up above
May 7, 2009
east LA.
“but it’s weird!”
May 6, 2009
she said over sushi this evening. “you … with the camera … out of nowhere … taking pictures of me.” but i had do. because this is gina. just as stunning, or even more so, than when i first met her 12 years ago on the high school yearbook staff. fresh from a year and a half of living in hawaii, she is back — strong, independent, on the brink of a brand new chapter in her life.
she’s my favorite because
May 5, 2009
1. her fingers are shaped like tater tots
2. she wraps her head with vintage floral hankies
3. when she’s alone in the living room, she softly hums hymns from her childhood
4. she never poses when i take her photograph
5. recently, she began to watch her favorite novelas with her sunglasses on
6. she blesses me with the sign of the cross when i leave to work on tuesday mornings
7. for her, the air conditioning in my car is “the wind”
8. she likes to walk coquetishly, with one hand on her hip
9. her green eyes are full of stories
10. life won’t be half as hilarious when she returns to el salvador in 27 days
still recovering
May 3, 2009
from the worst haircut since the mullet fiasco of 1990 when my mom was too distracted getting a perm and i was too distracted stuffing my face with the hairstylist’s turkish delights to feel the cold sheers grazing my ears. never had i heard my mom scream so loud. it didn’t matter that half the things she said came out in spanish. or that her curlers were still attached. or that i stood by shaking, in a puddle of tears. she yelled. she stomped and pointed at my maimed head and grabbed me by the arm and marched out of supercuts never to return again. that’s exactly how i feel now: maimed. only this time i didn’t have my mom to fight back for me. i just smiled, quietly paid morena, our family stylist, then slipped out, never to return again.
my little brother
May 2, 2009
has the world’s cutest girlfriend. yes, he does.
a portraiture
May 1, 2009
of mitzu’s momma’s chiquilandia.
