Translated from Spanish by Maureen Shaughnessy
Published by Charco Press, 2024, 188 pages. Original version published in 2021.

“So then, why did you come back every summer? Do you like to suffer? Why didn’t you just stay home? There, in Buenos Aires, dying of heat. Ah. No. That’s right—it’s because you couldn’t. You didn’t have anyone to take care of you. Now it makes sense. We were the ones to help you, we gave you a family—and this is how you repay us?”

A young girl, Belén, is sent every year to stay with her aunt’s family for the summer holidays. When she turns 13, her uncle starts to sexually abuse her. He knows she won’t talk—she is a young girl, and he, after all, is a police commissioner.

But when she grows up, Belén goes public about the abuse and takes her uncle to court. Her going public creates huge ripples, especially in the small town where he lives. Although she has some support, there are plenty of people who accuse her of lying or being the one responsible for tempting her uncle.

The Argentinian courts are slow, and the case inches forward.

The police commissioner’s wife and daughter—her aunt and cousin Flor—are furious, and accuse Belén of fabricating the story because she was jealous of Flor, an attractive and popular girl.

The description of the abuse and its repercussions are painful to read. The assumption on the part of the man that he can do what he wants and that she likes it, the power game, and the physically offensive touch—these feel very real. As does Belén’s reaction: the feeling of powerlessness, of not having a voice, of not knowing how to make it stop. Of trying to pretend that she had imagined it, that it hadn’t really happened. And later, when she goes public, she worries about what this would do to her aunt’s family.

The uncle has been generous to Belén’s family, and he uses that “generosity” to manipulate them. The person who starts to feel that something is not quite right is Belén’s father, who is not so susceptible to the uncle’s charm. He talks to her mother, who calls the uncle to tell him she knows, hoping he would admit it. He doesn’t—instead, he has a heart attack. Which is another thing to blame Belén for.

This is an account based on Belén López Peiró’s own experience. The story is told through a multiplicity of voices—family members, and professionals such as lawyers and therapists—and through actual affidavits from witnesses. The voices include Belén herself, both as an adult or a young girl. Many of those we hear from are not named, and neither is the perpetrator. You are left to deduce who is speaking from what they say.

This is a book about sexual abuse and its repercussions. Many women hesitate to report sexual abuse because they are shamed and made to feel like it is somehow their fault. If only they had dressed more modestly, or had behaved more demurely, it would not have happened. Or maybe they imagined it all or are making up stories to get attention. In this book, López Peiró,[1] by using several voices conveys the entire spectrum of reactions to the abuse, from extremely supportive to condemnation of the victim. It also gives the story nuance and depth.

This book is not an easy read, but it is definitely worth reading. In her foreword, author and journalist Gabriela Cabezón Cámara writes about what it took for López Peiró to write this book: she had to relive her trauma, the endless questions from the justice system, and the fallout from her accusation. But she found the courage to do it.

Through this book, López Peiró has wrought an important change: she is no longer a victim, she is a strong woman who is in control of her story.

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[1] I am differentiating between the girl/woman in the story (Belén) and the writer (López Peiró), although they are the same person.