Bird in Flight Prize ‘21 Finalist: The Three Corners of the Ocean

Claudia Lopez Ortega, Mexico

It is about love and the touch of madness in my experience of motherhood.

In my family, there are things that are impossible to talk about – although you have been able to sense them since you were a child. There are secrets and looks. There are questions about our female lineage that are never addressed. The silence speaks louder than words.

Victoria dared to take a risk and accompanied me into this travesty to express, in her own way, all the feelings rooted deep inside generations of our family.

She let me know how sad, lonely and distant she felt from me, just as I felt as a child with my mother and as she felt in turn with my grandmother. These are the three corners of the ocean.

* El Paraíso (Paradise), where the series takes place, is a Mexican Pacific beach, which due to its geographical location each year is wrecked by tropical storms and hurricanes. A small local community resists with the hope that one day it’ll become a great destination.