Word of the Day
el marco- picture frame
Here in Nicaragua, you can tell a lot about desire from the images people
post on their walls. There are pictures of the family looking serious and
proper on a photoshopped background perhaps featuring a giant marble staircase,
library or red carpet. There are glamour shots of women, perhaps when they were
still young and hadn't given birth yet, with their curves in all the acceptable
places. Giant homes with lush backyards, sparkling with cleanliness. Religious
images, perhaps a washed out Mary featuring her impossibly light skinned
cherubic baby Jesus. Pictures of random babies, particulary blondes, with
inspirational mensages are also a big seller.
These images often make me feel uncomfortably aware of the position of
relative affluence in which I was raised and of the perniciousness of white
supremacy, spurred onward in the modern era by media, but existing in the
Americas since the conquest. So many of the backgrounds come from my original
context, yet placed here they constitute an impossible dream, a desire for
deceny, comfort, luxury or to be something other, supposedly more beautiful
than what is. The escapism breaks my heart a little.
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