“At noon it was raining birds”, by Marcela Guiral: war and pain in an illustrated book

Colombia is one of the countries with the greatest diversity of birds in the world. There are about 2000 species that inhabit the whole national territory and about 300 others that arrive to nest. The numbers, of course, vary over the years, but the preference of these animals that live freely in the country of García Márquez and Shakira is not diminished.

A little of this spirit of freedom is what the Colombian writer tried to represent Marcela Guiral in his novel “At noon it rained birds”title published in 2022, with illustrations by Alejandra Estrada.

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A city in the middle of the mountains of Colombia, a forest once inhabited by blue butterflies, now a forest and a city of birds. Birds that dictate what happens and determine the future of the inhabitants of the place.

Before there was a war that killed butterflies, says the back cover. Now the worst of another war is reaching the city and once again nature, this time represented by the birds, carries the worst and at the same time represents salvation. A history that repeats itself, a city that learns from its past.

“From the window of his house, he saw only gray buildings, churches and parks destroyed by the bombings, waiting for someone to restore them. But no one was going to arm them again as long as there was war. The only winged animals that flew around the city were flies. There were so many that they hit the windows and people’s eyes, so people put glue on the windows and thousands of flies got stuck to the windows (…) F stayed for a long time looking at them ( … ) They tried to detach the wings from the glass and some succeeded; many times he helped them out by using his mother’s spoon or comb. The bad thing was that most of the time the body separated from the wings and the bzzz it sounded weaker and then they fell asleep. Or are they dead? He decided not to send them back for help, just in case. But there was a time when they had no windows because the explosions had broken them, so the flies entered their house and lived with them. Shortly after, they were abandoned. They flew freely through the city which was full of garbage. And of the dead” – (Fragment)

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A fascinating gallery of characters emerges over the pages, such as the picturesque uncle who is a giant pigeon, or the sinister entity with lice running down his forehead and devouring children.

Macondian-like, the town in this story is a place so crowded with birds that droppings abound everywhere. The inhabitants of the place take shelter with the help of colorful umbrellas which, in the end, end up soaking up hummingbirds whose elongated beaks remain stagnant. The town loses its blue butterflies to the conflict and the joy evaporates.

Marcela Guiral (Yolombó, Antioquia) is a graduate librarian from the University of Antioquia; master’s degree in higher education in health, from the same university; and Master in Reading Promotion and Children’s Literature, University of Castilla – La Mancha, Spain.

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