I still remember the first day I met Lorena Curbelo. That September was strange... I was closing a stage of my life to enter another that I would never have imagined.
It was an afternoon in Costa Teguise, invited thanks to a former professor - and now a great friend - Pablo Martín, to an event of the writers' association of which we are both members: ACTE.
And there she was, with that disarming smile and a kindness that can be noticed from a distance. She was presenting her beautiful book, The Pink Caterpillar. First she talked about her personal story, taking us to Mala, Haría, and then she took us into the universe of that little caterpillar. A story so full of tenderness and message that it brought me to tears.
Then it was my turn. I totally changed the tone, talking about bullying and how it led me to write my new work. At the end of my speech, I couldn't help but make a simile with the caterpillar who, like me, had also gone through her metamorphosis.
It was right after that when we started talking. At first by pure chance - asking if she knew my mother, since both are from the north - and then, already immersed in literature, the conversation flowed on its own. From that moment on I felt that her way of seeing the world broke that gray and selfish image that I had been dragging. It was as if her kindness opened a crack through which a little light came back in.
We said goodbye with a "see you next time". And that next time didn't take long.
On October 13, at the La Laguna Book Fair, we met again. There she spoke again about her work, about how solidarity is the common thread of her pages. And as always, her smile helped the message to reach further, touching hearts. It was also at that event where we discovered that her brother and sister had given me private lessons when I was a child. What a small world, I thought.
At the end of the fair, I knew it: I no longer only admired her as a writer. Lorena had become part of my personal "Wall of Fame", that corner where one keeps the people who make a mark, who inspire, who really make the world a better place.
Since that October, Lorena Curbelo has not stopped flourishing. Her work has gained visibility, she has received the support of figures such as Kiko Barroso, Tomás Galván, as well as media such as Radio Insular de Fuerteventura; and every step she takes seems to be guided by that commitment to the human, to the sensitive, to what really matters.
Because Lorena is not only a writer. She is the kind of person who gives you something small and makes you see it as something special. She is, without a doubt, the breath of fresh air that this world needs to start moving the mill of solidarity.
From here I want to give her my most sincere congratulations: to the brilliant writer, to the luminous person, and to the generous friend. I hope this is only the beginning of everything that the future has in store for her name... one that, without a doubt, is already beginning to be written in the books of insular history.