Carmen

The duende that ran into the veins of the family from remote origins, went to become more evident over the years.

That art was as impossible to hide as her toasted complexion, mahogany vein hair, and olive-colored eyes.  

Twice a day she participated in the traveling show that fed the family.  

In a few years she went from playing the palms and dancing accompanied, to becoming the “prima donna” of the dancers. 

It was a responsibility that she carried with joy. 

She almost always received her reward in the form of applause, flowers, and poems of admirers written in almost every language of the world. 

She loved walking the roads as much as she loved dancing. 

Each place was an opportunity to teach the world her music, her dance and her traditions. Her free and sociable spirit would allow her to absorb portions of cultures outside her own. 

She also realized that deep down her traditions were not so different from others.

No matter how different a place and its inhabitants might seem, if she looked well, with the eyes of her heart, she could see and feel the connection. 

At the end of the show, sitting around the bonfire, surrounded by her large family, with the mobile homes behind her back and the starry sky over her heads, she felt her heart throb. 

That’s when she thought about all the miles traveled.  

She reviewed her dances and admired herself when she saw how many new movements of other dances she had incorporated. 

 As she spoke, she was surprised by words and expressions of infinite tongues in her mouth. 

By savoring dinner, she could distinguish new herbs and spices. 

At that time, she realized that lacking a homeland made them belong to all lands. 

What made them different was what most united them to strangers.   

She knew that she was unique and that at the same time she was a part of everyone. 

They were nomads and that is why the bond that supported them did not take root under the ground, but, like her, danced in the air, traveling paths without no beginning and with no end, intertwining in an embrace that held the whole Earth