Fiction
Andreaa Constantin
by Esteban Torres Lana
A dangerous challenge at sea through a rock arch battered by strong waves. She ends up seriously injured in a leg when her friend Aurelio arrives at the cove. Overcoming her pain, she hides her injuries from Aurelio and tells him the extraordinary story of her mother, which propelled her to undertake such a madness. The story begins 6 years ago in Tenerife, with Nayra's expulsion from Philosophy class for the third time in a week, causing Pablo, her father, to pick her up from school and embark on a long day of disputes, confessions, and finally, complicities between them. Walking around Santa Cruz, canceling classes and professional commitments, Pablo and Nayra spend the day discovering a personal and sentimental reality that surprises them. The problems Nayra mentions with a group of immigrant classmates, along with the aggression Nayra shows towards her mother, Lola, prompt Pablo to tell her the unfinished story with Andreea, a high-class Romanian prostitute. Pablo cannot control the level of intimacy of the tale despite his own amazement, hearing himself say things he thought were unspeakable. Nayra responds, between disputes and affection, interspersing her own confidences, some of them having a strong impact, like the adventure with an immigrant who arrived on the beaches of Fuerteventura during a summer excursion. Neither tells the most intimate details of their stories truthfully, but they are accessible to the reader. Despite frequent arguments due to the teenager's incisive and groundbreaking language, their complicity grows and they end up spending the day together, walking through different places in the city. The story with Andreea takes on dramatic tones that completely captivate the young woman. Two suicides, the chase by Romanian mafia, returning to her hometown, searching for Pablo, Andreea’s struggle to regain her dignity and her artistic capacity through painting, and the apparent disappearance of her father's life, capture Nayra’s attention. Despite the narrative tricks used by Pablo, when night falls and they reach home, Nayra connects the dots and is surprised to discover that her perfectionist and successful mother, a recognized painter from Santa Cruz, with whom she has had a very conflictive season, is Andreea Constantin, the Romanian immigrant her father met as a high-class prostitute. After an initial reaction of rejection due to the ignorance in which she was kept, she understands her mother's situation. All the questions she always had about many details of her life arise with the discovery. A few years after discovering her identity, Andreea disappears from home. A call from Romania alerts them to the discovery of two charred bodies near her birthplace and the presence of her old exploiter nearby, who cursed her for life through a Transylvania ritual when she abandoned prostitution. Knowing she was discovered in Tenerife, Andreea tried to keep her family away from danger and returned to her country, where she was easy prey for the mafia. Pablo and his daughter Nayra fly to Bucharest to identify Andreea’s body, which may have been brutally murdered and burned. When it seems the identification will be negative, a small detail of the clothing makes them doubt. Desolate, they receive medical and psychological support from the Romanian team, but it turns out to be a false lead. Andreea is rescued from a hideout and has survived due to a misunderstanding by her captors. Protected by the Romanian police, she later becomes a key witness whose testimony ends the dangerous band of her pimp. But that bravery comes at a price; 2 years later, she does not return from an art exhibition in Paris. The police believe that her exploiter’s curse was fulfilled by a nephew who visited him in prison shortly before his death and was seen in Paris during the days Andreea had the exhibition. After a year of anguish, Nayra can no longer bear the situation and decides to mourn her mother at the cove where she painted her last picture. It had as its background the rock arch symbolizing the risk of living and facing life’s challenges. Nayra considers her mother lost and throws Andreea’s ashes into the sea, symbolized by those of a magnolia branch she planted many years ago. With this, she internalizes the loss and the fighting values Andreea taught her. The exit from the volcanic cove is a song to the life that continues and to the young woman who represents it. The novel is dedicated to the memory of Andreea Constantin and the thousands of women sexually exploited around the world.
