What color would you give to loss, to saying goodbye perhaps never to meet again? For many Venezuelans, those colors are orange, green, blue and black. These are the colors of the mosaic by local artist Carlos Cruz Diez, which graces the floors and feature walls in the Departures Hall of Simon Bolívar Airport, which locals refer to simply as Maiquetía.
Once a symbol of our oil country’s progress, the bright, crisscrossing lines of this kinetic artwork are now a reminder of our country’s downfall. The tiles, many cracked or missing, have become the backdrop to ‘foot selfies’ that young emigrants and their relatives post online as a symbol of the many goodbyes. Goodbyes are increasingly common in the country with the second-highest refugee crisis in the world. These photos peaked in the mid-2010s, since the newer wave of emigrants are too poor to afford a flight, and more of them resort to crossing the border by foot.
This vivid pattern is the inspiration of my new Flash Fiction story, which I’ve submitted for a Short Fiction competition. Capturing a slice of a life and so much emotion in only 500 words has been challenging, but also forced me to get to the very basics of writing, thinking about every word and its meaning.
Writing ‘small’ has given me the opportunity to explore characters that seem too daunting to take on in longer form. For this and another 500-word story, ‘Abuela’s Kitchen,’ I picked a common theme: tackling the ironclad Latinx matriarch, peeling her layers away to reveal her true self, outside of the stereotypes. Instead of developing a single character, I can show different snippets of a woman at the peak of her strength and power, ‘with the steel steel façade of one who dares the world to throw any adversity her way, because nothing can knock her down.’ This last bit is a direct quote from ‘Abuela’s Kitchen.’
I’ll share the full texts of both ‘short shorts’ once I’m able to do so. Happy reading!
My Writing Story 