December 31
V
OYAGE OF THE
W
ORD
In Rome in the year 208, Quintus Serenus Sammonicus wrote
Liber medecinalis
, a book in which he revealed his discoveries in the arts of healing.
Among other remedies, this physician to two emperors, poet and owner of the best library of his time, proposed an infallible way to avoid tertian fever and keep death at bay: by hanging a word across your chest day and night.
The word was “Abracadabra,” which in ancient Hebrew meant and still means, “Give your fire until the last of your days.”
Contents
January
  1: Today
  2: From Fire to Fire
  3: Memory on Legs
  4: Land That Attracts
  5: Land That Speaks
  6: Land That Awaits
  7: The Granddaughter
  8: I Will Not Say Good-bye
  9: Elegy to Brevity
10: Distances
11: The Pleasure of Going
12: The Rush to Get There
13: Earth That Bellows
14: The Haitian Curse
15: The Shoe
16: The Wet Law
17: The Man Who Executed God
18: Holy Water
19: With Him Was Born an Era
20: Sacred Serpent
21: They Walked on Water
22: A Kingdom Moves
23: Civilizing Mother
24: Civilizing Father
25: The Right to Roguery
26: The Second Founding of Bolivia
27: Open Your Ears
28: Open Your Mind
29: Humbly I Speak
30: The Catapult
31: We Are Made of Wind
February
  1: An Admiral Torn to Pieces
  2: The Goddess Is Celebrating
  3: Carnival Takes Wing
  4: The Threat
  5: In Two Voices
  6: The Wail
  7: The Eighth Bolt
  8: General Smooch
  9: Marble That Breathes
10: A Victory for Civilization
11: No
12: World Breastfeeding Day
13: The Danger of Playing
14: Stolen Children
15: More Stolen Children
16: The Condor Plan
17: The Celebration That Was Not
18: Bereft of Him
19: Perhaps This Is How Horacio Quiroga Would Have Written About His Own Death
20: World Day of Social Justice
21: The World Shrinks
22: Silence
23: The Book of Marvels
24: A Lesson in Realism
25: Night of the Kuna
26: My Africa
27: Even Banks Are Mortal
28: When
29: Not Gone with the Wind
March
  1: Was
  2: Whistling, I Speak
  3: The Founding Mothers of Brazil
  4: The Saudi Miracle
  5: Divorce as Good Hygiene
  6: The Florist
  7: The Witches
  8: Homages
  9: The Day Mexico Invaded the United States
10: The Devil Played the Violin
11: The Left Is the University of the Right
12: Sleep Knows More Than Wakefulness
13: A Clear Conscience
14:
Capital
15: Voices in the Night
16: Storytellers
17: They Knew How to Listen
18: With Their Gods Inside
19: Birth of the Movies
20: The World Upside Down
21: The World as It Is
22: World Water Day
23: Why We Massacred the Indians
24: Why We Disappeared the Disappeared
25: The Annunciation
26: Maya Liberators
27: World Theater Day
28: Manufacturing Africa
29: The Jungle Was Here
30: International Domestic Workers Day in Latin America
31: This Flea
April
  1: The First Bishop
  2: Manufacturing Public Opinion
  3: Good Guys
  4: The Ghost
  5: Day of Light
  6: Night Crossing
  7: The Doctor's Bill
  8: The Man Who Was Born Many Times
  9: Good Health
10: Manufacturing Disease
11: Opinion Makers
12: Manufacturing the Guilty Party
13: We Knew Not How to See You
14: Grand or Just Plain Big?
15: The Black Paintings
16: The Flamenco Song
17: Caruso Sang and Ran
18: Keep an Eye on This Guy
19: Children of the Clouds
20: Manufacturing Mistakes
21: The Indignant One
22: Earth Day
23: Fame Is Baloney
24: The Perils of Publishing
25: Don't Save Me, Please
26: Nothing Happened Here
27: Life's Twists and Turns
28: This Insecure World
29: She Doesn't Forget
30: Memory's Circles
May
  1: International Workers' Day
  2: Operation Geronimo
  3: Dishonor
  4: While the Night Lasts
  5: By Singing I Rebuke
  6: Apparitions
  7: The Party Poopers
  8: The Tasmanian Devil
  9: Born to Find Him
10: The Unforgivable
11: Mr. Everything
12: Living Seismographs
13: To Sing, to See
14: Someone Else's Debt
15: May Tomorrow Be More Than Just Another Name for Today
16: Off to the Loony Bin
17: Home
18: Memory's Voyage
19: The Prophet Mark
20: A Rare Act of Sanity
21: World Day for Cultural Diversity
22: Tintin Among the Savages
23: Manufacturing Power
24: The Heretics and the Saint
25: Heresies
26: Sherlock Holmes Died Twice
27: Beloved Vagabond
28: OÅwiÄcim
29: Vampires
30: From the Stake to the Altar
31: The Incombustible Lady
June
  1: Saintly Men
  2: Indians Are Persons
  3: Atahualpa's Revenge
  4: Memory of the Future
  5: Nature Is Not Mute
  6: The Mountains That Were
  7: The Poet King
  8: Sacrilege
  9: Sacrilegious Women
10: And a Century Later
11: The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower
12: The Mystery Explained
13: Collateral Damage
14: Flag as Disguise
15: A Woman Talks
16: I've Got Something to Tell You
17: Tomasa Didn't Pay
18: Susan Didn't Pay Either
19: Danger: Bicycles!
20: That Shortcoming
21: We Are All You
22: The World's Waist
23: Fires
24: The Sun
25: The Moon
26: The Kingdom of Fear
27: We Are All Guilty
28: Hell
29: The Great Heretofore
30: A Nuisance Is Born
July
  1: One Terrorist Fewer
  2: Olympic Prehistory
  3: The Stone in the Hole
  4: The Southern Cross
  5: The Right to Laugh
  6: Fool Me
  7: Fridamania
  8: Leader for Life
  9: The Suns the Night Hides
10: Manufacturing Novels
11: Manufacturing Tears
12: Consecration of the Top Scorer
13: The Goal of the Century
14: The Losers' Trunk
15: An Exorcism
16: My Dear Enemy
17: International Justice Day
18: History Is a Roll of the Dice
19: The First Tourist on Rio's Beaches
20: The Interloper
21: The Other Astronaut
22: The Other Moon
23: Twins
24: Sinners Be Damned
25: Recipe for Spreading the Plague
26: It's Raining Cats
27: The Locomotive from Prague
28: Testament
29: We Want a Different Time
30: International Friendship Day
31: Time Foretold
August
  1: Our Mother Who Art in Earth
  2: Champ
  3: The Beloveds
  4: Clothing Tells the Tale
  5: The Liar Who Was Born Thrice
  6: God's Bomb
  7: Spy On Me
  8: Cursed America
  9: International Day of Indigenous Peoples
10: Manuelas
11: Family
12: Athletes Male and Female
13: The Right to Bravery
14: The Mosquito Maniac
15: The Jewel and the Crown
16: Suicide Seeds
17: Dangerous Woman
18: The Network of Networks
19: War on the Chessboard
20: Heaven's Workforce
21: The Division of Labor
22: The Best Workers
23: The Impossible Country
24: It Was the Day of the Roman God of Fire
25: The Imprisoned City Is Rescued
26: Purity of the Faith
27: Purity of the Race
28: “I Have a Dream”
29: Colored Man
30: Day of the Disappeared
31: Heroes
September
  1: Traitors
  2: The Inventor of Preemptive War
  3: Thankful People
  4: I Give My Word
  5: Fight Poverty: Kill Somebody Poor
  6: The International Community