Arnon Grunberg

The Wet Season

Miss Tatasi

Tatasi, Bolivia, is one of the gloomiest villages I have ever been to. It’s a mineworker’s village hidden in a valley at 13,000 ft.
By night you need a flashlight to walk around, unless you are a villager. The streets are made of mud; this makes for an interesting experience during the wet season.
The evening I arrived the Miss Tatasi Contest was held, but instead of going to the contest – I was very much interested in meeting Miss Tatasi – I went to the mines to meet the patron of the miners, named El Tio, the uncle.