Ernesto Rubio Sánchez - La torre de marfil 2

2022, Ernesto Rubio Sánchez, Spanish,

Original title: "La torre de marfil 2: Experiencias de una niña transsexual" (The Ivory Tower: Experiences of a Transsexual Girl 2) by Ernesto Rubio Sánchez. The book was initially published in 2016 under the title Vicky II: Experiencias de una niña transexual.

Ernesto Rubio Sánchez’s La torre de marfil 2: Experiencias de una niña transsexual continues the deeply human story that began in the first volume of his trilogy. Originally published in 2016 under the title Vicky II: Experiencias de una niña transexual, this second installment invites readers to step further into the life of its central character, following her as she grows from a confused child into a determined woman trying to carve out her own space in a world that refuses to understand her. Through this journey, Rubio Sánchez weaves not only a coming-of-age tale but also a powerful reflection on identity, courage, and survival in an era that offered little room for difference.

 

The narrative unfolds against the vivid backdrop of the Movida Madrileña, a cultural and artistic explosion that reshaped Spain in the years following Franco’s dictatorship. While this period is often celebrated for its spirit of freedom and rebellion, the novel reveals a different side of the story, the exclusion and marginalization faced by those who did not fit within the new social order’s still-narrow boundaries. For a young trans girl navigating adolescence during such a time, every step toward self-recognition becomes an act of defiance. The novel does not romanticize this struggle; instead, it grounds it in the harsh realities of discrimination, ignorance, and social fear. The author captures how the absence of language itself, the lack of a recognized concept of “transsexuality”, adds another layer of isolation. Without words to describe her identity, the protagonist must invent herself in a void, surrounded by a society that mistakes her for something she is not.

 

Rubio Sánchez portrays his heroine with tenderness and clarity. She is not a symbol, nor a stereotype, but a person made of contradictions, desires, and hopes. Through her, the novel explores what it means to demand visibility when the very notion of who you are is denied. The specter of AIDS looms large over the story, reflecting the moral panic of the time when homosexuality and gender nonconformity were unjustly conflated with disease and deviance. It is within this environment that the protagonist must assert her right to exist, a right that seems so simple yet so revolutionary in her context. Each chapter reveals a new test of her resilience, whether it comes in the form of family rejection, social ridicule, or institutional indifference.

 

The strength of La torre de marfil 2 lies in its balance between historical realism and emotional intimacy. The Movida, with its neon colors, its rebellious art, and its nightlife, forms a pulsating backdrop to the story, yet it is the private moments that stay with the reader, the quiet tears, the small victories, the secret friendships that allow the protagonist to survive another day. Rubio Sánchez writes with empathy and precision, never allowing the political to overshadow the personal, but rather showing how the two are intertwined. The personal choices of the protagonist, how she dresses, how she loves, how she insists on being called by her chosen name, become inherently political acts.

 

As the protagonist grows older, her struggle shifts from mere survival to a quest for dignity and equality. The question that runs through the novel, will she ever enjoy the same rights as everyone else, or remain a second-class citizen?, resonates not only within the world of the book but also in today’s ongoing social debates. The author does not offer easy answers. Instead, he presents a life lived in constant negotiation with prejudice, where progress is measured not by grand victories but by the ability to keep going, to keep believing that change is possible.

 

What makes this work particularly compelling is its continuity within a larger narrative arc. Rubio Sánchez conceives La torre de marfil as a trilogy, and this second volume serves as both a development and a transition. While it stands firmly on its own, it also prepares the reader for what is to come in the following book, Ramón es mi hija. The promise of the next chapter hints at maturation, not only of the characters but of the society around them, which, despite calling itself progressive, still hides the prejudices of a divided world. This acknowledgment of hypocrisy gives the novel a contemporary relevance. It reminds readers that the journey toward acceptance, both personal and collective, is far from over.

 

In La torre de marfil 2: Experiencias de una niña transsexual, Ernesto Rubio Sánchez achieves something rare. He captures the painful beauty of becoming oneself in a world that insists you should not exist. His writing is filled with compassion and historical awareness, evoking a Spain that was changing fast yet still clinging to its fears. The protagonist’s story becomes a mirror in which readers can see not only the injustices of the past but also the lingering shadows of prejudice in the present. Through her, the novel asks a question that transcends time and place: what does it truly mean to be free?

 

Ultimately, the book is a tribute to perseverance and to the unyielding human desire to live authentically. It is a story of a woman who, in the face of silence, invents her own voice, and in doing so, gives voice to many others who have been erased from history. By continuing her journey through love, loss, and resistance, Rubio Sánchez ensures that her story will not end in invisibility. It is a work that deserves to be read not only for its literary value but for its courage to tell the truth about lives that were once hidden behind the walls of the ivory tower.

Available via Amazon