In The Adventures of China Iron, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara re-writes Martín Fierro, an epic poem about the founding of Argentina from a feminist, LGBT, postcolonial point of view. Our protagonist is named China (pronounced chee-nah), the Quechua-derived word for an indigenous woman, Iron, which alludes to Fierro. China's personal journey parallels that of the development of early colonial Argentina, but Cabezón Cámara subverts the dominant, genocidal, Euro-centric narrative, asking what if history was inclusive? The book ends in a racially and sexually heterogeneous utopia based on shared understanding and mutual cooperation. Told with humor and sophistication, this joyful and hallucinatory novel suggests that other worlds are not only possible, but that they might exist, hidden in plain sight, right alongside this one.Publisher description:
This is a riotous romp taking the reader from the turbulent frontier culture of the pampas deep into indigenous territories. It charts the adventures of Mrs. China Iron, Martín Fierro's abandoned wife, in her travels across the pampas in a covered wagon with her new-found friend, soon to become lover, a Scottish woman named Liz. While Liz provides China with a sentimental education and schools her in the nefarious ways of the British Empire, their eyes are opened to the wonders of Argentina's richly diverse flora and fauna, cultures and languages, as well as to its national struggles. After a clash with Colonel Hernández (the author who 'stole' Martín Fierro's poems) and a drunken orgy with gauchos, they eventually find refuge and a peaceful future in a utopian indigenous community, the river-dwelling Iñchiñ people. Seen from an ox-drawn wagon, the narrative moves through the Argentinian landscape, charting the flora and fauna of the Pampas, Gaucho culture, Argentinian nation-building, and British colonial projects.