My comment was innocent enough, meant really just to break the tension; “No has tenido mucha suerte con las mujeres, ¿Eh?” “You haven’t had much luck with the ladies?”
He looked away from me then, his eyes searching something invisible to me in his perifery. An ironic chuckle escaped which betrayed just enough emotion to cause a breach in his battle weary armor. The tears burst through. He was more surprised than I at how he crumbled … even though tears were not what I was going for specifically. “La quiero, mucho.” “I love her, alot.” “Yo quiero que tengamos una vida feliz juntos.” “I want us to have a happy life together.”
“¿Ella sabe que quieres esto? ¿Ella quiere lo mismo?” “Does she know this is what you want? Does she want that too?”
“No sé.” “I don´t know.”
“¿Con quien hablas acerca de las cosas personales?” “Who do you talk to about your personal issues?”
“Nadie.” “No one.” The tears continued. He stopped searching his perifery then, found my eyes instead and smiled ever so slightly.
The human condition. It takes surprisingly little to get beyond the veneer – if we cared to – if we needed to. I know your ’stuff’ cause it´s the same as mine. The reverse goes without saying. Remember “LIFE Magazine”? It was famous for it’s photos not it’s words. Why? Because photos shoot beneath the veneer and beyond language. Suddenly we are with the subject in their fear, their lonliness, confusion, illness, hunger, mourning, celebration, relief, determination, victory.
He has a life full of native Spanish speakers. I am not one of those. I am new to his language and yet with a bridge constructed of a few words familiar to him, I was was able to traverse the space between us to get just close enough to let him know that I understood his human condition. For the space of a few tears and a smile, he wasn´t all alone.
Why learn another language?
Well, could get you a new job, could get you your coffee the way you ordered it, could get you the best room in the hotel … or it could give you just one precious opportunity to ease the burden of another if only for a second. There was more than one time that my life changed forever in that single second someone communicated to me that they understood me, that they were with me. A picture may be worth a thousand words but one word can save a life. ¡Salud! Joan - Licensed Psychologist and Editor in Chief of La Casa Rojas
