Monthly Archives: August 2012

Category 5 Ganesh

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I am irresistibly drawn to figures of Ganesh, the many-armed elephant Hindu deity who is venerated by millions as the “Remover of Obstacles” and the “Lord of Beginnings.”

Hurricane Andrew was in a twisted sort of way the Ganesh of Hurricanes—a Category 5 force of nature that swept away the veils that can sometimes confuse us so that we believe we are what we own.

Dad and I had gone to Lollapalooza the day prior to the storm, blissfully unaware of the impending catastrophe. We saw Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, and the headliners were the Red Hot Chili Peppers—one song in particular got stuck in my head—“Give it Away” by the Chili Peppers.

After we emerged from under the mattress we’d dragged into the kitchen at the height of the storm, and the cabinets you had spent the two-hour assault inside of…after I realized we were not going to die, that the world had been remade in shades of broken terracotta tiles, smashed glass, torn vegetation, and blue, blue sky…I walked around the house trying to figure out what I needed to pack up and take with us, and all I could think was:

What I’ve got you’ve got to give it to your mamma, What I’ve got you’ve got to give it to your papa, Give it away give it away give it away now…

I packed up our photo albums, home videos, and some clothes for all of us—everything else stayed behind. My “things” weren’t important for the span of a few days until I returned and began the four month process of rebuilding.

I’d like to say that the life-affirming and liberating feeling stayed with me, but I’d be lying.

Still, last Friday was the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, and we were once again preparing for a possible strike by soon-to-be-hurricane-but-still-tropical-storm Isaac, and looking at my coterie of Ganeshes, I knew I could “Give it away give it away give it away now” or later if I ever had to.

It’s complicated

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ImageI’m not exactly sure the function of this piece – I suspect it is a sort of room divider or jardiniere made out of wood with burled wood finishes in an Art Deco style, probably from the late 30s to early 40s.

How this gorgeous piece got to me is a complicated tale of Dominicans, dictators, and me.

The Reader’s Digest version follows.

The piece originally belonged to the beauty queen mistress of a Dominican dictator (let’s call him RT), who was in power from 1930 until his assassination (allegedly by the CIA ) in 1961 (the year I was born…coincidence?) Being already married and like all good Latin machistas not inclined to divorce, RT did the next best thing by providing financial support and publicly recognizing their out-of-wedlock children – one boy and one girl.

The unofficial household were comfortably and conveniently established in a Miami Beach estate located on Collins Avenue and later sold and torn down to make way for a major resort hotel (the Conover?)

Moving right along, the daughter married Tio Joe circa 1960, and the whatever-it-is passed on to Mother (AKA Belica, Isabel Suarez nee Cremata) – an inveterate keeper of, well, everything. It was in her home, next door to mine, that I fell in love with “it”. Exiled in a storage room adjacent to the carport of Mother’s house, the two tops on either end became water damaged and the veneer warped.  Nonetheless, it was still a score when Mother passed it on to me.

Your father hated it from the beginning. Besotted and bewitched by its beauty and whiff of notoriety, I ignored his threats to throw it out of the moving van or into the backyard lake. Lucky for all of us, he decided to try his hand at restoring it a few years ago, using the greatest of care I might add.

Today, it is a singularly stunning and celebrated piece admired by all who see it…and its piquant provenance ain’t too shabby either!