Aesthetic Problems at the Pachecos
I n the next room, twelve year old Esmerelda is playing piano—she is supposed to be practicing but as is often the case, she got diverted. She is playing an old jazz tune by Billie Holiday, ‘God Bless the Child’, and it seems everyone would agree: She does it very well. In the living room, teenagers Fiona, Kloe, Sancho, Jamie, and Madgie are listening, as is Manuel, Esmerelda’s father who loves to engage the kids in discussion. Gia and Estephen are upstairs, Gia being Esmerelda’s younger sister, four, Estephen being her older brother, seventeen. Their mum is sitting in another room with Sancho, Manuel’s uncle. Esmerelda now finishes playing ‘God Bless the Child’, and gets on with the dreary but necessary business of practicing scales. At the moment Esmerelda finishes the tune, Jamie says, ‘Wow … I love that…that’s so good.’ Manuel’s ears prick up. ‘Good...