Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Robin Myers

Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s writing is singular in the Spanish language: an intrepid pulse that shakes and disarms us in the face of the wordless power, both formidable and innocent, of the jungle and the creatures it portrays

So sharp, so urgent, so brave. Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is one of the most authentic voices writing in Spanish today, and among her many talents is one that's especially hard to find: not only does she challenge and incite us, not only does she confront the darkness, but she also gives us in return the subversive courage to think of ourselves as more human, more alive, and more luminous than ever

"Cabezón Cámara’s entrancing poetry reminds us how magical and frankly unpleasant it is to live through history

This is the truth of Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's literature: it's capable of questioning the very conception of the Western world through beauty.

Myers translates Cámara’s lyrical prose to gorgeous effect, turning even the most brutal of Antonio’s adventures into a beautiful reading experience... transformative writing—for character and reader alike

Polyphonic... A seamless, fever-dreamy exposé of inhumane colonialism, religiosity, and genocide

Sensuous and searing—a queer anticolonial picaresque

At the same time futuristic and ancestral. Its luminous prose pulses several times to moments of absolute radiance

Profoundly resonant with our current moment … Offers a searing critique of modernity’s colonial echoes: a resurgence of far-right ideology, cultural erasure, and gender-based oppression ... A story that is not only inclusive but also redemptive—anchored in the richness of language, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of storytelling to reclaim what history tries to erase

A bold and compassionate reimagining of an extraordinary queer life

From deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio writes a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the same Basque convent he escaped as a young girl. Since transforming into Antonio, he has had monumental adventures and taken on numerous guises. He has been a mule driver, shopkeeper, soldier, cabin boy and conquistador. He has wielded his sword and slashed with his dagger. 
 
Now, hiding in the jungle and hounded by the army he deserted, Antonio is looking after two Guaraní girls he rescued from enslavement. But the New World has one more metamorphosis in store, which might save them all from extinction. 
 
Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure from the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a masterful criticism of religious tyranny and the mistreatment of women and indigenous people. 
 
This queer, baroque, tender and surreal novel conveys glimmers of hope for the future within the brutal colonial history of Latin America – finding in the rainforest a magical space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.

Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

Praise for We Are Green and Trembling