How much must a body suffer to belong?

At barely seventeen years old, the protagonist of this story finds a folder bearing her name. Upon opening it, she discovers a truth: she is intersex. Gradually, everything becomes clear: the family secrets, the signs on her body, the pain, the guilt.

Twenty-one years later, through diligent research, Candelaria Schamun decides to delve into her own story. In this way, she creates an impressive autobiographical work where she gradually reconstructs her identity until she can celebrate her intersexuality today and defend it, not without having gone through unimaginable, violent, and difficult situations from a very young age.

Schamun’s account is powerful, essential, raw, and healing. A narrative that celebrates diversity and, at the same time, firmly denounces how ignorance can exert pressure on bodies in the name of a supposed normality, as well as its consequences.

«Ese que fui should be read in nurseries, schools, high schools, universities, villages, cities, streets, parks… Perhaps then we would begin to understand that the world and bodies are not as we were told they had to be and we would discover that they should not be any particular way». – Sabina Urraca

About the author:

Candelaria Schamun (La Plata, 1981) is a journalist and intersex writer. She has worked as a crime reporter for the newspaper Crítica, in the Society section of Clarín, and as a journalistic producer at the C5N channel, always linked to narrative and investigative journalism. She is also the author of Cordero de Dios, about the femicide of Candela Sol Rodríguez.

With Ese que fui. Expediente de una rebelión corporal, she became one of the leading voices on intersexuality in the Spanish-speaking world. The book was highlighted among the best nonfiction titles of the year by media such as Infobae and received recognition from organizations like Amnesty International Argentina, which named her one of the LGBTIQ+ leaders in its program “Voices that transform.”