Cantoras

Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis is an historic novel of military governed Uruguay in the late 1970s and a group of lesbians who find each other and create a beach hideaway that helps them survive their circumstances.

In 1977 Uruguay is run by "the Process" which is little spoken of - it is too dangerous to say anything about the current dictatorship - but controls most aspects of daily life. 

Flaca, the daughter of a butcher in Montevideo, invites her friend and ex-girlfriend Romina and a couple of other women to a beach escape. Cabo Polonio is an isolated cape with only a tiny fishing village. 

Here, out of the eyes of others, the women can be themselves. A break they desperately need in their oppressive time. 

This trip leads to returns, until the (now five women) pool their money and buy a rundown beach shack This is the setting for the epic tale of the next decades of their lives and the changes that come to Uruguay. 

De Robertis is a wonderful writer who captures a difficult period in history and how those whose very nature went against the rules survived until a better time. I love this book. I am already making my way through everything else she writes. A must read for queer women everywhere!

De Robertis, Carolina. (2019). Cantoras. New York: Knoph.