In Spanish, infundio means “lie,” and infundiosxs means “liars.” But stoping there and saying just that would mean somewhat telling a lie. Indeed, we would be wrong to leave it to the dictionary alone to define words. In the flamenco language, infundio more broadly refers to the culture of storytelling^¹. It is the ability to narrate and bluff, contar/cantar con hechizo (to tell/sing with charm). To make the improbable seem plausible and the plausible improbable. It is speaking truthfully, in the sense of speaking with and against the language. To make our own the narratives imposed on us. To make new narratives heard. To find ways of speaking that may not even be ways of speaking, but it doesn’t matter. No moralizing here: to tell stories, we must lie.

This cycle of “Writing with Mittens” opens with the concept of infundio, which IS less of a theme and more of a way of doing and saying. Each session is introduced by one of the participants, who offers a stretching without elastic—an idea, a reading, or a game—to guide the session and warm up for collective writing. We work on a shared Framapad, which evolves from one session to the next. Nothing written can be deleted, but everything can be transformed through additions.

^¹ Tomas De Perrate, cantaor flamenco, during a talk with the artist Pedro G. Romero at Kadist as part of “Bastardie” in June 2024.