‘Searching’ Archives
Searching ”“ A Serial Novelle Chapter 24: “The Great Divide”
By Patrick Cabello Hansel Luz had her own story, part of which she had buried deep. Growing up in two countries””in the winter along the US-Mexico border, Pharr on the Texan side, a small pueblo outside of Matamoros in the land of Cuauhtémoc. During the harvest season, she travelled with her family to the onions, the peas, the corn, the green beans, the pumpkin. She learned to pick before she could read. Luz had family on both sides of the great divide. Mexican and US. Documented and undocumented. Speaking Spanish, speaking English. Migrants and land owners. Dead and alive. Her ancestry went back to great healers of the Nahuatl people, who had had their hands cut off and their tongues torn out by the conquistadors for being “pagan”. And she was a direct descendant of Mateo Kelly Hidalgo, the ghost of these pages, the prince of the divide. This came pouring out little by little as she talked with Angel. They had walked into the teeth of the blizzard until [...]
Searching ”“ A Serial Novelle Chapter 23: “Turning Darker”
By Patrick Cabello Hansel We can”'t control what is coming. We can”'t foresee it. Angel and Luz, upon leaving the Mercado Central were as in love as two can be. Together, come what may. What came was not a stab from Angel”'s past, but from Luz”'. As they walked west on Lake Street, they didn”'t notice the man standing at the corner a block and a half down. They didn”'t see that he had seen them, and was waiting with eyes like radar. As they got closer, Angel could tell the kind of man he was: the kind you nod at as you pass, but don”'t engage in conversation. The kind whose business takes all. They intended to go around him, and continue to Luz”' aunt”'s house. She wanted to talk with her about all that had happened. But as they approached the corner, the man stepped into their path and laughed, a laugh swarming with deceit. “Well look who”'s here””little old Luz. Lucy Goosey, alive in Minneapolis. How [...]
Searching ”“ A Serial Novelle Chapter 22: “For whatever might come”
By Patrick Cabello Hansel By the time they reached Ingebretsen”'s there was a line out the store, down the block in front of the poster collective and La Que Buena, all the way around the corner on 17th. Angel”'s Mom and Dad decided to go to the Mercado Central rather than wait in line, but Angel and Luz were curious to see what this great fuss was about. When they got to the end of the line, they stood behind an elderly couple, holding hands and smiling. The woman nodded at them and said something that sounded to Angel like “Lotten barn in”. There was that word again: lotten. He had heard it from the strange man in the park; the waitress at Maria”'s had told him it meant “Let”. Let the barn in?” Angel thought. What is that supposed to mean? The woman noticed the perplexed look on Angel”'s face and said, “Don”'t worry; it”'s an old Santa Lucia day blessing. You two do know it”'s Santa Lucia Day, [...]
