It's funny how sometimes we find our own voice, our way of communication with others.
In the case of my mother it was through Pesqui. When I was a child, my mother had to fight with me everyday so I could eat everything. One day pulling wit, because she has a lot of it, Pesqui was born, a talking whiting puppet that my mother did with her bare hand. Pesqui spoke to me to convince me to finish my meal and I did it. Time past, and in my adolescence, Pesqui became my mother's alter ego, telling my sisters and me what my mother was unable to express. By Pesqui acquiring a voice, my mother found hers.
Already as an adult and knowing about my mom’s childhood, I understand how Pesqui became so necessary to her. She grew up as a shy girl, raised among adults, and spending her time between the keys of her piano and sketchbooks.
Quarantine through, I am in Madrid, 400 km from my family and with plenty of time to think about and miss them. A thought that leads me to believe that, despite my problems - first world problems, of course - I am a lucky person, my closer ones are safe and healthy. If I am getting anything positive out of this horrible pandemic, it is having gotten closer to them.
Distance is not an impediment to approach and empathize with others, whatever it is, 400, 1000 or 10000 km. We have learned that there are no borders, classes, or races, only those that our minds created in times past for the benefit of a few. No one is immune to what we are experiencing, we all have loved ones, worries and fears. In short, we are all the same.
Something that characterizes us all as a specie is that we inherit, copy or borrow ways from our parents. I inherited my legs from my father, don't be scared, he has beautiful ones, and his taste for a good beer surrounded by friends. From my mother, her dimples and her passion for arts.
Right now I feel the urge to document what we are all going through. Today I am borrowing my mother's communication formula to talk about difficult things from surrealism, humor and tenderness. Today "Mr Gutiérrez, diary of a confined sock" is born. A lucky sock that all he has to do to overcome this pandemic is to lock himself up at home and clench his teeth until the downpour passes as others fight the battle out there for us all.
He's fine, just waiting for this to end up in order to hug his own, get up, shake off the dust and move on.