Spanish Book Discussion: Las niñas del naranjel de Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Las niñas del naranjel de Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Para cumplirle a su Virgen del naranjel—lo ha salvado de la horca—Antonio huye con dos niñas famélicas. En la selva, tan viva como un animal hecho de muchos, comienza una carta a su tía, priora del convento del que escapó siendo novicia. Arriero, tendero, soldado, grumete y paje, ha empuñado la espada y hundido la daga. Ahora debe cuidar de una manada y de Michi y Mitãkuña, que lo interrumpen una y otra vez con sus preguntas difíciles. La autora encuentra en Catalina de Erauso, la legendaria Monja Alférez, quien narre la cruel destrucción de América y le permita avanzar contra los géneros. Donde la avaricia colonial destruye, esta novela monumental funda una nueva gramática amorosa en la que el cine de Miyazaki, los rezos en latín, las canciones en vasco y las palabras del guaraní rompen la métrica del Siglo de Oro.

Deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio de Erauso begins to write a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the Basque convent he escaped as a young girl. Since fleeing a dead-end life as a nun, he's become Antonio and undertaken monumental adventures: he has been a mule driver, shopkeeper, soldier, cabin boy, and conquistador; he has wielded his sword and slashed with his dagger. Now, caring for two Guaraní girls he rescued from enslavement, and hounded by the army he deserted, this protean protagonist contemplates one more metamorphosis, which just might save the new world from extinction…

Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure of the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a queer baroque satire and a historical novel that blends elements of the picaresque with surreal storytelling. Its rich and wildly imaginative language forms a searing criticism of conquest and colonialism, religious tyranny, and the treatment of women and indigenous people. It is a masterful subversion of Latin American history with a trans character at its center, finding in the rainforest a magical, surreal space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.