Yamile
Barbosa
Born in Bogotá. At home wherever there are people around the table.
01 — About me
I'm forty-seven, I have two children, a job I like and a kitchen that always smells of something.
I'm cheerful by nature and responsible by habit — the kind who remembers everyone's birthday. I work in chemistry for cosmetics, I like doing things properly, and I like doing them in good company even more.
I have my quiet days too, the ones when I look at the water and say nothing. It seems fair that both belong on this page.
The sea puts me in a good mood just by looking at it. I don't even need to go in.
02 — Roots
In Colombia you learn early that setting one more place at the table is not a problem: it's good news.
My mother taught me empanadas before I learned Italian. I still make arepas by hand, and I can tell from the dough whether the day is going well.
I put on Latin music when I clean the house, and it isn't nostalgia: it's simply the right volume for feeling good. Bogotá isn't a memory, it's a way of welcoming people.
03 — Pictures
The photographs I recognise myself in the most.
The Costa Brava wind spares no hairstyle, and that's perfectly fine.
Some evenings the sun goes down slowly and I have nothing to do. Those are my favourites.
Marseille, late August, the hour when the harbour turns pink. I've spent my whole life organising things for other people: stopping to look at the water is the hardest thing I've learned to do.
04 — The things that keep me going
Cooking
Empanadas, arepas, and the Saturday when everyone comes over. I cook even when I'm not hungry: it's my way of saying I'm here.
The sea, the sun
August is my season. A hat, salt in my hair, no alarm clock. I come back lighter than I left.
Loud music
Salsa, vallenato, and the volume my mother used to play it at. The first beat is enough and the whole house changes mood.
Being out
Trips, walks, long tables, a cinema with a popcorn bucket that's far too big. I'm happy wherever there are people and light.
My people
My two children, my partner, my whole family. They are the part of me I'm proudest of.
05 — Merceditas
Every now and then the kitchen leaves the house.
Merceditas is the name I gave to this small thing of mine: when I make more than I need, I put it up for sale. It isn't a business, it's a passion that sometimes takes shape online too.
merceditas.it