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  • The Paris Review

    One Word: Avuncular

    by Myriam Gurba Mar 19, 2019 3 minutes

    In our column One Word, writers expound on their favorite words. 

    Man with beer, artist unknown, c. 1920

    My uncle Henry has killed a lot of people.

    In spite of his dark past, and because of it, he’s my favorite American uncle. Since I cherish bilingually, in English and in Spanish, I cherish my uncles and my tíos separately. The border separates us, cleaving family from familia.

    My favorite was Alvaro. Unlike Henry, he wasn’t a genius. He never killed anybody, though he was known to get rough with English. His favorite T-shirt was

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