Statement from Maruja Bustamante

I’m the fat and enthusiastic girl

who understands queerness

as a way of moving through the mycelium,

between radioactive roots

and underground fireflies.

The window in my room is queer,

the food is queer,

the dreams are queer,

and everything that comes from my mind is queer.

Each day I understand trends less and less—

they seem like empty expressions,

skinny and emotionally worthless.

I won’t minimize my mega-expression

in the face of a frightened heteronormativity

that kills, hides,

destroys, and discards

everything it can’t comprehend.

I’m on the side of forbidden fantasies that don’t harm,

and voluptuous encounters

that echo through every

landscape I’ve seen.

I’m on the side of all bodies.

I’m on the side of the disruptive force

of iridescent colors

and the evocation of the peculiar.

I find no peace

where there’s no risk,

because what I have rides

a carnival of emotion.

Perfection gives me more anxiety

than failure.

There are no hierarchies

in my world of wonders.

I can tell a fairy tale

with fat orgies,

I can turn a national hero into a drag king,

I can sing love songs

where everything happens

the way it does in my life.

My life on the margins.

My shamanic will

for pop rituals

at snack time.

Delicacies.

At the hour of devouring,

the baroqueness of humanity.