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crouched on their heels against the mute offerings of the beautiful boji. Water dripped from the banana-leaf roof from time to time and fell onto the straw hats.

Next to them, a basket of bananas and mangoes. A cauldron that was boiling on the grill. Opposite, beyond the square, in an opening surrounded by royal palms, boys were playing barefoot, with patched guaiabera*. They too, like the guajiri, barely looked at us.

The curtain that closed the door of one of the boji moved aside and a young woman came out, swinging on her sturdy hips, approaching the fire, teasing the embers and always calmly returning to the bojio*. Intrigued, I had approached the door, she beckoned me to follow her.

At first I had the impression of being in an empty room. Then, getting used to the half-light, I saw some benches with mattresses on them, a table, a chair, an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling. On the walls a large crucifix adorned with plastic flowers and the colorful lithograph of a smiling lady who was sewing by machine under the words "Singer."

The woman pulled back the curtain that hid part of the back wall of the room, took a shiny banana leaf, placed a bottle of rum on it and two glasses to fill. They drank or crouched on their heels and she said it had been a really bad Norte***, had damaged several roofs, had made one of her hens disappear. She also said that she had three children.

When I came out of the bojio, a ray of light had infiltrated the clouds and illuminated them, transforming them into a shiny mirror in a puddle in the center of the square. The boys, beating against empty cans and bottles, were now playing a guaracha****. The sow and her young continued to inspect the red earth with their snout, the cauldron boiling on the embers, the water dripping on the hats of the guajiri. To...

* an open-necked Cuban or Mexican shirt with two breast pockets and two pockets over the hips, typically having short sleeves and worn untucked.

** I assume that she means huts but in every translation that I can find it means "not invited."

*** northern wind.

**** a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics.