EL VIAJERO

EL VIAJERO
2022 – 2024

When my mother passed away, among the many things she left me were several books of poetry. Among them was one by Antonio Machado with a marked page. On that page was a poem, El Viajero (“The Traveler”), which speaks of a relative who leaves and, upon returning to the place they left, comes back as a different person. This poem is the backbone of this journal.

It begins in the somber family room,
And among us, the beloved brother
Who, in the childhood dream of a clear day,
We saw depart for a distant land.

El Viajero is the construction of a forgotten memory, a phase that begins in childhood and ends after leaving one’s place of birth. Following the death of all the close relatives who surrounded my childhood, I try to remember, weaving together, in the form of a journal, all the memories that linger in the imagination of that non-existent memory, one that no one can bear witness to.

This work is not only about places and situations but also about different stages of my childhood and adolescence. For this, I draw on people who are part of my chosen family—those relationships built since leaving my original home.

El Viajero is a journal that analyzes the concept of the passage of time and the connections in my memory through personal and familial relationships, beginning with the idea of a forgotten memory and progressing toward a present in which we find ourselves as visitors.