I was born and raised in Las Pilas. Las Pilas is a very small community located in the state of Aguascalientes, in Mexico. It consists of 25 families, one small school, a grosery store and a church. Upon arriving there the first thing that you can admire is the lake and its great waterfall. After you fall in love with the place, you would be delighted with its people and its great traditions. In the north side of this community you can find my parent’s house. The house where I was born! The house where I was born is squared, has four walls, two floors and a garage.
The house where I was born contains a kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.
The house where I was born was built by my father with great effort and love.
The house where I was born saw my grandfather cry when he used to tell us stories while he was at war. It also saw him die.
The house where I was born saw my birth and my departure. I grew up in three of its rooms, the last of them possibly still occupied by my cousin Luis and his wife Mary.
The house where I was born has a nice terrace where I used to kill imaginary space monsters, where I used to imagine crossing the mountains like a flying bird, where counting the stars with my mother was fun, and where night was day with my father.
The house where I was born is a set of bricks, cement and plaster that gave shelter to my parents, my sister and me. For a bank may be just clay, cement and plaster. For me there is a story in every corner, it’s a reminder to each step that was taken. It is a touch in each tile, a place where I find the people I love most in this world.
The house where I was born consists of four walls that do not say anything, but save everything at the same time.
Magdalena, my favorite parts of this piece are your use of parallelism -- the way you repeat (for example) "The house where I was born..." -- to create structure, and the details in the third paragraph. I love "imaginary space monsters" and the way you've juxtaposed them with an image of yourself as a bird and stargazing. "Where night was day with my father" intrigues me. It's a beautiful image of reversal and seems to imply a lot about your dad. I also like that you've moved past sight imagery -- your descriptions of materials like plaster and brick engage my fingertips.
ReplyDeleteI love how you comment about how the bank may see it as "bricks, and plaster," but to you it has memories. It really emphasizes how people see houses, and then homes. I love how you illustrate how the house saw "your birth, and your departure." It allowed me to see how you grow up in a home and why it has so many important memories that you carry with you.
ReplyDeleteI love how you described the house from so many different angles. The lines "The house where I was born saw my grandfather cry when he used to tell us stories while he was at war. It also saw him die." were especially touching and I was impressed by the emotional attachment to your home thast they conveyed.
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