Spirits & Ghosts: A Tale of Family Love

Hello, hello. Today I feel like sharing with you what I consider family, that core of people, events, memories, mandates, a system that has transformed, that continues to transform. It has had strong roots; some have extended and others have become uprooted. It is a process that takes on shapes, that grows, and becomes a warm nest that resides deep within me.

First of all, I need to clarify that it is a system in constant growth.

For me, family, home, clan, tribe, is a group of beings who have gained, we have gained, affection, care, and the responsibility to love each other.

It doesn't mean that we were born with the same identity, blood, and geographic location; it is something that goes beyond.

I have a very large blood family on both sides, one closer than the other, one very dominant, the other more mysterious. On my mother's side, a woman with a lot of personality, full of strength, intellect, and art, part of her clan is similar. They also uphold tradition, hierarchy, and competition a lot; a lot of vigor and liveliness.

On my father's side, I have a very sweet, hardworking, warrior-like father, a dreamer, a troubadour poet. Similarly, the dynamics of his blood relatives are deeply rooted in their connection to the land and their kin. The dynamics of the gatherings with both families were always a hullabaloo, high-voltage events, a lot of adrenaline. They required travel, trips filled with music, landscapes, and many naps in the back seat.

I am an only child, so there was a huge desire for the constant company of someone to share with more closely, so these dynamics filled me.

Among meals, conversations, games, and activities, weekends full of adventure unfolded, which are now a vast material for my imagination and my characters.

There were so many experiences, so many great personalities, that marked many current traits of who I am and that I am also learning to deconstruct.

Thus, both families formed an ecosystem of beliefs and attachments in me, creating their own codes that self-manage, creating a unique identity. As I grew, many of these dynamics began to clash with my values. I started to question a lot about what truly resonated with me.

It was a very complex process to expose an antagonism between both families, especially the emotional and economic deficiencies, opening an abyss and a void of not understanding how to identify myself.

I began to understand that there existed a chosen family: friends, mysterious beings who come close for a certain period and make you grow, care for you, teach you. They also derail you, form you in the school of life. From there you have to choose where to lean on.

From there, I began to approach, understand, read, and incorporate a more mystical, more invisible language of how beings from my clan come close to me without being physically present.

For that, I must tell you about my grandmothers.

Let's start with my maternal grandmother, Cora Capriles. I knew her little and the only memory I have of her is that she was a woman with very pronounced mental and physical deterioration, which meant we couldn't enjoy each other.

Curiously, she was much more present and remains in active presence from the moment she died, on my birthday. It was a transcendental connection. She was felt through the house, in every sense.

Her energy was there with me. It was a time when I could already stay home alone while my parents worked, but I never felt alone; she was there with me, her strong presence and protection was surrounded leaving a strong identification with her tastes, mannerisms, and extravagances.

My mother never tires of saying, "You are just like your grandmother!"

About my paternal grandmother, Edelmira Guevara, a being of silent devotion, little was spoken. She only started calling me when she felt I would have the maturity to understand her legacy.

She left me her indigenous roots, her peasant strength, her love for the rustic. She was a peasant and a healer. It is said she was a strong and sweet woman, she would ride a horse in the middle of the night if someone in the hamlet felt unwell. She arrived, she was there. At one stage of her life, she became passionate about another man who was not my grandfather and was condemned for it.

From then on, her memory was silenced. She was bitten by an insect that enlarged her heart, causing her to die very young.

She began calling me through dreams. She is the one who invites me to delve into the esoteric side and connect with the invisible world. I was raised in the city, but her legacy, my roots, have powerfully connected me with the countryside, with simplicity and at the same time with the strength of the earth.

From the chosen family, friends are the salt and sugar you choose to put in your life. With them, you laugh, cry, live diverse experiences of great richness, share deep feelings, opening vast dialogues to write books. Thus, they become formidable memories. The affinity that can exist, the responsibility, the care, the shared love is considered family.

Resuming the course of these three facets I decided to describe, I began to understand that family is a collective noun that lives singularly within us. They are seeds that germinate in diverse hearts, intertwine, and weave roots that connect us with existence itself.

I understood that different planes, landscapes, and transcendent and immanent dimensions are not barriers to the construction of love.

It is the most powerful and important energy and it is our responsibility to expand it, care for it, and enjoy it.

Warm love to all of you