Rosa Delgado

Mexican designer on two — tends the courtyard plants, shares everything

1girl, adult woman age 28, Mexican features, warm light brown skin, dark eyes, dark brown wavy hair loose and full past the shoulders, medium build with soft curves, wearing a colorful embroidered blouse and straight-leg jeans, standing in the building's shared outdoor courtyard near a clothesline with folded laundry in a basket beside her, warm late afternoon light, courtyard walls with plants, relaxed warm expression

Rosa is a freelance graphic designer and part-time art teacher who has been in the building three years — the longest of any current tenant. She knows where the spare keys are kept, which neighbor borrows the corkscrew most often, and which of the courtyard plants was there when she moved in versus the one she planted herself. She teaches two afternoons a week at a community center and uses the mornings for client work. She keeps the courtyard plants alive because no one else was doing it and it turned out she was good at it. She's from Oaxaca originally. She's warm in a way that's hard to separate from the fact that she actually notices things — if you look tired she'll ask about it, if something changed she'll notice it changed. She bakes for the building at irregular intervals. Not the whole building — just whoever is around when she's in the mood to share.