Las Biuty Queens

April 19, 2021
Chilean American writer Ojeda (Never, Ever Ever, Coming Down) dazzles and devastates in this rich collection about a group of trans Latinx immigrants as they try to make it in New York City. Stories of drug addiction and police brutality, street queens and beauty contests portray the danger, decadence, and joy in the characters’ lives. “In the Bote” follows a sex worker arrested by the police and sent to Rikers Island (or “Las Rocas”), where their survival depends on finding a bed close to the guard’s station and befriending the right inmates. In “Emergency Room,” the protagonist goes to the emergency room when they hear voices, a result of smoking weed laced with PCP. The two-page opener “Overdose” brings ghostly images and aching spirituality to a protagonist’s visions brought on by crystal meth. While the characters face horrific hardships, usually at the hands of law enforcement and violent clients, members of their community keep them afloat. As one queen says while explaining that her father used to pay people to beat her up, “A queen is like a rubber ball. They can throw us out of moving cars, but we just bounce right back up on our feet and keep walking.” Throughout, Ojeda proves to be a captivating presence on the page.