And so, through reading, distance in time and space becomes one. Memory is the necessary guide, the one that settles conflicts, the one that fills in… - Angelina Muñiz-Huberman

It happens that one day the children begin to draw, and everything that was missing in that narrow, enclosed world begins appearing on scraps of paper gathered from any corner. Red suns, houses with doors and windows with cheery curtains, smoking chimneys and roads bordered with flowers which lead to the house and tall trees in the background. Boys and girls who jump and play; even dogs and cats and birds and butterflies, especially butterflies. Great blue flowers stuck on the walls. Sunlight overflowing everywhere. But this is not tolerated. It is not possible to create light in a dark world. A smile is not permitted. The dragon brings total blackness.

Most men worry about leaving their fleeting shadow on the slippery surface of history, but I knew that my life had already been lived and that I only repeated an ancient and unjust tale.

If the 20th century was the century of disillusionment, as I have called it, the 21st is that of absolute stupidity. Of delirious futility. Of frenetic destruction. Of dumbing-down the mind. Of utter sloth and, therefore, incompetence. Of lying sprawled out on the couch. Of feet up on the table. Of troglodytism. Of amnesia. But not magnesia. Of the electronic internet revolution. Everything within easy reach of the keyboard and the docile finger. An homage without further ado to the obliging finger. It will have to change its look, wipe off its unique fingerprint in exchange for a collective one. (beginning of "A Stroll Through the 20th Century")