Valentina Expressions

I arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico on a Friday of last year for a speaking engagement the following Monday.  I arrived earlier to be a tourist, get to know the area, take some photos, do some shopping and discover food. Discovering food in the world is my original thing to do when I go to new places, I want to know how and what people eat.
I discovered a cozy coffee shop where I could get my Italian style espresso coffee every morning for the time I planned to stay in Albuquerque. The day for me doesn’t start unless I have a couple of shots of electricity from the espresso. The coffee shop was next to an original French bistro and I thought it was well planned. In one establishment I would take espresso, in the other, I would have a nice French crêpe breakfast.

Albuquerque is a quiet town, not crowded even on working days, I admired the silence and totally enjoyed the colorful mural on city walls. Weekends are even quieter, not much goes on downtown, but something funny happened on that Saturday. On the opposite corner from the coffee shop, I noticed a white Gothic Revival architecture, a bit odd building to find propped there among the heavy South-Western style architecture. It is very white and stands out among all the brown and terracotta buildings. It is the Occidental Life Building, a historic 1924 office building. In that quadrilateral between the coffee shop and the odd white building, I noticed women in the streets wearing black burqa and men wearing either turbans or Keffiyeh. In the French bistro, some men were hanging pictures of the Ayatollah. This was so odd and very weird, but I kept minding my business.

(Photo Wikimedia by Camerafiend)

Something funny happened on that Sunday. I left my hotel and directed myself to the cafe’, but only a few steps away from the Occidental Life Building, I saw men in military uniforms with machine guns in their hands, the streets filled with a lot of women wearing a burqa, more men in turbans and streets blocked by militaries. I was so scared, I thought a coup d’état had happened overnight. Frantically, I took my iPhone, searched on Google and nothing, I searched on Facebook and nothing, I checked most of the news and no mention of war, no coup d’état, nor a military operation. Timidly, I approached one of the militaries to ask what was going on… I never have drawn such a deep sigh of relief like that moment. All those people in costumes were actors filming one of the TV episodes of The Brave, a show never knew existed.

(Tobias and Marcos – Actors)

I was told that the landscape of New Mexico and especially Albuquerque is so generic that makes a good place to film any subject. Hollywood, in fact, has had a good presence there for many films through decades and still continues.

I had never heard or seen The Brave TV series, I was curious to learn about it, and perhaps see in action my two new friends, Tobias and Marcos the extras in the film. I watched it a couple of times and soon forgot about it. The series is too violent for my taste, but the picture with my friends in military clothes remains a good memory. 

I can still remember how I felt that day, the sun was high in the sky but my heart was very dark, I felt the agitation inside of me, I feared to lose my freedom, I felt helpless, I felt trapped, I was restless for three-four days after this episode and a year later, I am still talking about it, I will never forget it. Often, we take for granted what we have, our freedom has no price, let’s keep it that way.
This post is dedicated to my friend #TeaganGeneviene https://teagansbooks.com  who is trying to relocate to New Mexico, maybe she will find some movie set to write about it. Ciao,
Valentina
www.valentinadesigns.com

Copyright © 2018 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is a storyteller by nature. Stories are very important to her design career to convey ideas because making someone’s home or personal images is not only about building around shapes, lines, forms, and colors. It is about the story one can create around their spaces and how they want to appear to others. She is the author of four books, all available on
Amazon – http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w
The latest book just published is The Road To Top Of The World – https://tinyurl.com/y7tuyfh8