Ronderos’s poems and short stories frequently talk about exile, otherness, women, and death. The four stories presented here with the English titles “Cross Walk” (“Señal de tráfico”), “Julieta in Exile” (“Julieta en el exilio”), “Divine Mourner with Sightless Eyes” (“Divina enlutada de ojos que no ven”), and “I will stop you whenever I want?” (“¿A la hora que yo quiera te detengo?”)– were originally published in Ábrete sésamo [Open Sesame] (Madrid: Editorial Torremozas, 2016), a collection of ten stories that investigate various narrative voices and look for metaphorical ways to explore moments of great change such as death, migration, maternity, divorce, and others. The book is framed by the short story “Open Sesame,” about a young writer who is looking for a way to express “what she doesn’t even know is hiding inside her.” Each story develops the itinerary of that search. --Mary G. Berg, the translator.
