Many winters ago, during a family’s matanza, I helped kill a guarro. I had reasoned that if I was eating the family’s jamón and chorizo from their plate, I should help slaughter the pig. Despite my good intentions, as Fatima’s brothers drove me to the piggery, I had conflicting feelings about the slaughter. The piggery… Continue reading The Matanza
Category: Creative Nonfiction
To the South Are Banana Plantations
The travel agent finally lifted her head from the ream of paper scattered over her desktop, where countless timetables and schedules had been shuffled around with numerous confirmations of reservations, estimates and disbursements. Within the opening of her hijab, wrapped around her forehead and both cheeks, her eyes sparkled with satisfaction and accomplishment, qualified by… Continue reading To the South Are Banana Plantations
The Anatomy of Disconnected Lines
I first noticed him on the other side of Westbury Avenue, as we both made our way to the bus stop. Even through heavy traffic I saw his brogues had an economy of movement: raised enough to avoid tripping over uneven paving stones or stepping on cracks. Later, he’d say it amused him to think… Continue reading The Anatomy of Disconnected Lines
Shaming the Diabolos
To wash away the blood of bulls and heretics, a trio of Hispano-Bretones draw six tons of bronze from the Casa de Campo. The drayman’s bow legs curl around the bay’s barrel chest, urging the team forward with both shouts of, ¨¡Arre!¨ and his battered straw sombrero, that he waves over their shoulders. The other drayman drives… Continue reading Shaming the Diabolos
Cockerels That Turn in the Wind
I would stand at the top of Hillfield Park and idly watch the clouds drift across me, picking those I could from the sky. Sometimes far below I saw migratory swallows returning from a winter in Africa, flying past in perfect Euclidean formations. I’d look down on terraces of Edwardian houses and their roofs tumbled below… Continue reading Cockerels That Turn in the Wind
The Metaphysical Diorama of a Fisherman
“The crabs cut ‘em … or plastic!” I nod understandingly. “Everything that comes to net ‘s not all fish!” he adds—delivering at first hand how inadequate waste management and irresponsible packaging impacts fishing. I sense it’s a counterargument to the accusation the industry itself is the main culprit in polluting the oceans. Giant luths that… Continue reading The Metaphysical Diorama of a Fisherman
INK 