So a couple of years ago, I realized that I had walked to my local bookstore on probably

five separate occasions to buy the exact same book to give away as a gift.

And that book was Cantoros by Carolina de Robertees.

It centers the lives of five queer women in Uruguay,

and something about it just captured me. Here they are living under a deeply oppressive

regime, and yet they still find a way to explore their queer identities. They find joy,

joy in the face of seeming despair. So for many reasons,

I am deeply fond of that book, and as you can assume, was very excited to get to talk to

Carolina for the podcast. We talk about Cantoras, of course, about what keeps calling her

back to Uruguay in her writing, and we also talk about her brand new novel that

is called The President and the Frog and is loosely based on Jose Mouhika.

Jose is the revolutionary who, after many years of imprisonment, eventually went on to become

the president of Uruguay.

The novel focuses on that time in his life when he was imprisoned. He was imprisoned for 12 years,

and according to him, helped him maintain a sanity by talking to a frog. So the new novel is called

The President on the Frog, and it's out now. From The Advocate magazine in partnership with Glad,

I'm Jeffrey Masters, and this is LGBTQ and A.

So you immigrated from Uruguay while your mom was pregnant with you. You lived in England,

Switzerland, and in California, and in much of your work, you keep returning

to in writing about Uruguay. I feel like it is a simple question. You know, why do you

keep returning to it in your writing? And yet, not every immigrant does feel compelled to write

about their homeland. So I do want to start off by asking, what is it about this place that keeps calling

...