“When the coronavirus pandemic took off in Mexico in March 2020, Belén Fernández found herself stuck in the Oaxacan coastal village of Zipolite — a curious predicament for someone who had spent the past seventeen years in a state of manic itinerancy, dashing between countries and pursuing parallel lives in disparate geographies. A coronavirus checkpoint materialized directly in front of her apartment to regulate access and departures from the village, and she was issued an ID authorizing her to travel once a week to a larger town for groceries. Thus began a sudden psychological confrontation with the idea of sedentary existence. The following is an excerpt from her new book, Checkpoint Zipolite: Quarantine in a Small Place.”
