Simona’s Trip

Translated by Katrina Hassan At twelve o’clock sharp an alarm goes off to signal it is lunchtime. The workers have half an hour to eat and get back to work. Simona has been working at this place for 20 years. She started off as a cleaner and in 4 years she moved up to kitchen assistant. In the beginning she was chopping up tons of onions. Now she is preparing gourmet foods that are sold in the well to do supermarkets.  Originally from the neighbourhood of Los Apante’s, Juayúa, El Salvador, Simona went to the United States to escape stigma.…

Continuar leyendo…

The Dinner 

Translated by Marvin Najarro Fidelio stops and take a rest next to the ice cream cart, his feet are blistered – the shoes he wears barely have any sole. He has walked across most of the city since seven in the morning, soon it will get dark. It hasn’t been a good day; he couldn’t sell even a third part of the product. That is what happens when the autumn begins and the weather changes suddenly. He never imagined that El Norte would be something like that: pushing an ice cream cart from spring to fall and asking people to buy his…

Continuar leyendo…

As the Incense Burns

Translated by Katrina Hassan Disiderio lights a candle for the altar he has at home in his living room. He has just come home from work. He lives in Colorado and works cleaning public toilets for the district’s parks. It has come to the end of the year in which his mother Modesta has died. She was the last survivor left from his family who were massacred by the military during their dictatorship of Guatemala. His parents would tell the story of how they and other families went into hiding, in the jungle, for months, in order for them not…

Continuar leyendo…

Rue Leaves

Translated by Katrina Hassan Jesusa walks along the edge of the sidewalk as she admires the yellow colors emanating from the sunflowers that adorn people’s houses. In August, the heat makes the wildflower petals burst in bloom and it seasons the wild grass in the meadows. The smell of lavender makes the last days of summer unforgettably beautiful. The time when the sunflowers bloom is Jesusa momentarily forgets about all her aches and pains.  She eats watermelon, cranberries and peaches. Jesusa makes a salad of avocado, basil and lime and makes lemonade with mint. She sets out her rue leaves…

Continuar leyendo…

The Freeloaders

Translated by Marvin Najarro For twenty-seven years Sabina sent parcel boxes full of clothes and gifts for her four children in Guatemala. She was an undocumented immigrant whose spinal bones suffered as a consequence of excessive cleaning of bathtubs and toilets; bleach and other chemicals had her hands cracked. Sharing an apartment with seven more people, Sabina worked three jobs at day; cleaning bathrooms in restaurants, office buildings, shopping malls and homes. No doubt, she knows how dirty people is inside and outside their homes. Widowed with four children, she decided to emigrate so that she would be able to…

Continuar leyendo…