lunes, 10 de octubre de 2016

Food

The CEO is telling us how well incomes have been behaving in the last 2 quarters, and the good expectations we all have for the Company whilst the waiter has just removed our seafood soup bowls and is pouring some more wine in our almost empty glasses.

The second course arrives. I’m a thin and healthy executive woman in my 40’s, I know the amount of food I’ve been served is much bigger than my stomach size. I know if I eat it all I can explode, seriously, explode.

My co-workers have finished, but of course they still have some food in their plates, everybody leaves food, a way to pretend we have enough money so we don’t need to eat it all, even if someone has an empty fridge at home, but appearances matter. They have pushed their plates aside, and are smiling and enjoying a nice after lunch conversation, I can feel their discomfort looks over me whilst I’m still eating, I can’t eat, I mean, it’s physically imposible but It’s physiologically possible, I eat everything and smile. 

I can hear my grandma’s voice in my head shouting: Eat it all, don’t ever leave any food in the plate, you’re lucky you didn’t have to live when we didn’t have enough food to eat. The Civil War is over since 2 generations ago, in fact I have no idea what a Civil War is. But here I am, acting as if it was taking place right now.

food

------

Note: I wrote this text in a writing workshop at The Liminal Center, a feminist and womanist writing space in Oakland, California, in August 2016.

Thank you, Gina Goldblatt, you are making this a better world supporting artists and creating fantastic art sharing spaces like yours. I've met great people at your place.

Thank you, Maude Wilson, for your comments when I first read it to you, a couple of days after writing it; In fact we were talking about food in different cultures, and it was weird I'd just written about it so I decided to share it with you, and it was great to have your feedback.

---------

Nota: Escribí este texto en un taller de escritura en el espacio literario feminista Liminal en Oakland, California, en Agosto del 2016, por eso está en inglés, lo escribí así.

Doy las gracias a Gina Goldblatt, por hacer de éste un mundo mejor ayudando a artistas y creando espacios como el suyo para compartir el arte y la cultura. He conocido a grandes personas en su casa.

Doy las gracias a Maude Wilson por los comentarios que me hizo cuando se lo leí por primera vez un par de días después de haberlo escrito. Estábamos justo hablando de la comida en las diferentes culturas, y qué curioso que precisamente yo había escrito este texto hacía un par de días así que decidí compartirlo con ella, y agradecí mucho sus comentarios al respecto.