Gabriela Mansilla - Yo nena, yo princesa

2014, Argentina, Gabriela Mansilla, Spanish,

"Original title: "Yo nena, yo princesa: Luana, la niña que eligió su propio nombre" (Me baby, me princess: Luana, the girl who chose her own name) by Gabriela Mansilla.

The book is an extraordinary testimony of a struggle for the recognition of difference and the right to own identity to be a little girl. This struggle ran the limits of knowledge and professional practices, and also of the policies that are deployed on children. It is a story that shows the inseparably subjective and political effects of any identity struggle.

This diary of Gabriela is, without a doubt, a story of inexhaustible love and struggle. But it is also an essay and a profound and extraordinary reflection on the prejudices and knowledge instituted, so often close to the ignorance and ignominy with which we face every day. A story in which challenge, perseverance, and a charming form of intelligence face the problems of everyday life, social ties, and our relationship with institutions.

Gabriela Mansilla is an Argentine writer and LGBT+ activist. She is the founder of the civil association Infancias Libres1. Her book, Yo nena, yo princesa (Luana, la niña que eligió su propio nombre), is an autobiographical work published in 2014. The book narrates the real-life story of Gabriela’s daughter, Luana Mansilla, who was born male but identified as female from the age of two. Gabriela recounts Luana’s life from her birth in 2007 with a male name and treatment, her rebellion and demand to be treated as a girl from the age of two, the complex and traumatic family and social response to the fact, and the struggle to be recognized in her gender identity.

Gabriela’s efforts culminated in the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, revoking the judicial decision to deny Luana a female identity document in 2013, and issuing a new document recognizing her self-perceived identity, in compliance with the Gender Identity Law enacted a year earlier. The book was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2021, which was internationally exhibited by the cable channel Star+.

Available via goodreads.com

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