A Debt That Must Be Settled
"Someone cleans the torture cell / washes away the blood / but not the bitterness," wrote Mario Benedetti. The green, repopulated hills of the districts of Huanta, Huamanguilla, and Iguaín make for a beautiful, almost bucolic postcard, one that lives in the soul. There are its people, still fearful, coming down to their land from the high-Andean communities to which they fled during the years of political violence. There are their fields, being cultivated once again. And yet, there too is the pain. One only needs to zoom in to discover the bitterness in this postcard. Published on March 24, 2008.