Sometimes a person glows for the life within them. Sometimes the life abounds so fully, so overwhelmingly charged that one can only wonder how. How is it possible for so much beauty to be in one body without exploding. One mind to overflow pour out with such exuberant intelligence. One smile so large as to include you, make you feel genuinely included in her lightness and joy. The privilege of meeting, an impression indelibly imprinted and not to be erased by any force. A friend, Aura Estrada, passed away on Wednesday in Mazunte, Oaxaca, México. This is but a tiny remembrance and a way to reach out to that soul which we have, catastrophically, lost.
A short biography of Aura on the Columbia Spanish page. Her writings at Letras Libres, at Letralia.com and at Words without Borders. As Aura wrote about Bolaño and Borges, she herself "struggled against vanity and all things pretentious, aspirational, ordinary, and obliging." Aunque no lo conozco, Juan Carlos ha escrito algo muy bello de Aura y de nuestra pérdida.
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Update: There is now a Memorial Site for Aura Estrada with a beautiful short essay by her husband, Francisco Goldman.