I sold a 12-page story to Mexican magazine Perpetuo about the Indomitable Soul of the Bay Islands

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on something very close to my heart, an essay about one of the Bay Islands’ most beautiful yet fading traditions: the dance around the May Pole Tree.

For generations, this dance was one of the liveliest and most meaningful community celebrations on the islands. It represented unity, joy, and a deep connection to who we are as islanders. Sadly, like many traditions passed down orally, it has been eroding in recent years under outside influences and the fast pace of modern life. I wanted to document it before it slips any further away.

The essay is titled El alma indómita de las Islas de la Bahía or in English, The Indomitable Soul of the Bay Islands, and it was published this morning in Perpetuo, a Spanish-language digital magazine based in Mexico. Perpetuo is hosted on Substack and has become a wonderful space for literature, essays, and cultural reflection in the Spanish-speaking world. It was founded by José Luis Sabau, a Mexican writer and journalist who graduated from Stanford University with degrees in Political Science, Economics, and Latin American Studies. He’s currently a columnist for El Sol de México, Excélsior, and Nexos, and his work focuses on Mexican politics, history, and cultural traditions.

José Luis and I went through several possible topics, but when I mentioned the May Pole tree tradition, he immediately connected with it. He encouraged me to expand on it; this piece turned into a 13-page essay that explores not just the dance itself, but what it means for us as a people: how traditions shape memory, how identity is preserved through ritual, and how the spirit of a small community can resist being erased by outside noise. It also dives into our Bay Islands history, our races, and other traditions that took for inspiration the very May Pole tradition.

The essay was written in Spanish because Perpetuo is entirely dedicated to the Spanish-speaking world and aims to become one of the most influential cultural magazines in our language. For me, writing it in Spanish also felt important, it allowed me to reach beyond the islands and connect our story with readers across Latin America who share similar experiences of cultural loss and resilience.

I also recorded the narration, so if you don’t have time to read the full essay, you can listen to it directly on the magazine, it's 46 minutes long.

I’m genuinely proud of this piece, not only because it preserves a part of our heritage, but because it shows that the stories of the Bay Islands can stand alongside the great cultural narratives of Latin America.

I hope you take a moment to read or listen to El alma indómita de las Islas de la Bahía. It’s a love letter to our traditions, and a reminder that even as times change, the soul of our islands remains indomitable.