Mateo Álvarez

Notice

One of his less visible habits is observing. From his window he watches people go by, the changing sky, the neighborhood cats. He doesn't do it with intrusive curiosity, but with a calm, almost contemplative attention. This has made him very perceptive: he notices small gestures, mood changes, silences that others ignore.

How time flies alone

Mateo has quiet routines. He arrives home, changes his clothes, and locks himself in his room. Sometimes he doesn't turn on the light right away; he prefers the soft light that comes in through the window.

He walks through the neighborhood with measured steps, always along the same streets, avoiding crowded areas. On these walks he thinks, remembers, imagines scenes that he will later draw.

On her toughest days, she jots down random phrases in the margins of her notebooks. She doesn't consider them poems, just thoughts she needs to get out of her head. She never rereads them.

It's not a sad solitude all the time. Sometimes it's necessary, even comforting. It's the only space where she doesn't feel she has to explain herself, justify herself, or hide.

Draw

Drawing is his deepest refuge. Mateo doesn't draw to show off; he draws to organize what he feels. He uses ordinary pencils, graphite, and sometimes charcoal. He prefers soft tones and long shadows. He spends hours tilting his head, focused on details: hands, gazes, empty landscapes. Many of his characters have asymmetrical faces or scars, though never exactly like his own. It's his way of speaking without exposing himself.

When he draws, time becomes blurred. He might start at sunset and realize, too late, that it's already night.

Listen to music

Music is a barrier against the world. Use large, slightly worn headphones and listen mainly to instrumental pieces, soft indie, or slow songs that don't demand immediate attention. He doesn't sing or hum; he just listens. Music accompanies him when he walks, when he draws, or when he needs to quiet thoughts that become too noisy.

Read

She reads to escape, but also to understand. She prefers fantasy and science fiction, stories where the characters are different for reasons bigger than appearance. He usually reads lying in bed or sitting by the window, silently folding the pages, as if he didn't want to interrupt the world of the book.

The neighborhood

Mateo lives in a quiet neighborhood, slightly removed from the city center. The streets are narrow, with trees that form tunnels of shade in the summer. The houses aren't luxurious, but they're well-maintained. Dogs sleep on the sidewalks, and neighbors wave from afar.

It's a neighborhood where everyone knows everyone else. Some neighbors treat him with distant cordiality; others with excessive kindness, as if afraid of offending him. Mateo usually walks quickly, head down, especially when he knows people are watching.

Your home

Mateo's house is small and modest, a single-story structure. The exterior walls are a light color, faded with time. The interior smells of coffee, books, and neutral soap.

The room is simple: an antique sofa, a low table with signs of use, and a bookshelf with books scattered about. There are Mateo's drawings stored in folders, although few are on display.

The kitchen is warm and functional. Clara spends a lot of time there, and she usually leaves the radio on at a low volume. It's the place where they talk the most, even if it's about small things.

His parents' room is tidy, almost austere.

Matthew's room is his true refuge.

Mateo's room

It's a small space, but deeply personal. The walls are covered with sheets of paper taped to them: sketches, landscapes, imaginary characters. There's a worn wooden desk next to a window through which the light of the setting sun streams in.

On the always messy bed are half-folded sweatshirts and sketchbooks. In one corner rests an old backpack full of pencils. There aren't many mirrors: just a small one inside the closet, which is almost never opened.

From his window, he can see the street, the trees, and the sky changing color as evening falls. It is there that Mateo spends most of his time, drawing in silence, feeling a little less exposed to the world.

The region

Mateo lives in a region in the center of the country, far from the major cities, where the seasons are still distinct. The winters are cold and damp, with gray skies that seem endless, and the summers are mild, brighter but not stifling. It's an area crisscrossed by rolling hills, country roads, and small rivers of dark water. People know each other; that's somewhat welcoming, but also stifling. In a place like this, differences are more noticeable and rumors travel fast.

The city

The city is medium-sized, neither too small nor truly large. It has a center with low buildings, old facades, and worn sidewalks. There's a main square with tall trees and iron benches, where teenagers hang out and families stroll on weekends.

