30.The Virgin of the Fishermen

For Diómedes, one of the young fishermen, indebted in an engine of only 45 HP, in the fiber, nets, hooks, fuel and bait, thanks to a loan from a State Bank, which lent him that money by guaranteeing the assets of his parents, who were his guarantors, fishing every day was a miracle.

-These Norths are going to ruin me. It was repeated every day that I had to go fishing between the months of December and June when the Warm Current of the Child arrives- I have to get into debt in a flying net, I have no more- he thought as he took out his spinner to catch large fish that it was about 5 km.

He went to Santa Rosa to ask how much a flying net would cost him, which are nets that fish cannot see and that he lets loose adrift. They were illegal nets because they kill thousands of fish, which are dying and they, but not all of them come out the moment they are collected, they even carry a GPS, for their future location and the richest fishermen already used them together with sonars.

The price was too much for his resources. One day Dr. Máxima approached her boat like every morning when he returned in time to see him before she ran along the beach. Diomedes was the father of the great-grandson of the capo from the poor neighborhood of Santo Tomás, who was on the other side of the river.

- How is the boy?.

- Wonderful doctor. Growing very quickly. In very hungry- the fisherman replied.

- And fishing ..?

- Bad doctor, when the Child arrives, things get ugly, I don't know how I'm going to pay for the motor and the fiber.

-And what about his friends drop by drop, those who play billiards with his father-in-law?

- Doctor, I don't like my father-in-law's life, that being hidden all my life in the neighborhood is not for me, I like the horizon, going as far as I can every day at sea and going home , with my fish. but I don't like walking with fear at the door. The drop by drop are hit men debt collectors, with them you do not sign any paper or anything, they will visit you every so often to settle bills, what's more, they offer you money if you can't pay. But ... yeah, maybe I have to look for them, because I don't want a penny from my father-in-law.

Days later, Máxima saw Diómedes talking with the two gout, in the dining room that she ate on the road. The men put a wad of bills in her hands and left.

"Hello Diomedes," he said as he spent time in front of her table, very concerned.

- Good afternoon doctor- I did not see you, excuse me that I did not greet you first.

- That's not a problem- What are you up to?

- I had no choice but to ask for money from those drop by drop, as I am in debt, the other banks do not want to lend me.

- You are going to buy the flying net.

- I have no way out, those who have those nets hurt other fishermen, but no way, they have money for bait and fuel, without bait or fuel I can't go fishing. This money is first to pay for the bait and fuel that I owe, if I have left I will buy the network.

The fishing was a calamity for the fishermen in the remaining days. On the beach, Diomedes prepared himself with a lot of fuel for a great trip, which would be accompanied by one of the drop by drop.

"Where are you going?" Asked the doctor, when Diomedes said goodbye to his wife and his little boy.

- I have to go south, there is still fishing there.

- When will you come back?

-I already promised my wife that I will be back in a month, for the feast of the Virgin of Miracles, which I hope she will help me.

Indeed, for the great fishermen's festival, which was the day of the Cármenes, on July 16, Diómedes returned. He looked very happy. His wife and his child ran to meet him when he was getting to the beach, along with his friends and relatives who helped him to strip the fiber.

"How was Diomedes?" Asked Maxima.

- La Virgencita guided me and helped me all the time. I owe him so much.

On the day of the feast he placed himself at the head of those who carried the sacred image of the Virgin on the litter.

The town was in an uproar, the college students marched with their war band. A platform was made for the singers, where the president of the members of the Peasant Health Network, was the center of attention, before the coronation of the Queen of the Fishermen.

The dentist was among the jury to choose the queen. From her seat Máxima de ella remembered that she refused to be a jury and recommended to the dentist that she should not be, because that could lead to problems. Her father had recommended that she not participate in those elections, because it is a platform where drug traffickers fish for the most beautiful girls, then seduce and use them. The same thing happened here as in Colombia and Mexico, she told him - where the cartels organize village parties, to fish for drug lovers, as in the telenovela Without tits there is no paradise.