.

Mofongo
Native to Puerto Rico and popular in countries such as Dominican Republic, mofongo is made by mashing either boiled or fried plantains then mixing the plantain with garlic and pork crackling, and moistened with stock. Sometimes bacon, chicken, shellfish, vegetables, spices or herbs are added. The mixture is formed into cylinders the size of about two fists and eaten with chicken stock or broth. Mofongo relleno may contain stewed beef, chicken or seafood poured in a center crater. Ummmm.

Mangú
The national dish of Dominican Republic, mangú is boiled plantains, mashed and softened with olive oil and enough hot water to form a consistency like stiff mashed potatoes. Mangú is eaten for breakfast topped with sautéed onions along with fried eggs, fried cheese or salami and avocado. Call it the breakfast of champions.

Pastelón de amrillos
A Puerto Rican dish, pastelón de amarillos is like lasagna, but made with sweet plantains instead of pasta. It comes out golden brown. The sweetness of the plantain and the seasoned meat filling makes for a tasty combination.

Fufú de plátano
Fufú de plátano is a very popular porridge eaten for lunch in Cuba. It is made by mashing boiled plantains, which are then mixed with chicken stock and sofrito. Fufú is also common in Ghana, Nigeria and other West African countries, where it’s sometimes combined with cassava.

Yo-Yo
In Venezuela, a yo-yo is a sandwich-like dish made with two short slices of fried ripened plantain. Two slices are stuffed with soft white cheese and then sandwiched together and fastened with toothpicks. The arrangement is dipped in eggs and fried until the cheese melts and the yo-yo acquires a golden hue. They are served as sides or entrees. Very interesting combination, almost like an arepa.

From Black and White to Technicolor

You would have to sit down to talk with Orange County School District lawyers for a while to get the technicolor explanation for the district's biracial committee. I talked with a district lawyer a few years ago to try to understand how school waivers worked. Black students can get waivers to attend a mostly white school instead of the predominantly black schools in their neighborhood.

With the growing population of Hispanic students dominating certain schools, I wondered, can Hispanic students do the same? The answer was surprisingly yes--but the students would have to transfer to predominantly black schools. Huh?

The school attendance waivers are covered by the district's decades-old desegregation order. There are only two parties to that pact: black and white students. It doesn't contemplate Hispanics because, of course, we weren't in the picture at the time. At least not many of us.

That very likely is why Hispanics can join the district's biracial committee, which weighs issues such as school closings, only if they "pass" as whites, as the Orlando Sentinel reported this week. The biracial committee is governed by the same desegregation agreement, under which Hispanics don't really exist.

It's not conspiracy or a weird plot. It's the desegregation formula, which now seems archaic--although not that archaic when you consider how many black students still attend segregated Orange County schools. That's why the district cannot get out from under court supervision, even though, for instance, Seminole County did a few years ago.

The school district ought to find a creative way to allow Hispanics to have a voice on the biracial committee. Perhaps even the court overseeing the desegregation order would like the idea. The student population has become more complex, with Latinos making up about 30 percent of district students--probably more by this time. There are more than a handful of schools in which Hispanic students are the majority.

But, more important, this controversy underscores the need for a Latino on the Orange County School Board who could speak intelligently to these issues with a voice and vote that cannot be ignored. There is a Latino each on the Orange County Commission and the Orlando City Council.

Osceola County, which Orange County folks look down their nose at, has Hispanic representation up and down the county and city governments now. The time has come for Orange County residents to have the same visibility, especially regarding schools. Let's not forget that Latinos have larger than average families and are likelier than other groups to have children under the age of 18.

The key question now is, who will step forward to take on this challenge?

Aquí y Allá

Come June, an estimated 30,000 Puerto Rico government workers are expected to get the pink slip. The cost-cutting measure is aimed at trimming the island’s $1 billion deficit. But it’s also a whack-whack here and a whack-whack there at the large central government workforce.

The island government employs about one-third of Puerto Rico’s workers. To say that is a lot is an understatement. With so many people working for the government, you are very likely to have either relatives or neighbors who cash government payroll checks.

Through the years, various administrations have nibbled around the edges of reducing the size of government. It has been compared with touching a political third rail—until the deficit came along. Less money coming in, plus a new administration, has made the unthinkable thinkable.

When those workers are let go, where are they going to go? Most will remain on the island, where there is family and a support network. But I’m willing to bet a chunk will come to Florida, the No. 1 destination for today’s migrating Puerto Ricans. In Orlando, Puerto Ricans are more than 50 percent of the Hispanic population. The United States has always been a safety valve for Puerto Rico, as well as Mexico and many other countries.

I turned to Jorge Duany, chair of the University of Puerto Rico's Sociology Department and an expert on Puerto Rican migration, for some insight. "I wouldn't be surprised if people went to Orlando looking for jobs," he said, but "people are probably going to think twice before getting on a plane."

That's because when the economy sours, migrants are more likely to stay put until things turn around, Duany said. During the Depression years, migration from Puerto Rico to the states slowed, he said. It was not until after the Depression that migration picked up full force, resulting in the great migration to New York and other parts of the Northeast.

If the job situation is bad in Orlando, Puerto Ricans living here may decide to return home, as many in fact did during the 1960s and 1970s, when drugs and urban violence sent many people packing. "People leave Puerto Rico for economic reasons, but return for cultural reasons," Duany said.

When I was in Puerto Rico recently, island economists were predicting the jobless rate would reach 16 percent, up from 14 percent. Here in Florida, the latest figures show unemployment is nearly 10 percent, which is high but still better than on the island.

We'll have to wait until the end of year to figure out whether people are choosing to stay on the island or vote with their feet.

Knowledge is Power

I came across a Web site that contains videos about hot topics for teens called Novelas Educativas (http://www.novelaseducativas.com/); I'd upload a video but the site doesn't let me. You will find English and Spanish videos touching on subjects such as finances, health, education, gangs and more.

Sometimes it's difficult to have a conversation with your child (or students, if you're a teacher), but these videos are a language that young folks understand. I've always liked the "novelitas" as a story form. Many Latinos are familiar with novelitas. I was exposed to written, comic book-style novelas as a child. Of course, the video novelas were always a hoot, and I still remember the names of some prominent novela stars of years ago. In the case of Novelas Educativas, they are a wonderful teaching tool. I've seen many interesting novelas from the West Coast, teaching Latino immigrants about health issues such as diabetes, breastfeeding and strokes.

We should be determined not to lose any child to teenage pregnancy or gangs. Our children are community assets, not liabilities. They need our help getting through sticky situations. If these video novelitas can help, by all means tell your family and friends.

By the way, the image above comes from Tee shirt maker Latin Expressions (http://www.latinexpressions.com/).