The Adventures of China Iron

August 24, 2020
Set in 1872 Argentina, the latest from Cabezón Cámara (Slum Virgin) reinterprets José Hernández’s classic poem “Martín Fierro” as a relaxed feminist travelogue from the perspective of Fierro’s wife, an initially nameless servant who adopts the moniker China Iron. After Fierro leaves for battle on the frontier, China Iron joins Elizabeth, a settler from Scotland whose husband was also drafted by the army, on a covered wagon journey to find Elizabeth’s husband and to start a new life on a plot of land deep within indigenous territory. While navigating the pampas, Elizabeth teaches China Iron English and they fall in love, though China Iron is unsure if their first kiss “was a British custom or an international sin.” Throughout, China Iron chronicles the landscape, and Cabezón Cámara’s prose beautifully traces her protagonist’s curiosity. In brief chapters, the group reaches a military fort run by Hernández, a drunk colonel, who recites his poem based on Martín, and whom Elizabeth hoodwinks to obtain supplies. From here, the characters drive deeper into the unknown and toward a conclusion that puts a new spin on Hernández’s gaucho anthem. Cabezón Cámara’s exciting LGBTQ look at pioneers of the pampas makes for a rewarding and subversive treat.

October 1, 2020
Argentine writer Jos� Hern�ndez's 1872 epic poem, Mart�n Fierro, became both an historical and literary classic for preserving and celebrating the gaucho, equal parts horseman, rebel, and legend. In Cabez�n C�mara's latest, shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prize, she transforms a few lines from the epic into a highly provocative spin-off, as described by agile translators Mackintosh and Macintyre. Born nameless and later called China Iron ("china," loosely referring to gaucho women; "iron," the English for Fierro ), she was a light-haired baby girl . . . obviously someone's bastard child, rare amidst indigenous Argentine populations. Raised by a Black woman who treated [her] like her slave, she was forfeited to brutish Fierro in a lost card game. By 14, she was a wife and mother to two sons. When Fierro is conscripted into the military, China is suddenly freed. With her dog Estreya, she befriends Scottish settler Elizabeth; they pick up (justified) murderer-on-the-run Rosario and embark on kaleidoscopic adventures across late-nineteenth-century Argentina. With history as backdrop, Cabez�n C�mara confronts colonialism, racism, sexism, and classism and even honors fluid identities to create an unexpected utopian reclamation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)