Translations:Emma Reyes/6/en

After being abandoned by her caregiver, Mrs. María, at the Zipaquirá train station, Emma Reyes returned to Bogotá and was admitted to the María Auxiliadora convent along with her sister. She remained in that place for fifteen years, during which she made a remarkable description of the influence of religion both on her daily life and on the people around her. “They taught me to sweep […], peel potatoes, carry water, take out the trash, take out the ash from the stove, wash pots and dishes, help unpack the chocolate boxes, wash floors” (Reyes, 2012). Life at the service of the community, the long days spent in the sewing workshops and the hours dedicated to religious worship, always away from the outside world, made Emma Reyes, already a young woman, escape from the convent and embark on a long journey. travel through Latin America, “marching on foot, on buses, trains or whatever, selling boxes of Scott Emulsion” (Arciniegas, 2012). She arrived in Buenos Aires in 1945 after having lived for a time in Paraguay and it was there where she began her life as an artist.