•   CONTENTS                                                                                            Be
                   The Island of Varos                                                                  for
            Art
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            GalleryBy    Severna Park, illustration by Janet Chui                                       Pa
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                   2 June 2003                                                                          os
         Article
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         s       Early in the Occupation when the Conqueros came, my mother painted her birds by
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       o Colum in secret. Materials were scarce so she resorted to the old technique of distilling
                 color from the night air. Glass tubes ran from the single window in her studio to the rett
         ns
                 filter jars in the middle of the floor, leaking droplets of yellow, red, and green. She a
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       o Fiction only had a bit of blue, since it was the hardest color to extract, even under a full
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                 moon.
       o Poetry                                                                                          en
                 She painted on vellum, as it was more conducive to a lifelike appearance. Jays with
       o Revie gray-blue feathers, sparrows all dowdy brown, and magpies in black and white.             8
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                 When the paint was dry, they would pull themselves from the paper like damp
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                 hatchlings, then fly off into the dark. The creation of life was her act of rebellion
       o Archiv                                                                                          y
                 while so much was being destroyed.
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                 I would stand transfixed and silent while she worked and she would pretend she 07
•   ABOUT US
                 didn't see me. When she was done she'd put away her brushes and smile.
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       o Staff "Remedios," she'd say, acting surprised but secretly pleased. "Have you been there
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                 all night?"
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       o Guideli
         nes As a child I thought everything she did was magical. As a grown woman, I know I ag
                 should have asked questions and learned more.                                           ain
       o Contac                                                                                          .
                 The news of the massacre came early one winter morning, six months after my
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                 mother's death. That there had been a massacre was no surprise. The Conqueros e
       o Award destroyed us regularly, by families. You could tell who had fallen out of favor by        ba
         s       whose close relatives had been killed. This time, when they listed the names of the by
                 dead, my cousin, Tortola, was one of them.                                              be
       o Banner
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         s       Tortola had been a flighty, silly girl, no more dangerous than a flower.
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•                                                                                                        to
    SUPPORT I put on my clothes and went to see my Conquero soldier, Huitzle Pochtli.
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    US
                 At the beginning of the Occupation, soldiers had been on the banks of every canal, ug
       o Donateon every market corner. Now they were quartered just outside the city, where,             h
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                 except for the killing, they kept to themselves.
       o Bookst
                                                                                                         d
         ore Huitzle was a commander and had his own house, built of metal and concrete. His ch
                 pennants waved over the plain metal door and his guards. They recognized me and ok
       o Merch
                 let me in, leering, the way they always did. There was no shame for them in             e.
         andise
                 consorting with the conquered, only shame for me.
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•   COMMUNIT
                 Huitzle sat naked on the edge of the bed with a flower in one hand and money in ck
    Y
                 the other.                                                                              ed
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       o Forum
                 "Which would you like first?" he said.
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       o Reader
                 I sat next to him, wearing only my long fine hair. His bulk still amazed me after all
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         s'
                 these months. Where my people were thin as wind, his were broad, thick with
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         Choice
                 muscle, furry on the face and chest. I felt expressionless compared to him when we
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                 had sex. His grunts and shouts. My breathless silence.
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                 He slid his hand up my leg but I stopped his hot fingers. "Something terrible