28/07/2026
Berlin, my love,
We go through joy and pain and a myriad of feelings in the same days.
Today I walked through Tiergarten, and it touched me to recall twenty-six years of beautiful memories there. I thought of the Tuntenwiese, that garden of delights that is an ecosystem — beyond fun, against loneliness, for generations of gay men. I thought of the shadows of the trees, the statues of princesses and gents and their gazes toward the future, the statues of animals and their spirits. I remembered Kazumi, the Japanese “Kaiserin” of Tiergarten, who would sit there every warm sunny day reading old newspapers and watching the day go by — wherever she might be this summer.
On Saturday evening we sat to watch the Pride go by, by the Rembrandt statues, under the Siegessäule, and I won’t forget it: the man collecting Pfandflaschen by the Tuntenwiese; older men washing their cute 🍑s at the shower there; two young Muslim mothers giggling with their kids, looking and not looking; and then, suddenly, the Flaschensammler rolling out his carpet to pray. His prayer was so heartfelt, so full of compassion, that it was a strong sight I could not condemn to a photo. But it stays in my heart, and in the heart of anyone who witnessed that beautiful moment.
Nothing makes sense. It doesn’t have to.
I am not in the mood to be much these days. I have no recipes for life, but I am here to make tacos whenever you need them. And maybe that is just about enough.
In prayers,
Jorge, your Taco Kween