“Mamá orders me to clean Abuela’s room as she tames her curly blonde hair into a tight bun and rolls up the sleeves on her black and blue flannel shirt. Mamá stands in front of me with her pale blue eyes and hands me an orange duster. She is ready to clean and pack Abuela’s belongings away. I stand at the door with my arms crossed. Mamá hits the top of my head with the duster, ‘¡Dale vos encargate del cuarto de la Abuela! Don’t make me tell you again.’”
Natalia Figueroa Barroso is a Uruguayan-Australian writer who lives on Dharug Country. Natalia has appeared in Sweatshop Women: Volume One, Racism: Stories on Fear, Hate & Bigotry, SBS Voices, Story Casters, Any Saturday, 2021. Running Westward, Kindling and Sage, Between Two Worlds, The Big Issue, Puentes Review, Meanjin and Overland.