Summary

In his first essay in his collection, “The Curse,” Chee recounted the summer he spent as an exchange student in the state of Chiapas, in Mexico, at the age of 15. Chee lived with the wealthy Guiterrez family, whose son, Miguel Angel, had lived with Chee’s family in Maine the previous academic year. Unlike when Miguel Angel was in America, however, Chee did not attend class while he stayed in Mexico. Rather, he went on field trips with other Americans, and otherwise puttered around his host family’s house, where he became enraptured with the books he brought with him; he also started writing short stories for the first time while he was bored and ran out of things to read. He also became friends with Panchita, the family’s cook, and watched soap operas (telenovelas) with her, including one called El Maleficio...