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Andrea Hernandez Briceno, Caracas, Venezuela, 02 “Mascarilla”

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Dearest readers, I am not going to write to you today about the U.S. presidential elections. But I do want to thank you all who sent WhatsApps, texts and emails last Wednesday. I was especially moved by messages from readers whose own countries have slipped into authoritarian rule. Gracias.

I decided to calm my politics-all-the-time obsession by revisiting a marvelous special exhibition at Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. I had gone to the exhibit when it first opened last month. I’d spent an hour or so beforehand talking to the featured artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez, who reimagines traditional casta paintings for today’s world where some bodies are simply seen as belonging to outsiders—particularly those of Latinas.