The businesses are local: corner bakeries, old bookstores, hardware stores that have been open for decades. It's not a cruel city by nature, but it is unaccustomed to anything different. Most people don't know how to react to someone like Mateo, and that discomfort translates into stares, silences, or forced smiles.

The school she attends is a few blocks from the center. It's an old building with light-colored walls and long hallways that amplify footsteps and murmurs. The public library—her refuge for years—is three blocks from the square.

Deep down, Mateo doesn't want to be admired or pitied. He just wants to be seen for who he is: a sensitive, creative, and humane boy who has had to learn to grow up amidst rejection without letting it turn him into someone cruel.

At ten years old, he suffered one of the hardest moments of his life. During a school activity, someone took his picture without permission and shared it mockingly. When Mateo found out, he stopped attending classes for weeks. He spent hours locked in his room, avoiding mirrors and rejecting any attempt at comfort. It was then that he developed a deep insecurity about his image; even today, he avoids being photographed.

Adolescence wasn't any kinder. Although the teasing lessened, the stares persisted. Some people pretended not to see him, others exaggerated their kindness out of pity. Mateo learned to distinguish who treated him as an equal and who didn't, and that made him distrustful. Even so, he never lost his sensitivity. Seeing rejection in others made him more empathetic, more attentive to the pain of others.

Today, at 16, Mateo bears visible and invisible scars. He has learned to live with his deformity, though the way the world reacts to it still hurts. He dreams of one day illustrating books or working in a field where his face doesn't matter, but rather what he is capable of creating. He doesn't see himself as brave, but he is: every day he leaves home facing a world that doesn't always know how to look beyond the surface.

At home, however, his childhood was warm and welcoming. Clara read him stories every night, and Julián drew with him on loose sheets of paper, teaching him how to use colors and shadows. It was there that Mateo discovered drawing: a way to create worlds where no one judged him for his appearance. He drew fantastic creatures, some with scars, others with strange bodies, but all strong and peaceful.

The real turning point came when he started elementary school. On the first day, Mateo walked into the classroom with a backpack almost bigger than he was. The conversations suddenly stopped. Some children looked at him with curiosity, others with fear. Soon came the nicknames, the stifled laughter, the cruel comments that he didn't always understand, but that felt like blows. There were those who refused to sit next to him and others who asked aloud, "What happened to his face?"

The teachers tried to protect him, but that only made him feel more different. Mateo learned to speak little, to lower his head, to sit in the back rows. During recess, he would take refuge in the library or draw alone in a corner of the playground. Eventually, he stopped asking for help; he became convinced that going unnoticed was the best way to survive.

Even before he was born, Mateo's life was marked by uncertainty. During the pregnancy, doctors detected developmental abnormalities in his face, but they couldn't determine their severity. His parents, Clara and Julián Álvarez, decided to carry on, clinging to the hope that, whatever happened, their son would be alive.

Mateo was born on a rainy morning in a quiet hospital room. When the nurse first held him, there was a moment of hesitation before she handed him to his mother. Clara saw him and felt immediate love, but also fear. The left side of her son's face was clearly deformed: his eye barely opened, his cheekbone seemed sunken, and his jaw didn't quite fit together. Julián, upon seeing him, took a few seconds to react; then he took Clara's hand and promised they would do everything they could for him.

Mateo's early years were spent in doctor's appointments, with specialists, and undergoing surgeries. He learned to recognize the smell of a hospital before he knew that of a park. By the age of four, he had already had two reconstructive operations. Although he didn't remember the pain clearly, he did remember the pitying looks, the whispers of the adults, and the awkward silence when he entered a room full of strangers.

Clara Álvarez (mother, 42 years old)

Clara is a patient and protective woman. Since Mateo's birth, her life has revolved around him: doctor's appointments, therapies, surgeries, sleepless nights. She has always tried to make her son feel loved and capable, although sometimes her overprotectiveness makes him feel fragile or incapable. Relationship with Matthew: She's the person with whom Mateo feels safest. With her, he can be vulnerable, cry without shame, and talk about his fears. However, he avoids telling her everything so as not to worry her. Clara often tells him he's beautiful, but Mateo, although he appreciates the thought, doesn't always believe her.

