Taliswoman

We stare into the bottomless laminated eyes of the Virgen de Guadalupe, Hector's taliswoman against Katrina and his own dead family, and now ours against the silencing of Gloria.

When Beverly Allen left the Geary Street apartment for her family home in Oakland later that night, she gave Brautigan the painted Mexican doll (her “taliswoman”) as a keepsake.

She then scattered these taliswomen throughout The Birth of Venus, putting some in boxes, using others to line walls.

'She's been with me through a lot,' he smiled. 'She's my taliswoman. Anyway. Cheers.'