Marquez's Guernica in Guaynabo City

Photo by Celia Gonzalez, PR


Once upon a time, some depressions ago, I read “How to tell a Story” (Como se Cuenta un Cuento), a book part of a Series of Workshops directed by Garcia Marquez. In this book Gabo tells us about his obsession about the Creative Moment, and how he became an addict of Team Writing, of Collective Stories…He writes about an occasion when going through the pages of a Life magazine he found a huge photograph of the burial of Hirohito. In the photo, Garcia Marquez recalls, there is the new Empress, Akihito’s wife. It is raining. In the back, out of focus, the guards with white raincoats, further in the back the multitude protecting themselves under umbrellas, newspapers and clothes. In the middle of the photo the Empress, alone, skinny, totally in black, black veil, black umbrella...At that moment he (Garcia Marquez) realized there was a story, not about the Emperor’s death but about that umbrella the widower was holding.

The house in this picture is in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. During a year I have driven by it a minimum of 6 times daily, back and forth from my children’s school. A few days ago, stuck in traffic, with Recessions R Us in my mind, I looked up and discovered the flag, immediately after the pink Cadillac in the garage and almost at the same time the gold bold eagle on the fence. I don’t know the family that lives in the house; I guess they are Americans living in Puerto Rico or at least “Estadistas” (Puertoricans who favor the idea of Puerto Rico becoming a state of the United States). Either way I can’t help but think that America and its signature Dream are depressed. I have been tempted, 6 times a day, to stop, ring the bell and introduce myself. In Puerto Rico, people are really friendly. I haven’t been. In the mean time I am sure the flag has a story, and it's screaming it to the sky.

Celia Gonzalez, Puerto Rico.