I fall in love!
Yes, I’m still just twelve, but maybe she’s
not much older. . . .
Her name is Hortensia, and she’s a performer
in a traveling circus, una saltimbanqui,
a high-wire trapeze artist
from North America.
I’ve always been told by teachers
that the United States is a huge place
filled with brutish politicians
who want to invade all the smaller nations
of Latin America, but Hortensia
has conquered me
with aerial somersaults
instead of bullets.
The entire circus is magnificent—magicians, musicians,
jugglers, galloping trick riders, strange sideshows,
bizarre animals, and Hortensia’s
astonishing
acrobatic flips,
cartwheels,
and impossible leaps,
the high-rising flight
of a human
bird girl!