A reconstructed life · The Atlas
An emigrant's refrain, and the truth he never sent
“As Cartas de França”✦Portugal✦1971–1985✦2 fragments
Through the 1970s and 80s a man wrote home from France in a refrain that never changed, and drafted once — but never sent — the truth underneath it. The refrain and the unsent draft, laid side by side at last.
Follow this life on the Atlas- 01
The refrain
One of twenty-five years of letters, Guadramil · Summer, 1971
My dear Rosa,
I'm in good health, thank God; the work is heavy. A money order for three hundred francs goes with this — give it to the master for the roof tiles.
Kiss the children for me. Next year, God willing, I'll come home.
Firmino
- 02
The unsent truth
Never sent, a two-name flat in Champigny · circa 1985
Rosa,
There are things one writes and does not send. I no longer know how to come back.
The village I left no longer exists, and neither does the man who left it.
You know, don't you. Forgive what I don't tell you.
Firmino