Six men and one woman sit around a large mahogany table at the Colombian Embassy in Brussels. At the head of the table, the Ambassador, a man in his early thirties, smoking and smiling with the other men. The woman looks down at her large belly, she will soon deliver a child. The men’s laughter…
Category: Essays/Ensayos
Las manos transgresoras de mi médico
Una mujer sabia no desea ser enemiga de nadie; una mujer sabia se niega a ser víctima de alguien.
-Maya Angelou
The clay pot
Letter to my father, Rodrigo Escobar Navia Today, the 6th of November in 2020, you would have turned 86. It is not by chance that I find myself here, in this library, reading Borges. How you loved Borges! So much so that I scattered your ashes on the grave of the celebrated argentine, in Geneva’s…
Una vasija de barro
Hoy, 6 de noviembre de 2020, cumplirías 86 años. No es fortuito que me encuentre aquí en esta biblioteca leyendo a Borges. Cómo te gustaba Borges! Tanto que esparcí tus cenizas sobre la tumba del célebre argentino en el cimetière des rois en Ginebra.
Les mains baladeuses de mon médecin
Une femme sage ne veut être l’ennemie de personne ; une femme sage refuse d’être la victime de quiconque. -Maya Angelou Je remercie Julie Moulin, auteure (Jupe et Pantalon, Alma Editeur, 2016 et Domovoï, Alma Editeur, 2019) pour sa précieuse aide avec la révision de la traduction de ce texte, originalement écrit en anglais. Un témoignage C’est…
Una niña, un hombre, una gabardina; lo indecible
Debía tener 11 o 12 años, vivíamos en Cali. Era un domingo y necesitaba una cartulina para una tarea del colegio.
Superé la depresión; esto fue lo que me ayudó a mí
Sufrí de depresión por más de un año y me recuperé completamente. Estas son algunas de las cosas que hice que me ayudaron; tal vez algunas de ellas le sean útiles a otros, por eso las comparto:
In quarantine, Switzerland bans sale of toys
“Why are toys forbidden, mom?” I hear a child ask in the supermarket.
I overcame depression; this is what worked for me
I suffered from depression for over a year and fully recovered. Here are some of the things I did that helped me; perhaps some of them will be useful to you:
Should we entertain the incarcerated?
A good film can help us reclaim our capacity to distinguish between good and evil and act upon this distinction.
We, the privileged
Inequality in the time of quarantine, some thoughts and a call for solidarity
I saw a man peacefully take his life
It’s been more than two years. I will never know what made him take the decision he took. Some say that suicide is never a decision, but rather an act of despair.
My MD’s wandering hands
In slow motion, he placed his hands on my breasts, cupping a breast in each hand. His gesture lasted only a few seconds. I froze. Or rather, I became a fly settling on my left shoulder, petrified, void, and breathless.
Why I go into prison
We are not defined by our best achievements nor by our greatest moral failures.
Using words to make sense of experiences 