Catalina

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Perhaps they were getting old and realized that if they raised me, I might take care of them when they were no longer able to work in this country. That seems like a cynical calculation but I understood the role cynical calculations play in survival.

This was my job as a kid: to defuse the tension and lighten the mood.

I teared up at the thought that I was loved so much by this beautiful carpenter that he would prove it to me by slowly dying in front of me, his boys by his side, three sweet-talking felons bleeding out like John Leguizamo in the Baz Lurhmann movie. Best of all, he timed his death perfectly: He died young but not at the age of dorm room poster cliché. He was locked in at thirty-three, the age J.Lo was when she filmed “Jenny from the Block,” young forever thanks to their pretty brown skin.

My grandfather and Harvard anthropologists tag-teamed my education on the Americas and the truth is they agreed on the basic story. First came the Spaniards, and with them the Church, then came petroleum, then came cocaine, then came NAFTA, and now we were all fucked.

She looked…mixed. What, exactly, was she? To whom did she owe her life and her allegiances?

If I made my eyes glaze over, like really glaze over, he looked like the drummer from the Strokes.

I don’t really think American cuisine is about flavor, it’s like a stand against communism.

l o l

It was my first time seeing white people dance outside of television and for what it’s worth I thought it was very brave.

It was sliding scale. It was like being a model for Bumble and Bumble and getting bangs.

me sitting here with bangs

Breaking Bad was my favorite TV show but I had to read spoilers beforehand or I could not watch it. I watched with subtitles on, the volume low,

same

Unless it is read, a book is just an object. There are no holy texts without believers to read them.