Matilde Contreras

One day last summer I received an email from Matilde Contreras. I replied fast, excited to get in contact with her, after all these years. I was curious and asked her to tell me about her life.  Few days after I got this long email full of news, something caught my attention... it was her way of writing, it was fun and clever, light and catchy.  She told me she was a writer!

That was it!  I was fascinated, I wanted to be like her, expressing my ideas in that way, having people hooked to my story.

I remember Lala, as we called her, when I was perhaps 12 or 14 years old. She was tall, straight long black hair, big black almond eyes with a generous smile in her blue uniform from school with a white shirt. She was attractive -I thought.

What a good surprise that email, It was about her grandma, she was being nominated the most important bicentennial woman in Chile. 

She was my aunt Amanda. When I think of her with a needle in her hand ready to poke me, she was one of the first woman M.D. in Chile.  I enjoyed spending hours after lunch listening to her always knowledgeable and at times edgy conversation and after going to the theater every Sunday night. I learned to appreciate the Theater with her. 

I spend an afternoon during my visit last December with Lala, talking non stop, smoking agitated by the strong coffee and the heat, fascinated by her stories.  That day I choose to be like her, a writer.

Here are my first steps into my new future, Ernesto Salvador Dominguez...... the writer.