jLópez
Dear Winter
Nina in Montreal🇨🇦
"Red or Green? Rojo o Verde?"
Before flying back home to Chicago, I took a quick detour trip to visit a dear friend. The scorching desert sun had set behind the Sandia Mountains of Albuquerque when my flight landed. I was famished after a month of traveling away from home, from comfort food. D and I dined at Frontier Diner on Route 66. At the counter, as I placed my order, I was asked the state question: “Red or Green?” “Can I have one of each?” I replied. “Yes, Christmas—you absolutely can.” “Christmas”— the pairing of red and green enchiladas—was something I knew well. Mom had taught me how to cook both the red enchiladas de papa y zhannahoria and green chicken enchiladas. Behind Delilah my eyes drifted to a familiar face: a large canvas painting of the iconic John Wayne. Father loved to watch movies set in the days of the “Wild West”— where cowboys and Indians traced the rugged landscapes of the Southwest. This wasn't my first time in the dry heat of the Southwest. Several times, we traveled as a family from Chicago to Michoacán. As a family we crossed the states en route to the land we call home, two days to reach the border crossing at Nuevo Laredo and one more day to cross the sierra and reach our destination.
El depa de Berkeley- Summer 2023
At the cusp where North Oakland meets Berkeley stood a pastel, peachy-pink shoe box of a building. Its pink stucco walls reminded me of the house that held my earliest memories in Mexico— the home where my father eventually retired. That whimsical Dingbat apartment on King Street became my home during the summer of 2023.
