Bitterness

Author Fernando Vallejo, most famous for his novel La Virgen de los Sicarios (Our Lady of the Assassins, on which Barbet Schroeder's film is based), has emphatically renounced his Colombian citizenship:

"Colombia shut its doors to me so I that I couldn't make a decent living that wasn't in the government or politics, which I despise, and made me sleep in the street, covered with newspapers and alongside the homeless of 7th Street and the abandoned dogs."

Since then, "I consider my brothers to be" the dogs, the writer immediately pointed out, who said that he does not feel Colombian.

He became a Mexican citizen last week, where he's lived since 1971.

I refuse to judge him, as I cannot fathom the effects of such a life, but I find the whole portrayal of the situation (and Vallejo's hatred) to be unbearably sad.