Statuephobia

Image of Harriet Tubman projected onto a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, on June 20. JAY PAUL / Reuters

Next to the square, the bronze statue represents a life-size seated man handling a basket: he wears glasses, a mustache and a hat.

It pays tribute to the artisan Eulogio Concepción and to the traditional basket weaving of the Lanzarote Valley of the Thousand Palm Trees.

A few meters higher, I enter a small workshop.

In a low chair, an old man with glasses, a mustache and a cap energetically cuts palm leaves with a long, sharp knife.

It's Eulogio, and for an instant I feel like I've stepped through Ted Chiang's alchemist's gate of time.

The spell fades when the craftsman begins to wail ...

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