By Yudi Kravzov
Since I arrived at the Gallery, I saw the rain approaching from afar. I was preoccupied with the issue of the male model that we needed for the next DRINK and DRAW class. To my surprise, it is not easy to find a man in San Miguel who wants to get naked in front of inexperienced artists. “There must be a way to find him”, I told myself, “I know there must be someone, more so in a place like San Miguel”.
I didn’t find my mother in the gallery. She was sitting at her favorite table in the Vergel with the Handsome Man whom I had met a week ago, the day a swarm of bees formed and scared us all. Our conversation and an onion soup had been put on hold.
With Guapo’s cell phone in her hands and her glasses on, my delighted mother went through his photos listening to him talk about the place on the Chiapas Coast where he spent years of his childhood.
—Boca del Cielo, it’s called—he said enthusiastically and my mother, as if in front of a young youtuber, listened in amazement: “… my parents arrived in Mexico in 1952. I was born in 1960, in the Chiapas coast. Then we moved and I ended up in California for too long. But I always end up in Mexico where I recognize the vibration of the land that I felt as a child”.
—Awesome. The photos are amazing. The mangroves… it seems that time hasn’t passed. Boca del Cielo, daughter. Come listen to this man! How far is it from San Cristobal?
—About two and a half hours—he answered my mother while greeting me warmly. In his smile I could see the adventure, the desire to discover, to travel and to see me. I felt exactly the same. I was about to take his hand, put it on my heart and tell him: “you and I are going to do it all”, when a strong wind began to blow hard, very hard and a huge CRACK was heard from the parking lot. The Mesquite branch had snapped. Fortunately, no one was around.
The rain fell furiously, my mom got nervous, and we got in the car quickly. He ran towards the mesquite. We each took refuge in his own shell and I was melted with his look, with that desire to finally touch our bodies and also with the idea of being in a place with the name of Boca del Cielo. The Chiapas Coast. We didn’t chat afterward, but he did send me @CabanasCasaDeAgua’s Instagram, and he said good night with: “Let me know. I want to spend a few days in that wonderful place with you.”
—I’m going to sleep hypnotized, wrapped in the colors of Boca del Cielo. How handsome is that man! What a nice personality he has—my mother told me by way of Good Night.
—Good night—I told her, thinking that the handsome man could be the nudist model that I was looking for.
