Traveling pregnant - Part II: Hacienda de Caguas

Although we did not have to file taxes in PR in 2008 for work, we did have to report taxes for the house where my husband lived in while in college, which was sold that year and was in his name. We went to pay everything out in Hacienda of Caguas one afternoon, right after arriving in the island. There were a lot of empty parking spaces, but they were for employees, so my husband had to drop me off and I had to walk about five minutes to the building. When I got there, I was happy to see there were very few people and an express lane for pregnant women and people with disabilities. The problem was that they did not accept payment with cards that had the Visa logo. So, I had to walk to another building where there was an ATM in the lobby. I asked the lady what the total amount I owed was and went to the ATM to get the money. The ATM charged me $4 for the transaction.

When I came back to Hacienda, the lady says, “Oh, wait, you have a penalty fee of sixty-something dollars.” So, yes, I had to walk back to the ATM, pay $4 more and walk back to Hacienda. This office is in the basement of a big building, so I did not have cell phone reception to call my husband and tell him what was going on. Upon returning with the money for the fee, the lady of the express lane had closed the lane. She was sitting there and saw me, but did not help me check out. That’s when my heart started pounding quickly. I spoke to the “guard” they have there and asked him about that big sign that said that by law, pregnant women had priority in line. He said that did not work after 3 p.m. I was fuming; I did not know the law was on a schedule…

When I grabbed a chair to sit in line, the guard came and moved me out of the way. There were two people in front of me and one employee, yet I spent 40 minutes in line! When it was finally my turn, a manager comes out. When I complained about waiting in line despite being very pregnant, he said, “They should have let you come up first.” Tell that to your awesome guard!! On my way out, I told the guard that for future cases he could actually advance pregnant women to the front of the line. His reaction? He started screaming at me!! I was so mad I was crying by the time I got to the car. Somehow, this whole process had taken me almost two hours, with only two people in front of me in line. To this day, when I think about this I feel my pulse accelerating. It was horrible!