“It infuriates him, this killing, this death. Infuriating that this is what we’re known for now, drug cartels and slaughter. This my city of Avenida 16 Septembre, the Victoria Theater, cobblestone streets, the bullring, La Central, La Fogata, more bookstores than El Paso, the university, the ballet, garapiñados, pan dulce, the mission, the plaza, the Kentucky Bar, Fred’s—now it’s known for these idiotic thugs. And my country, Mexico—the land of writers and poets—of Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Elena Garro, Jorge Volpi, Rosario Castellanos, Luis Urrea, Elmer Mendoza, Alfonso Reyes—the land of painters and sculptors—Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Gabriel Orozco, Pablo O’Higgins, Juan Soriano, Francisco Goitia—of dancers like Guillermina Bravo, Gloria and Nellie Campobello, Josefina Lavalle, Ana Mérida, and composers—Carlos Chávez, Silvestre Revueltas, Agustín Lara, Blas Galindo—architects—Luis Barragán, Juan O’Gorman, Tatiana Bilbao, Michel Rojkind, Pedro Vásquez—wonderful filmmakers—Fernando de Fuentes, Alejandro Iñárritu, Luis Buñuel, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro—actors like Dolores del Río, “La Doña” María Félix, Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Salma Hayek—now the names are “famous” narcos—no more than sociopathic murderers whose sole contribution to the culture has been the narcocorridas sung by no-talent sycophants. Mexico, the land of pyramids and palaces, deserts and jungles, mountains and beaches, markets and gardens, boulevards and cobblestoned streets, broad plazas and hidden courtyards, is now known as a slaughter ground. And for what? So North Americans can get high.”
―
Don Winslow,
The Cartel
“En ocasiones, cuando se embriagaba, Sikrosio decía cosas extrañas. Señalaba al Norte, y murmuraba: «De la Selva, llega el misterio». Indicaba después hacia el Este: «De la Estepa, ladestrucción, el fuego, la muerte...». Luego, volvíase hacia el Sur: «Del otro lado de las Lisias, el sueño, lo imposible..., y la mentira». Por fin, con voz donde latía una misteriosa tristeza, señalaba a Occidente: «Y de más allá de las tundras, el olvido».” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“Some cultures blame such deaths on evil spirits. The mind will always try to explain what it can’t understand—it will make up stories, theories, whole belief systems—and Maya’s mind, Dr. Barry said, was of the type that saw faces in clouds and messages in tea leaves.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“You think I wanted to kill her? I didn’t. But she figured it out. Can you believe it? I made the mistake of recommending a book to her about a famous mesmerist, and she made the jump to hypnosis” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Maya yearns for that time in her own life, not out of some need to escape reality—reality is fine—but simply because she was born that way. Born to yearn, as some people are, for more magical times. This is her fourth acid trip, so she knows about the sadness of coming down, the sense of God having vacated the garden.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Aquella noche, Lisio reunió secretamente al grupo de jóvenes del Sur, y les dijo: "Juro por esta espada que vengaré a mi padre y a todos los de nuestra raza, y juro también que aquel de vosotros que reniegue de nuestra consigna, será el más castigado". Los muchachos juraron a su vez. Pero Lisio no se apercibió de la duda que había nacido en todos ellos. Y en breve podría contemplar cuán frágil es la humana naturaleza, cuán frágiles los humanos juramentos y cuán indefensa una espada de niño -aún con tan larga frase como larga hoja-, en soledad contra el egoísmo y la ceguera que cubre la tierra” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“No me detendré jamás, mientras me quede vida —se decía, contemplando aquella vasta tierra despoblada y espantosamente solitaria—, hasta que ni un palmo de tierra quede oculta a mis ojos y hollada por mi pie.» «Sólo se sabía prisionero de aquel íntimo deseo, de aquel sueño, de aquella fiebre de la que nadie hacía partícipe. Pues esta sed era mayor que todas las sedes, y esta hambre, mayor que hambre alguna.” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“She only has room for twenty and has just moved It by Stephen King over to the leave-at-home pile to make room for Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, which her mom read aloud to her when she was ten and stuck at home for a week with strep throat.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Olvidé que era hijo de reyes.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“He’d told Maya he was twenty, but the math didn’t work: this hollow-eyed, salt-and-pepper man was easily in his forties. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to meet her mom.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Thick black hair and high Mayan cheekbones met the round chin and upturned nose of the Irish on her face.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“But now that Maya had cut down on drinking, they saw each other less and less; looking back, she realized their monthly brunches had become literally transactional: fifty dollars for ninety milligrams of Klonopin.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Withdrawal had taken her hunger, and Maya saw that she was losing weight, the bones of her cheeks and collarbones more pronounced. She forced herself to unclench her jaw.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“It was only a glance, less than a second, but that look Frank gave Aubrey has expanded to fill hours of Maya’s life.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“She took her martini to a small table in the corner and drank most of it in a few gulps that burned the whole way down, then faded to a pleasant warmth.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“She looked Hispanic but had grown up with a single white mom and knew very little about her family in Guatemala. She didn’t feel she fit in with the other Hispanic kids, while not being white meant she stuck out in Pittsfield.