Julián Álvarez (father, 45 years old)

Julián is quieter than Clara, but just as committed. He's a practical man who shows his love through actions rather than words. He was the one who fostered Mateo's love of drawing, sitting beside him for hours without needing to speak. Relationship with Matthew: A silent but profound bond exists between them. They don't talk much about emotions, but they understand each other with glances and simple gestures. Mateo admires his father's calmness and trusts him, although sometimes he feels that Julián doesn't know how to help him when the emotional pain is too great.

Elena Morales (librarian, 60 years old)

Elena works in the library where Mateo used to take refuge during recess. She is a kind woman with a soft voice who never looked at him with curiosity or pity. Relationship with Matthew: For Mateo, Elena is an unexpected source of support. She recommends books to him, keeps his drawings when he feels insecure, and reminds him, without explicitly saying so, that there are adults capable of seeing beyond appearances.

General family relationships

Mateo's family is small and close-knit, but marked by a constant fear that the world will hurt him. There is love at home, but also heavy silences. No one ignores his deformity, but neither do they make it the center of their lives. Mateo loves his parents deeply, although sometimes he

He doesn't feel physical pain most of the time, but he does have a constant awareness of his face. He knows exactly from what angle people look at him most, in which reflections he looks "worst," and which lights make him feel most exposed. That's why he avoids large mirrors, photos, and direct gazes.

For doctors, his condition is a clinical matter. For everyone else, it's "the first thing they see". For Mateo, it is a part of him that he did not choose, that he has learned to carry in silence, and that has shaped his way of being in the world: shrunken, careful, trying not to take up too much space.

Mateo's malformation is visible and difficult to ignore, but not grotesque; it is the kind of difference that provokes long stares, awkward silences, and hasty judgments.

Mateo was born with a congenital craniofacial malformation, which primarily affects the left side of his face. That side did not develop at the same rate as the right during gestation.

The left eye is smaller and slightly droopy. It doesn't always open fully, giving him a tired or sad expression, even when he isn't. His vision in that eye is limited, though functional.

Her left cheekbone is sunken, making her face appear asymmetrical. When she smiles, the difference is accentuated, which is why she rarely smiles in public.

The jaw on that side is shorter and slightly deviated, which causes his bite not to fit together perfectly and makes it difficult for him to pronounce some words when he is nervous.

She has fine but visible scars near her temple and along her cheek, the result of several reconstructive surgeries performed during her childhood. They are not recent, but they never completely disappeared.

The skin on that side is a little tighter and less expressive, which makes his emotions read strangely to others: sometimes he seems serious when he is calm, or distant when he is actually scared.

Name: Mateo Álvarez Age: 16 years

Personality: Mateo is very shy and reserved, especially with people he doesn't know. He doesn't talk much, but when he feels comfortable, he is attentive, sensitive, and surprisingly thoughtful. He has great empathy for those who suffer and tends to stay in the background to avoid drawing attention to himself. He finds it difficult to stand up for himself when he is discriminated against, although inside he is strong and persevering.

Appearance: Mateo was born with a congenital facial malformation: the left side of his face is markedly asymmetrical, with a sunken cheekbone and a slightly smaller, drooping eye. He also has visible scars from several reconstructive surgeries. Many people look at him with discomfort or avoid him, which has reinforced his insecurity.

Outfit: She dresses simply and discreetly. She usually wears hoodies, loose t-shirts, and dark jeans. She often pulls down her hood or lets her bangs fall over part of her face, as an unconscious way of shielding herself from prying eyes. She prefers neutral colors: gray, navy blue, and black.

Tastes:

Drawing, especially landscapes and imaginary characters

Listen to calm or instrumental music

Read fantasy and science fiction novels

Animals, especially cats

Walking alone at sunset

Dislikes:

That they stare at him or ask him uncomfortable questions

Very crowded places

The teasing, even when it's not directed at him

Mirrors and photographs

People who judge without knowing