Caracas Chronicles

Yesterday, I was in the mood for hot-dogs, so I went to a street vendor very near my house. There was a girl there, waiting for a “pepito” (that´s a meat sandwich, delicious, for the unfortunate non-Venezuelans that have never tasted it), and, by their dialogue, I figured out two things: 1) she used to work around there, while she lives somewhere else; 2) she and the vendor knew each other and were on friendly terms.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he started to talk about how he was going to vote for the NO, and about this hot girl that lived near by… “but she is an escuálida, so I´m losing points there” (the speech was a little bit longer, but that was the drift). Neither the girl nor me said a word, but then I turned out to look at her, and she was looking at me. We both smiled, and, without a word, we both knew the other was going to vote YES. No publicity, no outward signs, nothing but a look and a shy, sly, smile. Isn´t it wonderful to live in a country where you can communicate without words with total strangers as if you had known them all your life?