Iris came into the world in the year 2018 of the Western calendar and had a peculiar life. A daughter of an immigrant who no one tried to claim, she was transferred a few days after she was born to Trujillo, to an orphanage which was run by the Congregation of Missionary Mothers of San Vicente de Paúl, who took her in and took charge of feeding and educating her until the age of fifteen. The missionaries became her family and that influenced her spiritual vision of life under the prism of Christianity. But even though she received love and affection from the people around her, there was something deep inside that made her disconnect from the world around her. A kind of emptiness that gradually grew in her, nourished by what was happening in the world and her own experiences.

The world in Iris’s eyes was a wild, intense, globalised world; hyper-communicated thanks to social networks and in full social effervescence. In various parts of the planet, popular discontent with the policies to regulate migration crises, unemployment and the precarious situation of millions of families, had led radical and populist forces to power in many countries. On top of this, the revolution of automated technologies and Artificial Intelligence increased the feeling that humanity was entering an era of global social chaos.

In 2020, a global health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus put the economic and political system, as well as the global development model of human society, to the test. But above all, it highlighted the marked inequality that existed across the planet. This fact marked a turning point in society that demanded changes to its politicians, as well as drastic measures to improve the standard of living of all humans and take care of the planet.

Because of this and the global economic downturn that had a strong impact on unemployment worldwide, politics was rocky in many countries. In England, the process of separation from Europe was developing due to the general discontent of a large popular majority who saw Europe as a threat. In Germany, the far-right party had become the third most powerful political force. Austria was being ruled by a far-right party, as well as other eastern countries. In France, popular discontent led to violent demonstrations in the streets over government measures and the extreme right was positioning itself as a major political foe. The United States had implemented excessive anti-immigration policies against Mexico and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as a series of decisions to boycott international agreements which were battling pollution, among other highly controversial issues. On the South American continent, Brazil elected a far-right president with populist policies. The political landscape was turned upside-down.

Peru was no stranger to it. The populist and extremist political forces lived in constant battles with the progressive parties. The corruption scandals uncovered by the press generated an atmosphere of general discontent against the political class. In this context, subversive groups began to carry out violent activities in several towns in the interior of the country between 2022 and 2023. There were hundreds of deaths until finally the government was able to take control and deactivate these movements that reminded all Peruvians of the terror experienced in the 1980s.

The terrorist attacks had brought the issue of Peruvian integration and identity to the table. A forgotten question which has never been addressed by the political class and which was manifested by the discontent and disconnection of developed Peru with the remote areas of the country. In 2026, an ambitious plan for national integration and development of the region was launched with the aim of unifying and building the national identity around pre-Hispanic roots and revaluing ancestral culture and traditions. In this context, the first seeds of future social movements which would seek harmony between man and pachamama  were sown. But any societal change takes time and many decades had to pass before bearing the fruits of what began in 2026.

Thus, Iris grew up in a paradoxical world, one increasingly connected by new technologies, but with no desire to mix together yet at the same time demanding a radical change in society. This paradox of humanity only fuelled Iris’s own personal paradox, that she could not reconcile her Christian world-view with what she saw in her daily life. She could not comprehend traditional values with all these modern and progressive ideas. All this strengthened her feelings of emptiness until it took up more and more her whole being.

At fifteen, she felt empty. A void that tormented her and she did not understand why, but she wanted to disappear and no longer live with those around her. She grew up believing in God, but God abandoned her from birth. The missionaries’ explanations were useless, telling her that it was precisely God who had brought them together so that she would not grow up alone, that God was acting in mysterious ways. There was no logic in that. There was something beyond her understanding and she would not stop until she found out.

Leaving a farewell note, one summer’s night in 2033, she left the missionaries of Saint Vincent de Paul forever. With the little money she had saved, she bought a ticket to Lima, which she had seen a lot on television and on the Internet. So, she had left, in search of the Limeño dream.

Lima was a bustling city. The panoramic view Iris was presented with on her arrival at The Horrible, was varied. On the outskirts, the half-finished houses on the hills, with bright colours and yellow staircases, caught her attention. It was an explosion of tasteless colours but at the same time reflecting a desire to live and to survive. In a city where approximately three hours a day are spent commuting to work and earning around 1,500 soles  a month, aesthetics was clearly not a priority. As more and more entered the city, the hills turned into buildings full of apartments and offices grey with pollution. Colourful houses continued to be part of the landscape and large avenues, pedestrian bridges, a metro line and many buses were added to it. The grey sky over Lima was a mixture of clouds and smog. For all this, this city was popularly known affectionately as The Grey or The Horrible.

