There are books that are best understood through the author’s life story. Rosa Ramírez Mazaheri was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa; she emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen and graduated from Smith College, where she studied Spanish and Latin American Studies, specialising in subversive poetry written by women and queer people in Latin America. The protagonist of Material inflamable is also a Mexican woman studying at a university in Massachusetts; a young woman who reflects on her roots and mixes Spanish and English in her writing — although, what is your mother tongue when you have crossed the border at a young age? A novel that swings between reality and delirium, drawing us into the protagonist’s internal struggle with mental health and addiction. In conversation with Iliana Padilla.
