Jan Hutta and Maria Rodó-de-Zárate offer reviews of the collection, Geografias Malditas: Corpos, Sexualidades e Espaços (Damned/Cursed Geographies: Bodies, Sexualities and Spaces), edited by Joseli Maria Silva, Marcio Jose Ornat and Alides Baptista Chimin Junior. Review by Jan Hutta

The book focuses on the lives, politics and spaces of trans people, mainly in Brazil, but also in Spain, Chile, New Zealand and transnational space.[1] The editors are members of GETE, Grupo de Estudos Territoriais (Territorial Studies Group), which is based at the State University of Ponta Grossa in Paraná, Brazil. The book is a substantive contribution to geography, not only in terms of size, comprising 400 pages and 14 chapters, but also in terms of its contents. It contains three parts. The first part is written by travestis, which is an identity used by Brazilian trans women.[2] The second part contains six chapters written by members of the Territorial Studies Group, and the third part contains three chapters by international scholars. The chapters cover a range of topics ranging from transphobic violence, sex work and issues around gender recognition legislation to genealogies of trans identities and movements in different regional and (trans)national contexts. As one of the authors of the collection, I do not intend to provide a comprehensive review, but rather to highlight some of the book’s contributions I find provocative in relation to current debates in Anglophone geography. Continue reading. Review by Maria Rodó-de-Zárate

The book is organized in three parts. The first one, ‘Travestis’ geographies, in their own voice’ contains four chapters; each one is a transcript of oral statements made by four travestis, Débora Lee, Leandra Nikaratty, Fernanda Riquelme and Gláucia Boulevard. Their texts have some aspects in common. They explore a) the feelings of difference at the scale of the body and the relation with others, b) their territorial experience in prostitution, c) their struggles for rights and spatial conquests d) their dreams and spaces of solidarity. Continue reading.