Mexican Spanish Stories
Lo que devuelve el hielo
What the Ice Gives Back
Six years ago, mountain guide Renata Ibarra lost her partner on Pico de Orizaba.
Now the ice is melting, and it is giving things back. When a glaciologist's camera spots a red jacket at the edge of the glacier, Renata has to climb the mountain she has not looked at in six years. Beside the body she finds their old rope, still tied to his harness. Its end is not frayed. It was cut.
- Languages
- Spanish & English
- Reading level
- B1-B2
- Length
- 12 chapters
Publication in preparation. Store link coming when available.
A short sample from the opening
Capítulo 1: La fotografía
Chapter 1: The Photograph
Renata Ibarra tenía una regla que repetía en cada curso, delante de cada grupo nuevo de voluntarios, con la misma voz tranquila con la que explicaba cómo se hace un nudo prusik: «Yo saco gente de la montaña. Viva o muerta, pero la saco». Aquella mañana de octubre lo dijo otra vez, en el muro de entrenamiento de la brigada, en las afueras de Puebla, mientras doce muchachos con arneses nuevos la miraban como se mira a alguien que ha visto cosas que uno todavía no.
Renata Ibarra had a rule that she repeated in every course, in front of every new group of volunteers, in the same calm voice she used to explain how to tie a prusik knot: “I get people off the mountain. Alive or dead, but I get them off.” That October morning she said it again, at the brigade’s training wall on the outskirts of Puebla, while twelve kids in new harnesses looked at her the way you look at someone who has seen things you haven’t seen yet.
Desde el muro, en las mañanas limpias, se veía el Citlaltépetl: un triángulo blanco, perfecto, flotando sobre el valle a más de cien kilómetros. Los voluntarios lo señalaban con el dedo. Renata nunca lo miraba. Hacía seis años que no lo miraba de frente, de la misma manera que uno no mira de frente a una persona a la que le debe algo.
From the wall, on clear mornings, you could see Citlaltépetl: a white triangle, perfect, floating over the valley more than a hundred kilometers away. The volunteers pointed at it. Renata never looked at it. For six years she had not looked at it head-on, the same way you don’t look head-on at a person you owe something to.
This is a short excerpt. The full novella has 12 chapters.
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