Collage of images of garden clippers, butterflies, peas, fields, and images of the idealized human body in statues.

GUAPALUPE’S MISFORTUNE

In Madrid, Guapalupe

A good-looking dark-skinned girl

At the age of fourteen

Through gossip magazines

She began to fall in love

With Hollywood actors

Who gave her dreams

Health and shelter.

Devoted to Anthony Perkins

James Dean, Gary Cooper

Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum

Victor Mature, Charlton Heston

She carried them in her soul

As it should be

And, before entering her room

To rest or sleep

In their photos she kissed them.

One day that was Saturday

A well-dressed man

Approached her on Gran Via

When she was going to deliver

In a fashion store

A dress made by her.

Politely he went to tell her:

-I’m thinking

That being You so pretty

You shouldn’t go hungry

Because you’re a beauty.

I can make you

A Hollywood star

Like Elizabeth Taylor.

-What do you say, sir?

Guapalupe answered her.

I don’t trade

With my precious body.

Get out of my side

Or I’ll call the police.

The following Sunday

She went to mass to confess

To tell Father Isidro

That she had overcome

The temptation of a man

Who wanted to trade with her.

That her true loves

Are the Hollywood actors

Anthony Perkins

James Dean, Gary Cooper

Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum

Victor Mature, Charlton Heston.

When Father Isidro told her:

– Those actors, my daughter

Although they seem very manly

Most of them are faggots.

Guapalupe began to cry

Answering him tearfully:

You, Father Isidro

Are a very bad priest.

You have left me in disaffection.

You have no forgiveness from God.

-Daniel de Culla