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“How improbable that both she and Aubrey, seven years apart, would drop dead in Frank’s presence. She had to imagine, or at least hope, that Dan would find it suspicious.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Now her mom was looking at her with the vigilance of a retired paramedic who had never really made it off the ambulance.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“No me detendré jamás, mientras me quede vida —se decía, contemplando aquella vasta tierra despoblada y espantosamente solitaria—, hasta que ni un palmo de tierra quede oculta a mis ojos y hollada por mi pie.” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“En ocasiones, cuando se embriagaba, Sikrosio decía cosas extrañas. Señalaba al Norte, y murmuraba: «De la Selva, llega el misterio». Indicaba después hacia el Este: «De la Estepa, ladestrucción, el fuego, la muerte...». Luego, volvíase hacia el Sur: «Del otro lado de las Lisias, el sueño, lo imposible..., y la mentira». Por fin, con voz donde latía una misteriosa tristeza, señalaba a Occidente: «Y de más allá de las tundras, el olvido».” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“Some cultures blame such deaths on evil spirits. The mind will always try to explain what it can’t understand—it will make up stories, theories, whole belief systems—and Maya’s mind, Dr. Barry said, was of the type that saw faces in clouds and messages in tea leaves.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“You think I wanted to kill her? I didn’t. But she figured it out. Can you believe it? I made the mistake of recommending a book to her about a famous mesmerist, and she made the jump to hypnosis” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Maya yearns for that time in her own life, not out of some need to escape reality—reality is fine—but simply because she was born that way. Born to yearn, as some people are, for more magical times. This is her fourth acid trip, so she knows about the sadness of coming down, the sense of God having vacated the garden.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Aquella noche, Lisio reunió secretamente al grupo de jóvenes del Sur, y les dijo: "Juro por esta espada que vengaré a mi padre y a todos los de nuestra raza, y juro también que aquel de vosotros que reniegue de nuestra consigna, será el más castigado". Los muchachos juraron a su vez. Pero Lisio no se apercibió de la duda que había nacido en todos ellos. Y en breve podría contemplar cuán frágil es la humana naturaleza, cuán frágiles los humanos juramentos y cuán indefensa una espada de niño -aún con tan larga frase como larga hoja-, en soledad contra el egoísmo y la ceguera que cubre la tierra” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“No me detendré jamás, mientras me quede vida —se decía, contemplando aquella vasta tierra despoblada y espantosamente solitaria—, hasta que ni un palmo de tierra quede oculta a mis ojos y hollada por mi pie.» «Sólo se sabía prisionero de aquel íntimo deseo, de aquel sueño, de aquella fiebre de la que nadie hacía partícipe. Pues esta sed era mayor que todas las sedes, y esta hambre, mayor que hambre alguna.” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
“She only has room for twenty and has just moved It by Stephen King over to the leave-at-home pile to make room for Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, which her mom read aloud to her when she was ten and stuck at home for a week with strep throat.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Olvidé que era hijo de reyes.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“He’d told Maya he was twenty, but the math didn’t work: this hollow-eyed, salt-and-pepper man was easily in his forties. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to meet her mom.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Thick black hair and high Mayan cheekbones met the round chin and upturned nose of the Irish on her face.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“But now that Maya had cut down on drinking, they saw each other less and less; looking back, she realized their monthly brunches had become literally transactional: fifty dollars for ninety milligrams of Klonopin.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Withdrawal had taken her hunger, and Maya saw that she was losing weight, the bones of her cheeks and collarbones more pronounced. She forced herself to unclench her jaw.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“It was only a glance, less than a second, but that look Frank gave Aubrey has expanded to fill hours of Maya’s life.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“She took her martini to a small table in the corner and drank most of it in a few gulps that burned the whole way down, then faded to a pleasant warmth.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“She looked Hispanic but had grown up with a single white mom and knew very little about her family in Guatemala. She didn’t feel she fit in with the other Hispanic kids, while not being white meant she stuck out in Pittsfield.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“How improbable that both she and Aubrey, seven years apart, would drop dead in Frank’s presence. She had to imagine, or at least hope, that Dan would find it suspicious.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“Now her mom was looking at her with the vigilance of a retired paramedic who had never really made it off the ambulance.” ― Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines
“No me detendré jamás, mientras me quede vida —se decía, contemplando aquella vasta tierra despoblada y espantosamente solitaria—, hasta que ni un palmo de tierra quede oculta a mis ojos y hollada por mi pie.” ― Ana María Matute, Olvidado rey Gudú
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