Alexis Almeida Debuts the English Translations of Two Crónicas by Pedro Lemebel for LARB

Poet and translator Alexis Almeida presents two pieces by Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel (1952–2015), in English translation for first time, for LARB. They "come from a compilation of … crónicas called Háblame de amores, published posthumously by Grupo Planeta in 2017," writes Almeida. More from her introduction:

Pedro wrote at a specific moment when AIDS had just emerged around the world, and though the brutal military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was finally ending, his community of queer artists, performers, sex workers, anti-fascists, so-called enemies of the state were still very much under attack. He wrote from the position of an artist who was living through a transition to “democracy” that still continued to enact everyday violence against people living in poverty and outside of heternomativity. Pedro’s crónicas, which often appeared serially as newspaper columns throughout the ’90s, documented and participated in this time, not only reflecting realities left out of mainstream national narratives but also sharing (his verb) “esa voz letrada de la crónica con … lugares donde pongo mi corazón voluntaria y generosamente [that literary crónica voice with the places I put my heart voluntarily and generously].” 

Check out “Secretary Piñerarte” and “The Technicolor Flavor of La Vega” at Los Angeles Review of Books.