Guayabera
Once upon a time, Vice President Dan Quayle, on his way to Latin America, lamented not having taken Latin in high
school to communicate with his hosts in their native language. President Obama,
on the other hand, has mastered key Spanish vocabulary for the 6th
Cumbre de las Américas, the Hemispheric Summit taking place in Cartagena
de Indias, Colombia. Most probably he will
say: Gracias, Cien años de soledad es una
de las mejores novelas de todos los tiempos. Each Head of State will
receive a copy of the novel’s new edition celebrating Gabriel García Márquez
85th birthday. Not only that, President Obama will sport a guayabera.
Is the shirt Mexican? Did it
originate in the Philippines? Or, as many insist, is as Cuban as a hand-rolled habano?
Theories abound. One has it that the
first guayabera was made for a wealthy
Cuban rancher back in the 1700s. Mexicans argue it was invented by Yucatans, descendants
of the Mayas. And Filipinos claim they created a similar shirt, the Baron
Taglog, two centuries earlier. In Miami, an octogenarian gentleman, playing dominó in Calle Ocho, pointed out that Mexicans probably copied it from a
Cuban traveling to their land, and that Baron Taglog is a different animal all
together—without pockets! The basic elements of the guayabera accept no debate: two or four patch pockets and two vertical rows of alforzas (fine, tiny pleats, sewn closely
together and running along the front and back of the shirt), and the bottom has
three-inch slits on both sides.
What about its etymology?
There are two main theories. 1. Guayabera
derives from guayaba, guava, a yellowish
or pink fruit the size of a pear, usually with a sweet-acid taste, which poets
have appropriated to symbolize a woman’s lips in the act of kissing. Guayaba is an Arawak word. The
Arawak-language predominated in the Greater Antilles. The Taino, an Arawak
subgroup, were the first people Columbus encountered in Hispaniola (now the
Dominican Republic and Haiti). 2. From the Cuban Yayayabo River, and nearby residents,
the yayaberos.
Back
to La Cumbre de las Américas, sexy
and intelligent Shakira will open it interpreting the Colombian National
Anthem. The question is, considering
the increasing theatrics of politics and the effect a guayabera can have
on the man, will President Obama grab a microphone and venture a verse from Las caderas no mienten, Hips don’t lie: no, cuando
te veo caminar, no me puedo controlar…
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