39 Give Me One Last Kiss of Love

Dame un último beso de amor

Managua |

Nicaragua

Spanish

Behind the scenes

The idea behind this text was to dare to speak about death, which is part of life yet often remains a taboo. Rather than approaching it in an abstract way, I chose to imagine the final moments of a person and a farewell scene with the one he loves.

I set this scene in Managua, Nicaragua, in Central America – a tropical place where the heat, open houses, and sounds of the street allow life to flow everywhere. In the text, the drums evoke the Palo de Mayo, a festive rhythm from the Caribbean coast. In the illustration, these drums come alive through color, creating a contrast with the intimate scene in the foreground.

The scene can thus be imagined as deeply sad… or as a form of hope, the beginning of a passage into something else.

In the illustration, the word “amorir” can be glimpsed – a fusion of amor (love) and morir (to die) – as if love and death were crossing paths, perhaps to give way to renewal.

Echoes of the world

In Latin American Spanish, diminutives are very common in everyday language. The suffix -ito or -ita makes an expression softer, warmer, or more familiar.

Thus, the word beso (kiss), used in the title Dame un último beso de amor, could very naturally become besito in conversation.

One also often hears momentito (“a little moment”), ratito (“a short while”), or cafecito (“a small coffee”).

These diminutives do not simply indicate something smaller: they add a nuance of closeness and tenderness that often gives Latin American Spanish a particular warmth.

Listen to an audio excerpt of the text