"Bailarinas, cuerpos que hablan"
de
Hozcani Arellano
(Eleanne Anguiano, Natalia Shaenko...)
Yo escuchaba tu cuerpo, cuando el espejo nos retrató.
"Hello again!
At the end of my last web-site talk I
promised to tell you about how I happened to fall into becoming a
writer.
Some of it was gradual, and part of it was
accidental.
Back when I was twelve years old I was madly in love with L.
Frank Baum and the Oz books, along with the novels of Jules Verne and H.G.
Wells, and especially the Tarzan books and the John Carter, Warlord of Mars
books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I began to think about becoming a writer at that
time.
Simultaneously I saw Blackstone the Magician on stage and thought,
what a wonderful life it would be if I could grow up and become a
magician.
In many ways that is exactly what I did.
It was an
encounter with another magician that changed my life forever.
During the
Labor Day week of 1932 a favorite uncle of mine died; his funeral was held on
the Labor Day Saturday. If he hadn't died that week, my life might not have
changed because, returning from his funeral at noon on that Saturday, I saw
carnival tent down by Lake Michigan. I knew that down there, by the lake, in his
special tent, was a magician named Mr. Electrico.
Mr. Electrico was a
fantastic creator of marvels. He sat in his electric chair every night and was
electrocuted in front of all the people, young and old, of Waukegan, Illinois.
When the electricity surged through his body he raised a sword and knighted all
the kids sitting in the front row below his platform. I had been to see Mr.
Electrico the night before. When he reached me, he pointed his sword at my head
and touched my brow. The electricity rushed down the sword, inside my skull,
made my hair stand up and sparks fly out of my ears. He then shouted at me,
"Live forever!"
I thought that was a wonderful idea, but how did you do
it?
The next day, being driven home by my father, fresh from the funeral,
I looked down at those carnival tents and thought to myself, "The answer is
there. He said 'Live forever,' and I must go find out how to do that." I told my
father to stop the car. He didn't want to, but I insisted. He stopped the car
and let me out, furious with me for not returning home to partake in the wake
being held for my uncle. With the car gone, and my father in a rage, I ran down
the hill. What was I doing? I was running away from death, running toward life.
When I reached the carnival grounds, by God, sitting there, almost as if
he were waiting for me, was Mr. Electrico. I grew, suddenly, very shy. I
couldn't possibly ask, How do you live forever? But luckily I had a magic trick
in my pocket. I pulled it out, held it toward Mr. Electrico and asked him if
he'd show me how to do the trick. He showed me how and then looked into my face
and said, "Would you like to see some of those peculiar people in that tent over
there?"
I said, "Yes."
He took me over to the sideshow tent and
hit it with his cane and shouted, "Clean up your language!" at whoever was
inside. Then, he pulled up the tent flap and took me in to meet the Illustrated
Man, the Fat Lady, the Skeleton Man, the acrobats, and all the strange people in
the sideshows.
He then walked me down by the shore and we sat on a sand
dune. He talked about his small philosophies and let me talk about my large
ones. At a certain point he finally leaned forward and said, "You know, we've
met before."
I replied, "No, sir, I've never met you before."
He
said, "Yes, you were my best friend in the great war in France in 1918 and you
were wounded and died in my arms at the battle of the Ardennes Forrest. But now,
here today, I see his soul shining out of your eyes. Here you are, with a new
face, a new name, but the soul shining from your face is the soul of my dear
dead friend. Welcome back to the world."
Why did he say that? I don't
know. Was there something in my eagerness, my passion for life, my being ready
for some sort of new activity? I don't know the answer to that. All I know is
that he said, "Live forever" and gave me a future and in doing so, gave me a
past many years before, when his friend died in France.
Leaving the
carnival grounds that day I stood by the carousel and watched the horses go
round and round to the music of "Beautiful Ohio." Standing there, the tears
poured down my face, for I felt that something strange and wonderful had
happened to me because of my encounter with Mr. Electrico.
I went home
and the next day traveled to Arizona with my folks. When we arrived there a few
days later I began to write, full-time. I have written every single day of my
life since that day 69 years ago.
I have long since lost track of Mr.
Electrico, but I wish that he existed somewhere in the world so that I could run
to him, embrace him, and thank him for changing my life and helping me become a
writer.
