Malditera was the little girl who would not come home in time for her curfews because she was exploring the fields, hills, trees. And her neighbors' rooftops.
She was the little girl who would come home with bruised knees and elbows because she would fall off trees. And her neighbors' rooftops.
She was the she-devil who played pranks on her siblings, to the chagrin of her elders. A frequent visitor of the principal's office because she always wound up in fisticuffs. Even though she never started a fight. Was just dealing with bullies in any way she could.
She was the pre-teen who refused to talk to her friends because they set her up with a boy she had no feelings for.
She grew up questioning dogmas and authorities every step of the way. Questioned the need for diagramming sentences. For memorizing theorems in geometry. For a woman to take up her husband's name once she is shackled to him.
Each time an older relative would catch her embroiled in one debacle after another, he or she would always say, "That child has always been maldita."
The secret sphere of a closeted lesbian-in-training...feminist musings, theories and inarticulations.
