The Oil in My Blood

A letter to Mar reveals Luis’s confinement on an oil rig, as memories and films guide a daughter’s search for her mermaid dream and lost father.

The Oil in My Blood, written as a fable to my daughter Mar, reimagines an oil platform as a sea monster confronting a mermaid. It reflects on promises of progress, Pemex’s exploitation, and Tabasco’s poisoned waters, where families endure precarious labor. Through memory and metaphor, it exposes how sacrifice sustains livelihoods while threatening land, sea, and future generations.