Arriving at the bus station, Iris called Alicia, a Venezuelan girl who she had contacted via social media before arranging her trip to Lima. Alicia had arrived in Peru in 2018 on the same bus as Iris’s mother, which obviously she never found out. Alicia had offered to help Iris settle into Lima and help her find a job, which she was so desperately looking for in order to become independent and make a living of her own.

So, Iris began her new life in Lima. She started working with Alicia in a clothing store in a shopping centre in the Miraflores district. In the afternoons after work, the girls usually went to Kennedy Park Square to meet with other Venezuelan and local workers to discuss current issues and exchange information about potential jobs.

• Did you see on the news about the trip to Mars? They finally have a release date! – said one of the boys in the group, his name was Jaime
• A trip to Mars? – Alicia replied – you better come back to Earth with us. What do you know about Don Pancho’s restaurant near the square? It seems he was looking for someone to help him with some waitressing
• Yes, actually Don Pancho is looking for someone else because things are going well for him
• A trip to Mars? – Iris asks Jaime.
• Yeah, that’s right! It’s a gringo company called Space X. Originally, they had to leave in 2025 but they had some trouble with the engines and they postponed everything to improve their technology. This will be the first manned trip to Mars!
• Really?! Wow! When are they going?
• Another 5 years or so, everything is planned for 2040 but they are looking for volunteers to go!

Suddenly, Iris’s gaze went to the Lima sky full of clouds, polluted by those yellow lights at night. Among a few passing clouds, she could see a star blinking shyly. She stared at it, her heart began to beat strongly, her body was in Lima, but her unconscious was desperately trying to travel to that star.

• Iris! Back to Earth Iris! What happened to you? Do you want to go to space? Hahaha well Jaime, at least you won’t be alone when you leave! Iris! Pay attention to what we are saying, Don Pancho needs someone for his restaurant and I think this could be a good opportunity for you
• Hahaha that’s right Iris – responded the other members of the group in chorus – why would anyone want to leave this planet when we have everything here?”

Why would anyone want to leave this planet when we have everything here?

Why would anyone want to leave this planet when we have everything here?

Why would anyone want to leave this planet when we have everything here?

We have everything here

We have everything here

We have everything here

Iris’ mind was brimming with these questions, repeating them over and over again. Was it this emptiness that drove her to leave Trujillo and go to Lima pushing her now to take another trip? We have everything here, this sentence kept bothering her. Did she really have everything here? She had found a job and a life of her own in Lima and that made her happy for a bit. But deep down she was still looking for something else, she didn’t know what, really, but apparently her new life in Lima was not what she was looking for.

This is how the years went by in Lima. Iris and Jaime started a romantic relationship. They both had the same dream of travelling to Mars and they signed up for the selection program without really having any real hope of being able to go, but who knows, maybe one day they would call them! Life was not easy for them. Both Jaime and Iris struggled to get to the end of the month and rather than living, they scraped by. They lived in a room they shared in the North of Lima and continued with their monotonous lives, hoping one day to receive that wishful email that would take them away from this world to a completely new world, far from The Horrible and its problems.

But that email never came.

Over the years that followed, the relationship between Iris and Jaime broke down. Although they both shared the same dream at first, soon Jaime gave it up in order to focus on more earthly ideals. Having his own family, buying a house, a car, having a certain social status, travelling and a series of other goals which became his priority, while Iris still trembled when she looked up at the stars and found herself more and more empty and unhappy.

One beautiful winter’s day in 2040, Iris, without saying goodbye, grabbed a backpack and left Jaime and The Horrible forever. In space, at that precise moment, the first manned spacecraft bound for Mars was a couple of months away from reaching its destination. It was the Space X 2040 mission. The mission for which Iris and Jaime were never called.

Iris was fed up with her life on this planet, she felt trapped in and with no way to escape. She only thought of the stars and the mystery of this Universe. She couldn’t understand how people could get up every day and blindly follow a routine when they didn’t even know why they came into this world? What is the purpose of this life? Why is there life on Earth? What is the meaning of all this? A desire to be alone and far away from society pushed her to undertake a new adventure in the Andes Mountains. Although she was never chosen to go to Mars, at least in the mountains, she would be closer to the Universe.

In this way, Iris disappeared from this world.

Until the day she came back to us in a small town called Las Mercedes at over 3000m above sea level, after having walked more than 100km alone in the middle of the mountains in search of a place to give birth to her son.

Alfonso.