Valley of Cúcuta 2 (Valle de Cúcuta 2)

From Wikipedia (pretty accurate actually):

FACT: Cúcuta's streets are organised in a grid layout adopted from Spain in colonial times. Calles (streets) go from east to west, perpendicular to the hills, and numbering increases to the north and to the south from Calle 1. Avenidas (avenues) go from south to north, parallel to the hills, and numbering increases both east to west, and west to east from a central avenida numbered 0 (Avenida Cero, one of the city's most important avenues). From west to east, avenues are numbered with an E added to their number, as to denote East (este).

FACT: Colombia signed a Free Trade Agreement with the United States amidst opposition by Venezuela. Despite this opposition, industries from Venezuela are constructing their infrastructure in Cúcuta to export their products to the United States, registering their products as if they were Colombian, a strategy that would allow them to export without paying certain taxes. For that reason, Cúcuta is a highly industrial city.

From my Dad’s book The celebrated afternoon (La tarde festejada).

Valley of Cúcuta 2 (Valle de Cúcuta 2)

You will find the same grey trees

in our childhood neighbourhood

and you will hear the musical score 

of the love that did not stop

with your long absence.

Here time does not pass. The same drowsiness

of the midsummer heat, the quiet river,

the city with an immense leather surface in the sun,

where the greediness of the country concur,

the shade of the streets oppressed

between shops and knick-knacks.

Every now and then we peep at the perpetual blue

and in the afternoon we become diffused in the sun

of the deer that graze on the protecting hills.

We know that every day it is possible to find death on a corner

and we celebrate full of joy

every nightfall that surprises us in the intimacy

of the woman, the children and things…

and amidst everything

we continue to love the estate.

Give us a red horse and an black one

with a golden arrow on the forehead

similar to our flag,

one that starts galloping toward the light.

1995

To Elenita Olivares

and Sassu.