People talk about their grandmother's words. I don't. Mine left without words for me to repeat them as mantras.


My friend often says "mi abuela decía que..." and then she asserts something she takes without hesitation as a truth. Most of the time I don't agree with these words, I find them sexist. I don't think I would have liked her grandmother. But still, I appreciate the fact that my friend can repeat in moments we don't have an answer "mi abuela decía que...", and then we both have an answer even if it often leads me to the opposite direction of her grandmother's words.


I have read Marguerite Yourcenar, Marilynne Robinson, Tony Morrison, Alice Munro, Marguerite Duras and Herta Müller for years. I find in them words that I'm sure my grandmother would have liked me to use to understand the world that didn't understand her.