Violeta Mora Acosta

A hazy layer covers an abandoned town, the noise has replaced the sounds of nature, the machines do not stop. A man performs a rite to try to save us.

Chalk on felt, the sound of scissors, the creation of a friend

The night is dark and cold, I walk through the plantations, I look at the leaves and stems of the banana trees while memories of my grandfather come to my mind.

A lagoon in Cuba suddenly dries up. All that remains of this lost landscape is an old painting with faded contours. This is the starting point for Violeta Mora’s quest: how does one remember a landscape that is no longer there? She then interviews those who do remember it, in an attempt to make the lagoon reappear.

This beautifully integrated, multi-threaded narrative seamlessly interweaves six stories set in radically different locations across Central America, ranging from the tropical forests of Guatemala to the skyscrapers of Panama City. When a solar storm leaves the region without power, myriad dramas unfold over the course of five days during which all conveniences of modernity are stripped away. In Costa Rica, a pastor and his daughter worry for the future of their church, while in El Salvador, a grandmother and grandson make an arduous journey into the city. A husband and wife reconnect in Honduras, as a young couple nurses a mysterious stranger back to health in Guatemala. Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, a young woman prepares for her quinceañera and in Panama, a housekeeper grows exasperated with her demanding employer.

Perhaps the gap between the memory of the past and that of the future is where you can search and find better.