In this moment of drizzling rain reality, ordinary citizens may prefer to drink pure water— straight, or on ice, if possible with lemon to kill the bacteria.

Thomas Jefferson, it is well known, died in debt— in his case at the then-advanced age of 83, in 1825, almost 200 years ago.

Benjamin Franklin, on the contrary, lived to be 84. In his case, well protected from bank collectors of all kinds as he was the early all serial entrepreneur and disciplined and proverbial penny saver we all learned since elementary schoo.. 

They are the perfect dichotomy —the two extremes— at the Founding Fathers Supper Table that we all will celebrate in 2 years, in 2026, at  the 250th Anniversary of our Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia and throughout the country. 

In Monticello, Jefferson’s home in the State of Virginia, one finds today in the Declaration of American Independence’s Author’s Home multiple hand-written notes he left behind. In  one of them, he didn’t  hesitate to call his bankers, and their extreme methods of debt collection, worse than a (his exact words) “Standing Army”, in front of your door— each infantry man virtually shooting at you at the same time, one may imagine from his apt methaphor. 

Perhaps in an attempt to subdue, or extinguish his assets, or his earned income and property, and, in the process, his financial freedom— which in his case may have made more aggravating the abundant personal tragedies he endured in his family. We know he was young when he became a widow, surviving his wife and one of their children at that home.

All while maintaining alive its complex operations the Monticello Farm, home of the retired State Man, and also his “bread and butter” source of income, producing abundant Agricultural products in his best days to sustain his family.

When Thomas Jeffersson finally died, he was buried near his home, still in that farm, as one of his final orders mandated and one can be read in his own will and in the grave stone.

Jefferson Estate and Farm had been inherited from his father, but the young man who made it to be the 3rd President of the United States was still in debt at the end of his life— so much so that his beloved younger daughter had to sell the property for the surviving family to extract themselves from the devastating accounting, and sometimes unpredictable number games, unleashed on them by their money lenders— and their lawyers writing their memos.

Jefferson, who kept a meticulous accounting of the births and deaths of men and women living at the Slaves Barracks, wasn’t bad with numbers, but he is remembered to be good, or better, with his words.

His Historical “Declaration of Independence” copy, written in a modest hotel on 8th Street and Market, here in Philadelphia, in the small village the cradle of our Republic was at time it was crafted by him in total solitude, with light copy-editing done by Franklin, Madison, and few others of our more influential Founding Fathers.

“Monticello” still exist standing today as a Museum in the State of Virginia, up in the Hill overlooking the campus of the State University Mr. Jefferson also founded, now a prestigious center of knowledge and research enacted by a non-profit organization.

Our former Ambassador to Paris created it, first in his mind, then in his own drawings, preserved today on scattered papers one finds carefully classified in his inherited and indebted farm in the State of Virginia.

But few people remember the extreme aggravation, suffering and pain inflicted on the also Father of 3 or more and grandfather to many more surviving grandchildren by none other than his own friends, the gentlemen from main street called “the bankers.”

His life achievement, and fault some might have resented, had been to build, in addition to a new nation whose liberties we all enjoyed, the small castle « Monticello » became on top of a small barren hill in the State of  Virginia.

He was the early architect who drew on pieces of papers, dwellingon universal ideas he acquired at his own Library— just one more room along the many he ended up building into a Mansion we now call « Monticello ».

That came to be under his direction and, yes, the arduous Slave Labor.

But the first point here (without ignoring the second) is the quiet ruthlessness of those “standing armies” dressed up in suits and ties hiding behind elegant manners and excessive smiles that survive as business practices.until today.

If American of Latino descent are the “best infantry men” —to quote Al Pacino in his movie “Scent of a Woman”— they are also now officers (Remember General Sanchez in the Iraq War?) educated as Engineers, Lawyers, Coders, Nurses, Elected and Appointed Officials, and Medical Doctors, not to forget the Brain and Heart Surgeons in John Hopkins and U Penn, and U.S. Surgeon Generals, and Researchers and also savvy FBI Investigators.

In other words, this specific ethnic group already possesses and commands the formal and academic credentials that gives them ranking among our men and women in uniform, and the many in many more other professions.

As far as the profession of bankers,the money lenders, only one –today’s SBA (Small Business Administrations, Mrs Isabel Casillas Guzman– sits at the very top, in the Cabinet of President Joe Biden.

None among the top bankers who testified to the US Senate last Summer before the U.S. Senate.

Why?

While I was in  Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA, hosting a reception for the AL DÍA Foundation, our Non-For-Profit organization, I remembered  another episode of our common history, this one from the 19th Century, when Cuban Priest Félix VARELA y Morales worked and lived there, specifically in the poorest sections of Lower Manhattan.

At the same time he was the Christian preacher in robes on Sundays, he was also the Social Worker who roll up his sleeves and took care of the poor immigrants of his time, widows and orphans near “The 5 Points,” at his time many Irish fleeing by the thousands the « potato famine » on the other side of the Atlantic, 200 years ago.

They spoke English, but with a Celtic Accent, that made them the target of the “Natives”, and the “Know Nothings” tribes who considered themselves more Americans than the newcomers they thought were “invading Manhattan”.

These Irish, Catholic like Varela, were 2 Centuries ago the immigrants squeezed into the American Society by economic forces, and thanks to our uncommon liberties, eventually became our new neighbors.

Generations later, the new leaders are visible  in our cities, and our States, and our U.S. Senate, and the many U.S. Corporations.

Eventually, John F. Kennedy made it amid controversy to the White House in1960, supported by a diverse coalition that brought along, for the first time in a national race, the “The Hispanic Vote”.

Along with the Irish propelled into top politics, many others became bankers, presiding over the most prestigious financial institutions of America at the local, State and National levels.

The now forgotten 19th-century drama Priest Varela lived in was captured by Martin Scorsese Masterpiece Film  “Gangs of New York”— an American movie recreated in the Big Apple, based on Another Classic of American Literature with the same title.

It was prologued in a paper back edition by a Hispanic Writer. 

One who learnt English and French before he ended up becoming of just an “Argentinian Writer” of short-stories in Spanish— the very best south of the border, even acknowledged by the skeptical and picky academic and intellectual circles in  the United States.

But we digress. 

We are focused here in the power of the bankers, not that of the writers.

In closing, we would like to invite the CEO of one of our major banks in America to be our guest of the first “AL DIA CEO Fire Side Chat », announced since the 3rd Quarter of 2023, over six (6) months ago.

I invite the AL DÍA readers to suggest their favorite one while our production team continues probing the growing list of prestigious leaders in this globalized economy ruled by, among other factors, the very powerful “digital banking” system and their leaders.

Like we said at the beginning,” « In this moment of drizzling rain reality, we ordinary citizens may prefer to drink pure water— straight, or on ice, if possible with lemon. »