In her book, Mexican Hooker #1 And My Other Roles Since The Revolution, Carmen Aguirre tells her story of joining the revolutionary movement in Chile after her exile in Canada, the bittersweet reality of the end of the dictatorships in South America, and surviving the lifelong repercussions of rape.
When she was six years old, Aguirre’s world changed abruptly when Augusto Pinochet took over Chile as a brutal dictator.
To escape the horrors that would soon become the reality of many countries in South America, Aguirre’s family took refuge first in United States and then in Canada.
But horrors can be found on each hemisphere, and at 13, Augierre is attacked by one of Canada’s most feared rapists. The aftermath of that event would last a lifetime.
“One doesn’t get over childhood rape, one simply learns to integrate it,” she writes.
The first part of the book deals with her life just after the end of the official rule of Pinochet. He stepped down as dictator but remained senator for life.
The rape is mentioned sporadically on that first part, but its effect is felt throughout, until the event itself is described.
The book doesn’t follow a linear format, but jumps through different defining moments in Aguirre’s life. The culmination of these moments comes when, 33 years after the rape, Aguirre goes to meet her attacker face to face.
When asked why she would do such a thing, she answers “because I’d like to meet the man I’ve been in a relationship with for most of my life.”
Like many millennials in South America, I grew up in the aftermath of decades of dictatorship.
Aguirre, born in Chile in the sixties, lived in the middle of that dark and bloody chapter of history. This made the book hard to read at times for me.
The writing was bold and beautiful, and it evoked such a powerful emotional reaction in me that I had to pause and take breaks every once in a while.
But Aguirre’s memoir is also wickedly funny in parts and starkly honest. She writes about the horror of the rape and the devastating heartbreak of a cause lost with awe-inspiring bravery and sensitivity.
Bold, brave and beautiful, this book might break your heart, but it will also bring you joy and hope.
Ariana Galeano is a librarian with the Richmond Public Library
