« back to Como la Flor

For three years I said I was going to go. In March 1998 I finally did, with my cousins Patricia, Jessica and Michelle, four girls in one car for six days. Patricia drove, Jessica read the map, Michelle was in charge of the tapes, and I was in charge of the snacks and of keeping everybody from killing each other. I did a pretty good job.

(Pictures: Patricia took two rolls of film, and they're in an album at her apartment. I don't have a scanner yet, so you'll have to imagine us. Imagine four sunburned girls in sunglasses. That's pretty much every picture.)

Sábado, March 14 · Saturday We left El Paso at five in the morning in the dark, with a cooler of tortas and a box of tapes. If you've never driven across Texas on I-10, it's a long way of nothing, and then more nothing, and then Fort Stockton. Somewhere between Sierra Blanca and Van Horn the clocks jump ahead an hour and you lose it forever. Michelle played every Selena album in order, Ven Conmigo to Siempre Selena, and then started over. Nobody complained. San Antonio by afternoon, then I-37 south, and we got to Corpus after dark. You can smell the water before you see it.

Domingo, March 15 · Sunday The Mirador de la Flor. We went first thing in the morning, before we even ate. It's a lookout on the bayfront, and there she is: Selena in bronze, life-size, leaning against a pillar and looking out at the bay. The wind off the water never stops in Corpus, and it was pulling at everybody's hair, and it felt like she was standing in it with us. The pillar was covered with messages people had written in marker, in English and in Spanish, from Texas and Mexico and California and places I'd never heard of. There were flowers all around her feet, some fresh and some dried out. We didn't write on the pillar. We each left a white rose, and then we just stood there. A family from Monterrey was there with their little girl, maybe five years old, in a purple dress, and she knew every word to "Como la Flor." That's when I lost it. We stayed almost two hours. Nobody wanted to be the first to leave.

Lunes, March 16 · Monday Padre Island. We needed a beach day, and the Gulf was right there. The water was way too cold for March, but Michelle went in up to her knees anyway, screaming the whole time. We collected shells, ate sandwiches with sand in them, and Jessica fell asleep in the sun and woke up the color of a strawberry raspa (a snow cone). I'm the nursing student, so I was in charge of the aloe.

Martes, March 17 · Tuesday The rest of Corpus. We did the Texas State Aquarium in the morning and the USS Lexington, the old aircraft carrier they've made into a museum, in the afternoon, mostly because Patricia wanted to. (It's huge. My feet still hurt.) Then we walked the seawall downtown in the evening and watched the boats. I kept thinking that this was just her town, the regular town she grew up in, where she went to the store and got her nails done and drove around with the windows down. It made her feel close and far away at the same time.

Miércoles, March 18 · Wednesday Back to the Mirador, at sunset. We had to say goodbye. There were only a few people there this time, and it was quiet except for the wind and the water. The sky went orange and then purple, her color, I swear. The four of us sang "Como la Flor" together, very softly, just for her. Then we walked back to the car without talking, and Patricia put her arm around me, and that was that.

Jueves, March 19 · Thursday Home. Twelve hours west, and we got the hour back somewhere out in the desert. I drove the last part in the dark while everybody slept, with Amor Prohibido on low, and the mountains of El Paso showed up black against the stars around midnight. My mom had left the porch light on.

« back to Como la Flor  |  [email protected]