In 2020 I wrote Orión. It is a beautiful story told in alternating points of views about the Vargas Tragedy in Venezuela. The books is published by published by TPRS books. And if you are interested in getting a copy, I recommend buying Orión from CPLI Books. When you buy Orión through CPLI Books we donate 1$ to Joven Pride, a Venezuelan non-profit organisation fighting for the right to be different in order to live without fear in my country.
Orión is not a book on LGTBQ+ issues, so why have I teamed with Karen Rowan from CPLI Books me to make a donation per book possible. All is explained here: Orión a book that gives.
A few people have expressed interest in teaching with Orión and asked me about the teaching guide. There isn’t a teaching guide at the moment, but here you will find some resources I used when I was carrying out the research for the book.
There is plenty of information on the Internet about Orión and his heroic actions during the Vargas tragedy, but I loved these three websites the most as they have a mine of information and original photos of Orión and Mauricio, his owner.
- Honor al perro héroe Orión
- La historia de Orión: el perro que salvó más de 30 vidas en la tragedia de Vargas
- Orión: Un héroe de cuatro patas que salvó vidas en la Tragedia de Vargas
There are also amazing videos with original interviews to Mauricio where he tells us first hand about his experience after having to leave Orión on his own and then returning for him with an helicopter.
In the book, I created the fictional character of Paz and described how she watches television and sees Chávez commenting on the tragedy. And here is the video of the 15th December 1999 when Chávez quoted Simón Bolívar’s famous words on the occasion of the earthquake of 1812: “If nature opposes us, we will fight against her and force her to obey us.” Nature, of course, did not obey. It was Venezuela’s worst natural disaster.
On the subject of the political changes that Venezuela suffered after the Vargas Tragedy, the following article is a must-read:
Happy teaching! Margarita x
