Let's see.
This book that I don't know why they
have put at the same a novel is not a novel.
It's a book with short prose writings and then poetry.
So I don't know what to call that.
So I will read from you one of these that
is called "First Communion".
It's in prose.
A short prose.
It says, Everything was ready for the party the night before.
Chabela, Luisa's nana, had just finished
ironing the pleated organdy dress that
reached to the girl's ankles, and the wide, vaporous veil.
Her mother gave the final touches to the table.
It was covered with several damask tablecloths,
and it extended the entire length of the patio corridor.
The cake, surmounted by a tiny doll dressed just like Luisa,
was going to occupy the very center.
"Of to bed now," Chabe told her, "and remember
to drink a glass of water, because tomorrow morning
you can't, not so much as a drop."
Luisa knew that even if she drank tons of water that night,
she would wake up horribly thirsty,
but there was no help for it.
Her mother, Chabe, her aunts, had all
told her it was to be the most important day of her life,
and she had to make some sacrifice for it.
"Come along," Chabe told her, "let's get to bed."
Luisa follow her obediently.
When Chabe turned off the light, Luisa call her to her side.
"Is true that tomorrow I can ask for anything
I want, and I'll get whatever I ask for?"
"That depends.
You can ask for one thing, something
that's very important to you."
"What should I ask for, Chabe?"
"How should I know?
That God keeps your parents safe and sound for many years,
that you remain pure and healthy and good.
You are the one who has to decide."
Luisa lay for a long time with her eyes wide open
in the darkness.
The next morning, both Chabe and her mother
helped her get dressed.
She was dying of thirst, her new shoes pinched her feet,
and the cap that sustained her veil was terribly hot,
but she didn't complain, not even once.
What she was going to ask for was very important,
and she had to make some sacrifice
so it would be granted her.
Her father honked impatiently from the street,
and Luisa went running out and climbed into the front seat
so her dress wouldn't get wrinkled.
Two nuns from Assumption College, dressed
in heavy purple habits and cream colored veils
were at the entrance to receive her,
and they accompanied her into the chapel, which was already
filled with school girls.
As Luisa enter, the choir up in the chapel loft
started singing, and she felt her eyes filling with tears.
The nuns escorted her to her prayer bench,
which was covered with satin.
Father Agapito, dressed in a white chasuble embroidered
in gold thread and accompanied by a sacristan,
gave the benediction and began to say mass.
Luisa opened her small, mother-of-pearl missal
and followed the mass attentively.
After a long time, the nuns came for her
and accompanied her to the altar.
Luisa knelt, opened her mouth discreetly
and received the host.
With her head lowered and her hands
clasped against her breast, she returned to her prayer pew,
feeling slightly dizzy.
"It's now, right now that you have to make your wish,"
her internal voice told her.
"Dear Little Jesus," Luisa said under her breath.
"I don't want to be married; I don't like the way men treat
women, but I do want to have a baby, Dear Jesus,
and Chabe says that only married women can have babies.
So that's why I ask you with all my heart to let me get married,
and as soon as I have a baby, to let my husband die.
[LAUGHTER]
The host dissolved in her mouth, and Luisa lifted her gaze,
a beatific smile illuminating her features.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
I thank you.