Lemebel was a writer, performance artist, and chronicler. He came from the tomas (land seizures) of the poor. He was also a radical queer who rejected both the homophobia of the traditional left and the classism of the gay elite. His prose in Tengo miedo, torero is a riot of sensory overload.
Lemebel uses the bullfight as a metaphor for the dictatorship itself. Pinochet is the toro —the blind, powerful, charging beast of the state. The revolutionaries are the toreros : elegant, dangerous, and often gored. But la loca is the cuadrilla ’s shadow: the one who holds the pink cape, who distracts the bull so the sword can land. Her fear is not cowardice; it is the price of loving someone who is fighting a giant. Tengo miedo torero
The novel centers on two unforgettable characters who never actually learn each other’s real names. Lemebel was a writer, performance artist, and chronicler
The novel is set in Santiago, Chile, in 1986. This is the height of the dictatorship of , who seized power in a bloody coup on September 11, 1973. By 1986, the regime was cracking down on dissent, disappearing activists, and torturing suspected leftists in secret facilities like Villa Grimaldi. His prose in Tengo miedo, torero is a