Rothko in Merida

If you're a fan of Mark Rothko's paintings, this is your house, your site-specific sculpture whose layers of paint battle heat, moisture and the unrelenting creep of mildew that would cover all of Merida's structures if given the opportunity. In this case, the effect is utterly lovely, and I feel lucky to pass by this house almost every day.

One day last month, my Rothko house went up for sale.

Merida being a city that prefers inner courtyards to outer front yards, your average north American "Century 21" real estate agent would be at a loss to find a place to pound her for-sale sign into the ground; with the house I live in as the only exception for blocks around, there's not a patch of dirt to be found in Merida's historical district-- not until you enter someone's home, at which point the world opens up to lush gardens, fully grown palm trees, bouganvellia. Merida is a city of inside spaces.

But out here on the sidewalk, there's only cement. What's a realtor to do? Buy some paint, of course.

And so it was that I happened upon a man putting the final touches on a new, horrifying layer on my Rothko house: a bright yellow rectangle with black lettering: Se Vende, and telephone numbers. A loud bumblebee of a sign. I gasped.

I actually tried to go into the house at that moment, thinking I could somehow save it from the evil yellow paint that doesn't go with the pinks and blues and greens of my personal Rothko. I found myself shushed away from the house by another man who'd been supervising from across the street. He said... something. And the man with the yellow paint said... something back. In sudden reversal, Yellow Paint Man started painting over the black "For Sale" letters he had just finished. Maybe, I thought to myself, I had somehow convinced them to stop.

When I passed by the next morning, the yellow rectangle had been painted over yet again, this time in pink.

I used to hate pink. But in my personal 21st century Crayola box, this New Pink, this Pediatrician's Pink (before doctors' offices took to hiring interior decorators), this Pretty Pink... is a Plausible Pink. I'm sure I had nothing to do with this, in the end, but I like knowing that I'm not the only one who loves this house.