Cantoras

Uruguayan American author Carolina de Robertis’s novel Cantoras (2019) follows five lesbian women living in Montevideo, Uruguay during the era of the junta regime—under which homosexuality was criminalized—as they forge a community through regular group holidays to a remote fishing village. The title is a Uruguayan codeword for “lesbians,” literally meaning “women who sing.”

The novel opens in 1977, as five young women arrive at the remote coastal village of Cabo Polonio after an all-day bus journey from the capital Montevideo. The group is led by the swaggering and courageous Flaca. A butcher’s daughter, she is also openly butch in her self-presentation, despite the danger it entails in Uruguay, where homosexuality is illegal. She has brought together the other four women, who have never met before.

The first of these women is Flaca’s lover, Anita, who has to find a way to slip away from her husband and her life of domestic drudgery. Her beauty earns her the nickname “La Venus.”



The second woman, Flaca’s friend and former lover, Romina, is a student. Intellectually fierce and politically active, she has already spent time in jail, where she was raped by three men. She calls them “the only three,” because there could have been more. Her brother is currently in jail, also for his involvement with the resistance movement.

Romina has brought a woman she is interested in, Malena. Although Romina believes Malena to be a lesbian, the prim and secretive Malena won’t open up about her sexuality.

Rounding out the group is 15-year-old Paz, who met Flaca at her father’s butcher’s shop and is in awe of the older woman’s courage.



They have come to Cabo Polonio to spend seven days in freedom from the oppressive military rule which has made life in the capital unbearable. In Cabo Polonio, the women eat freshly caught fish, drink maté, and discuss their feelings and experiences as “cantoras.”

From El Lobo, the owner of the village store, Paz learns that there is a small, run-down cabin for sale on the edge of the village. No sooner have the women returned to Montevideo than they begin to dream of buying the cabin. However, it soon becomes clear that even collectively they cannot afford it.

Meanwhile, Montevideo life seems harder after the brief taste of freedom the women enjoyed in Polonio. Anita announces to her husband, Arnaldo, that she no longer wishes to have a sexual relationship with him. His response is to rape her. Romina’s mother, a Ukrainian refugee from World War II, struggles to cope with her children’s risky political engagement.



Despair settles on the women, until unexpectedly, Malena announces that she will cover the shortfall. The others ask her what her plan is, but Malena, tight-lipped as ever, refuses to say. She is as good as her word, providing the extra money in just a few weeks, although she still won’t say where it has come from.

In 1979, the women buy the cabin and return to Polonio for a second holiday. One night, a wealthy, elderly woman passes by the cabin. She scolds Paz for sitting in an unladylike way. Paz loses her temper. That evening, as the women sit down to eat, soldiers burst through the door and arrest Paz. She is held in the local jail for several days and returned to her mother by the police. In the ensuing argument, Paz’s mother reveals homophobic feelings about her daughter.

Anita falls in love with a famous chanteuse, Ariella Ocampo. As she spends more time in the shelter of Ariella’s status and wealth, she drifts apart from the rest of the group. When she invites Romina and Malena to a glamorous party at Ariella’s house, it is clear that they no longer have much in common. Finally, Anita stops coming to Polonio, and moves with Ariella to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.



Romina and Malena finally embark on a relationship, but Malena remains extremely guarded about her feelings and her past, which Romina finds difficult.

In Rio, Anita—who wanted to start a family with Arnaldo but was unable to—tries to become a mother to Ariella’s son, Mario. Gradually, Anita begins to push back on Ariella’s parenting style, and Ariella throws her out. Anita returns to Uruguay, rejoining the Polonio group for the first time in years. Her friends rejoice to have her back.

In 1984, as the junta is overthrown, Flaca and her father listen to the news on the radio. He begins to cry, something Flaca has never seen. Moved, Flaca comes out to her father, who reassures her that he has always known. Meanwhile, Paz and El Lobo have set up an illegal smuggling operation, transporting seal skins from Polonio to the city. Paz is rich enough now to buy her parents’ house.



A year later, Romina’s brother, Felipe, is finally freed from prison. The family celebrates, although Felipe struggles to re-assimilate to ordinary life.

In 1986, Paz opens a gay bar in her parents’ basement, and the group attends the opening. Later, the women go to an exhibition by Diana Cañeza, a lesbian painter from Paraguay. Smitten with her, Romina finally ends her ailing relationship with Malena.

Heartbroken, Malena disappears, telling no-one in the group where she has gone. At first, she wanders aimlessly, having meaningless sex with men for whom she feels nothing. When she was 14, we learn, Malena’s parents caught her kissing a neighbor-girl and sent her to a clinic run by a former Nazi, Dr. Vaernet, who claimed to be able to “treat” homosexuality. There, she was subjected to electroshock treatment and sexual assault. Finally, a nurse named Adela learned that Malena was to be lobotomized and helped her to escape.



Malena has clung to the memory of the neighbor-girl, Belén, ever since. In the present, Malena finds her former lover, now married and a mother. It is clear to Malena that Belén does not treasure the memory in the way she does, and she leaves for Polonio without revealing her feelings. On the way, she writes the group a letter, finally breaking her long silence to tell her life-story.

At the cabin, Malena remembers how she earned the extra money needed to buy it: through sex-work on the streets of Montevideo. She goes to the cliff edge and jumps to her death.

The group is shocked to learn of Malena’s death. They hold a private memorial service for her. A few weeks later, they receive her letter and learn her life story.



The novel’s final chapter jumps ahead a quarter-century to 2013. Romina, now a congresswoman, is married to Diana. The women organize a reunion at Polonio, now a tourist resort. There, they pay tribute to Malena.