The Etalia Project

Two blue pools of sky, Alicia’s eyes twirl you around the room and leave you lost in the sweetness between reality and a dream like a blank stare that can’t be broken. At our first meeting on a windy bridge by the lake, she asked me if I loved myself, as unique an entrance as any, and the most fitting for the woman I got to know.

Alicia describes her childhood as a fairytale. Born into extreme poverty, her family found themselves rich in all else. Her father was very tall, and Alicia recounts him as the king of her universe, and she and her sister as the princesses. A love for education seemed a powerful contagion in the household, as her parents’ dedication to it effortlessly ingrained itself in both daughters. Alicia followed this trail all the way to the vocation of a teacher.

Red flashes filled the air with movement as she danced her painted fingernails along to the stories of her students. A teacher for 40 years, it seemed she was happiest to reveal herself through the mirror of them, and I was happy to read through the lines. 

It was the students who could not sit quietly, who shot a snide comment, whose mention brought light to her eyes. She held steady against their turbulence, while simultaneously creating sky for them to settle their agitated wings. Patience and attention to their needs was all these students needed to find a composed flutter forward, and these were offerings Alicia happily had to give.

Outside of school, Alicia dedicated herself to being a mother of four, and brought the same teachings home. The most important, she said, was to learn to listen. And listen she did. She listened to each of her children, just as she listened to her students, just as she listened to me. 

At the conclusion of our interview, Alicia asked if she could interview me. She set out to lose herself in my story, and smiled sweetly upon its completion with a look of satisfaction that made me wonder whose idea it had really been to set up this conversation.

I chuckled to myself as she bounced around the hostel where we had sat, introducing herself to every person she could find with an infectious friendliness that softened the shoulders of each backpacker as her crinkled eyes warmed them upon impact. Only after she had made contact with one and all, was she ready for me to walk her home.

When we made it to her apartment, I followed her to her window and watched her gaze meet the lake like an old friend. Her eyes found their way back to the water even in the middle of playing me a song on her piano, as if the notes could be found pirouetting out amongst the waves.

Now an old woman, Alicia lives alone in her daughter’s apartment in the center of San Carlos de Bariloche, and spends her days in the company of Lake Nahuel Huapi whether she’s walking along it or contemplating from her living room. Her greatest wish for the world is peace, for us all to meet each other where we’re at and acknowledge the good and bad without judgement and rather understanding instead, as we each are here to live very different lives and could not possibly ever be the same.

Thank you Alicia, for sharing your story /// Gracias Alicia, por compartir tu historia.

Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Sm_WIDNUf-c