Nayeli G. speaking:

My object is a feather from the tail of my African grey parrot that I don’t have anymore. Her name is Mic Mic, but I had to give her away. I was living in the United States for a long time, I had her for something like nine years and I thought I would have her for the rest of my life, because parrots live for a very long time. She is all grey except for the tail is like, wine color, and this is from her tail. And every time her feathers felt, I would keep all the feathers I had. I almost could have made another parrot with all the feathers I had.

And then I felt in love with a guy who is Spanish and I left the United States and went to live to Spain. And since I was staying with him at his parents and there were no pets allowed and I didn’t know how long it would be until I had a place where I could have the parrot, I looked for someone that would take care of her in the meantime. And there were nobody that would. There were only two people that said: “Well, I’ll take her but I would have to adopt her. I have to keep her”.

So, it was very hard, but I found…The one woman that I gave her to took care of rescued animals. She had all kinds of animals in her house. She had another Macaw, a blue Macaw. And so, I left her with that woman. And when I was packing all my things, I threw away all the feathers except for this one. And I thought, I will keep this just as a memory. But, you know, it was just in the drawer and I thought, well, I can part with it.

It’s funny because for me it represents not only Mic Mic. I thought I would live in the US or try to live in the US forever. It represents the whole life I left behind. And things I sacrificed to go for this relationship that, then, in the end, didn’t turn out.

And that’s how I ended up living in Mexico. Because that didn’t turn out and I came here, and I have been here.