A Sunny Place for Shady People

by Mariana Enriquez

Today I was struck by sadness, I suffered from three kinds of fear, added to the irreversible fact: I am no longer young. —Adélia Prado

I understand how things go: if misery is stalking you the way it does everyone in my country and my city and you have to resort to crime in order to survive, then that’s what you do. There’s more money in crime than in lawful work.

It’s easy to have ethics when what you love is not in danger. I like to think I wouldn’t have done it, though. I’m an idealist—I prefer naïveté and paternalism to hatred.

“That’s why I live here, in spite of the fires. Because this is a city of witches.”