Categoría: Inglés

Light Through The Window

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Translated by Katrina Hassan He draws the curtain and opens the blinds, sunbeams criss-cross the dust in the room. Marcelino lives in an old derelict building. The owners never fix anything because they rent it out to undocumented Latin American migrants. This being the reason why they’ve never done the required upgrades. The more he cleans, the more the dust builds up, like roaches or ants. Marcelino rents a studio apartment. It’s a small room where he has a stove, a small fridge, and a small bathroom. He barely has any room to move. After 12 years of living in…

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The Return of Silverio 

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Translated by Marvin Najarro Silverio was two years old when his father immigrated to the United States as an undocumented immigrant, his sisters Bartola and Chucita were three and four years old. For a long time, they only knew his voice through the phone calls he used to make on weekends, and the two pictures their mother had next to him; there were no family pictures.  By the time technology arrived in their native Lelá Chancó, Camotán, Chiquimula, Guatemala, they did not have money to buy a cell phone to make video calls, until their father who lived in Washington,…

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The Stilts of Cecilia 

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Translated by Marvin Najarro Cecilia never imagined that after working in a maquila in her native Puerto Lempira, Gracias a Dios, Honduras, she would end up painting houses in the United States. She did not land in a fast-food restaurant or in some maintenance job, but rather it was gardening and construction that awaited her.   Although women in her native country besides looking after their family are accustomed to perform tasks that by gender correspond to men, painting house ceilings on stilts was something new for her. When she emigrated, she was told that there was plenty of work in…

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Other Horizons 

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Translated by Katrina Hassan The alarm clock sounds off from afar, he checks the time, and it is three thirty a.m. He gets up, still sleepy, and walks towards the bathroom. He left a bucket full of water in the room the night before to save himself from going out on the patio to dispose of it. In a bag, he has four outfits. He takes one that he ironed the night before and gets dressed to wait on the bread delivery man that will arrive at any second now. On one of two hobs on the stove, he heats…

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Cold Days in the Diaspora 

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Translated by Marvin Najarro Campestre always wanted to buy winter boots, but it is something he can’t afford despite his three jobs. He imagines them, he pictures himself with his boots on, keeping his feet warm in below zero temperatures. Winter clothing is expensive and the boots much more, having them is a luxury for a 75-years-old undocumented immigrant, with no labor rights, like Campestre.  He would like to have a chumpa1 and a pair of winter gloves and also pants, the clothes he uses to work does not help him with the cold temperatures, they are the same ones he wears…

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Praise to His Majesty, King Pelé

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Translated by Marvin Najarro The younger generations believe that football was invented ten years ago, and that artificial gras fields have always been there, as well as the ubiquitous social networks that magnify everything in favor of the big and exploitative high-tech business, and the mafias that surround football. Thus, the huge amounts of money invested in publicity to create, every ten years, star players that will be useful for the selling of jerseys, television audiences, and stadium tickets. This is how they will impose an idol on the world masses, who are easy to manipulate. Beyond all that is…

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The Early Morning Dew 

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Translated by Marvin Najarro At three o’clock in the morning they already have the agave net bags of carrots, beets, and radishes ready. They washed the vegetables the night before; it is cheaper when they get the produce straight from the farmers’ fields. This year they also took the chance of dealing in coconuts; an important ingredient of the fruit punch consumed during the end-of-year festivities. To get the coconuts they had to travel from Chimaltenango to Escuintla, sometimes to Suchitepéquez, which means an extra expense that will greatly impact their fragile economy.   Ixmucané’s parents, after twenty years of selling…

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