The weekend niece. from the book, Searching for treasures

     The parents of the Marroqui sisters, as they were known in the circus world, were from Manizales City, located in the central part of Colombia. The city, as such, was nestled in the Central Andean Highlands. The landscapes of the coffee lands could be seen from its heights. The Santander Avenue was the only street that could be considered as horizontal, and it was the main street of the city proper. All the rest of the city’s streets ascended or descended as if they were almost vertical ramps, due to the abrupt topography of the region. Manizales could be thought of as the city of landscapes, for as one walked the Santander Avenue, it was possible to admire de view on either side, without any break at all, as far as one’s vision could reach.

     Manizales’ climate, except a few occasional days in the year, varied between cold and beyond chilly. The typical days also ranged from cloudy to foggy. On certain days de fog would descend to cover the whole city in its enveloping blanket of cloudy whiteness. Still, it must be said that when the sun did shine, it was formidable, for it was the bright sunlight so characteristic of the highlands.

     When the Marroqui’s mother was barely in her first month of the first pregnancy, the family moved to the south, taking advantage of a job opportunity for their father. The mother was pregnant when they arrived and could not cope with the intense heat of Cali City, their new hometown. She hardly ate during the whole pregnancy period, for the sun tired her out, and she lost her appetite. The poor woman would spend her days drinking liquids to hydrate herself, but in the end, instead of gaining weight, she ended up losing it.

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