Blog

In Praise of Experience

A few days ago, we held a basketball game between the students and professors at the university where I teach. To say we held it is just a figure of speech. Or rather, it’s something only those of us who won the game say, because, against all odds, we...

A loan where we all win

Juan lives in Orosi, surrounded by mountains where you can hear the murmur of the river winding through the valley. His days are spent tending to a few small plots of land and dreaming of expanding his property to produce more coffee. A neighbor wanted to sell him a...

A paradise of volcanoes and bananas

A few weeks ago, I visited visual artist Moisés Barrios in his studio in Guatemala City. Moisés showed me his most recent pictorial work and invited me to write a text to accompany his exhibition Paradisiaca. In this text, I explore the main elements that are...

Nomadic rivers

After four hours on the road, the bus stopped on a gravel road next to one of those endless pineapple farms in the northern Caribbean. Luckily, it wasn’t pouring with rain, as is almost always the case during the rainy season. There was barely any rain. Armed...

A spontaneous building

We went up in a 4×4 to the top of Panama Hill near Nicoya. The ride was not long, but it was rocky and slippery. On the road there was one of those clays that stick relentlessly to the soles of your shoes and gradually loosen, leaving trails all over the house....

An essential foundation

There is a silent force that sustains a good part of our daily decisions. It is not signed, imposed or constantly monitored, but it is there, mediating between people, institutions and systems. That force is called trust. We trust when we go to the doctor expecting...