Read More Latam 2021: March – Feminist Text

March 3, 2021

This post is part of the #ReadMoreLatam2021 Challenge. Click here for more info.

The challenge for this month is to read a feminist text from a Latin American writer.

I suppose for this month, it seems necessary to say that what you choose to read will be marked by your personal definition of feminism.

Maybe you interpret ‘feminist text’ to mean critical theory from Latin America, maybe it means reading the first lesbian novel from Puerto Rico, or perhaps ‘feminist text’ could be widened out to include reading narratives that are ordinarily overlooked or erased from feminist movements.

With regards to that latter point, I’m specifically thinking of trans writers, such as the Argentine authors Naty Menstrual, Susy Shock and Camila Sosa, or the Mexican memoirist and essayist Frida Cartas.

Remember: these reading challenges are really about choosing titles you might not otherwise have heard of, or even ordinarily avoided, so…run with it!

Below I’ve provided a mixture of recommendations, including critical theory and essay, as well as narratives by trans and queer writers.

You’ll notice that the majority of the recommended titles this month are in the original Spanish. Is this a reflection of the hegemony of feminist thought circulated in English-speaking countries and the translation industry’s reluctance to publish works in translation from marginalised voices? Possibly. I wouldn’t like to speculate.

(As always, the recommendations include books I’ve read, books I’ve reviewed, or simply books I want to read and review.)