er than the retouched artistic nudes with which our homegrown freewheeling pornography transformed the randy imaginations of several generations of Mexicans. And it is because, behind the fig leaves of censorship, harlots as well as delirious arborescent genitals incubate. (Hopefully my magazine vendor has not sold the issues of Vea .) And the women? Where are those women who hid behind the skillful and mercenary images, photographed by professionals of soft porn, such as Niuglo, Herrera or the mysterious Otylia? They were the ones who, while supressing indiscreet hairs and undesirable rolls of fat from the negatives , erased the last distinguishing marks in a series of concealments, shrouds and inventions of which the "interventionist" is the culmination and the allegory ... (1 had to write that.) Sunday at last! This time I arrive at Mosqueta and Reforma earlier than usual, and putting on my best poker face, I approach the second-hand vendor's stand . I skim through the promising pi le of magazines with an air of false indifference. Ileaf through five, ten, twelve copies. Nothing. "1 have more of 'those', "announces the newsstand owner, pointing to a heap of Pigal, Venus, Eva and Vodevil. So as not to be negligent, I look through the poor imitations of Vea, looking for
pictures by Neve, Durhok, or Mariño. Suddenly, in issue number 16 of Pigal, I discover Silvia Pinal , young and cross-eyed and in the pages ahead, Pinal with a phallic "female companion" of recognizable features. From what I can tell , the "interventionist's" crayon was not satisfied with Vea alone. Overcame by greed, I lose my facial composure and the magazines cost me an arm and a leg . But it was worth it ; while I wait to be served my meal of goat's head meat in El Correo Español, I confirm that my stash has grown by twelve new originals. Today I showed my collection to the editor of Luna Córnea . He thinks that the "interventionist" is not a male but rather a female. The "penis envy" is obvious and the scars suggest exorcising references to breast and ovarian cancer to him. "It is a woman tortured by her body," he concludes. A Frida Kahlo in weeklies gentlemen's? This is becoming a more passionate gap-ridden enigma than when Salvador Elizondo deciphered the hidden plot in the collection of postcards by the professor Adelina García and her students! Tuesday I have an appointment with my vendor at her warehouse on Matamoros and Peralvillo. She says she has more magazines. She is going to introduce me to the widow who sold them to her.
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