Latido is Spanish for heartbeat, and is a leitmotif in these three stories by Louise Stern, commissioned specially and written in Mexico earlier in 2013. Each story features a deaf central character, and each has a Mexican setting.

Louise Stern writes:

"I have always felt that Mexico is a country where words are flesh ... People there, hearing or deaf, are very comfortable with communicating via gestures. Mexico is the place where I feel the least deaf. Although the incidence of deafness is more or less the same in most of Mexico as in the rest of the world (less than one percent), there is a village in Yucatan state in Mexico where everyone uses sign language as a matter of fact, because there is a genetic quirk that means that more people than usual are deaf. This village is not the setting of these stories written for the BBC, but time spent there has influenced the stories."

Latido III

Itzel is weighed down with a secret, something all-too-human she witnessed by the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Louise Stern grew up in Fremont, California, and is the fourth generation of her family to be born deaf. She now lives and works in London as an artist and writer. 'Chattering', her first collection of short stories, was published in 2010. 'The Electric Box', her first commission for radio, featured in the series 'Where Were You ...' - also produced by Sweet Talk - in 2012.

Reader: Louise Brealey
Director: Karen Rose
Sound Design: Jon Calver
Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. Show less