Algarabía : The Song of Cenex, Natural Son of the Isle Alarabiyya / La cancion de Cenex, hijo natural de la Insula Alarabiyya

A Puerto Rican trans epic that blends poetic play and speculative fiction, by a Lambda Literary Award winner

Una epopeya puertorriquena trans que mezcla poesia y narrativa especulativa, por un ganador del Premio Lambda

A Puerto Rican trans epic that blends poetic play and speculative fiction, by a Lambda Literary Award winner

Algarabia follows Cenex, a trans being who narrates his life while navigating the stories told on his behalf. An inhabitant of a colony of Earth in a parallel universe, Cenex leads us through his years as an experimental subject, a stay in suburbia, and not-so-far-off lands as he struggles to find a name, a body, and a stable home. His song clashes variegated sources with work by cis writers on trans figures, referencing everything from Clueless to Taino cosmology within a single line.

Algarabia inscribes an origin narrative for trans people in the face of their erasure from colonial and anti-colonial literary canons, laughing at its own survival with sharp, unserious rage.


Una epopeya puertorriquena trans que mezcla poesia y narrativa especulativa, por un ganador del Premio Lambda

Algarabia sigue a Cenex, un ser trans que narra su vida retrospectivamente mientras navega por las historias contadas en su nombre. Habitante de una colonia de la Tierra en un universo paralelo, Cenex nos conduce a traves de sus anos como sujeto experimental, una estancia suburbana, unas tierras no tan lejanas y su lucha por encontrar un cuerpo y un hogar estables. Su canto enfrenta textos de escritores cis sobre figuras trans con una variedad de fuentes, haciendo referencia a Clueless y a la cosmologia taina dentro de un mismo verso.

Algarabia inscribe un mito fundacional para las personas trans frente a su exclusion de los canones literarios coloniales y anticoloniales y se rie de su propia supervivencia con una rabia picara y aguda.