El Mosquitero is a mosquito net. This can also refer to a screen door.

In my case, it is a square shaped canopy that incarcerates me in my bed chamber at night. One of the trainees told me he wakes up at 4am and has to pee, but he doesn’t want to get out of his mosquitero so he lays there until he has to get up.

It’s quite an annoyance to get out of the mosquitero because it’s tucked under your mattress on all sides. It’s annoying but I think that Zika, Chikungunya, Malaria and Dengue are more annoying.

The mosquitero is soaked in a chemical that kills bugs or repels them for two years.

I’ve decorated mine with cone-shaped discs from newspaper. It’s not very attractive on it’s own, but now it’s really homey!

It’s a requirement that we all use the mosquiteros. We are not in areas endemic with malaria, but if we plan to go to those areas, they give us pills. Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue don’t have preventive pills, so we use the nets, bug spray and a prayer.

But hey- guess what? My Guatemalan family does not sleep under mosquiteros. They were responsible for hanging mine up. In fact, my mom had holes drilled into the ceiling for this purpose. She is so good to me. But because I’m the only one in the house with the mosquitero, it heightens the feeling of my White American Privilege. And I don’t like it. But I also don’t want dengue. The net is a diaphanous symbol of separation. And I don’t like it. But I also don’t want zika.

So that’s the facts, Jack.