Lope de Vega used to say about love that "He who has tried it, knows it". Other people often say the same about books. That free pass to another universe, an escape and, sometimes, a revelation, as many come close to saying in the days of coronavirus, when Albert Camus, in his book 'The Plague', taught us that the worst epidemics are not biological, but moral.

Reading is one of the most enjoyable pastimes, and in the midst of the general discomfort that can be caused by preventive isolation in these turbulent days, we would like to present you with a selection of books with a diversity component that you are sure to love.

Literature

The sound of bodies

By Fernando J. López.

The suicide of Jorge, a film director at the height of his creative powers, leaves Mario in a state of absolute bewilderment. Between desolation and rage, he tries to discover the reason for his partner's decision with the help of the notebook where he had begun to sketch the scenes of his next film. Lines and images that will lead Mario to other strange deaths for which Alma, a journalist at a low point in her life, has been searching for months for an explanation.

You, who rave

By Andrés Arias

The book tells the story of the Colombian painter and first abstract artist of the 1930s, Carolina Cárdenas. The life of this artist was marked by her great beauty, but also by her art, her premature death at the age of 33 and a lesbian relationship she had with Hena Rodríguez.

Cameron Post's rudeness

By Emily Danforth

A twelve-year-old girl is orphaned and ends up living with her conservative aunt. When she catches her kissing her best friend, she sends her to a camp to "cure" her homosexuality. The camp's methods, which range from hypnosis to electroshock, may sound unusually cruel, but it is a very common practice in the United States.

To finish with Eddy Bellegueule

By Édouard Louis

The autobiography of a young man who discovers his homosexuality in the suffocating atmosphere of a village in northern France. "The truth is that the rebellion against my parents, against poverty, against my social class, its racism, its violence, its atavisms, was secondary. Because before I rose up against the world of my childhood, the world of my childhood had risen up against me. For my family and others, I had become a source of shame, even repulsion. I had no choice but to flee," recounts one of the excerpts from this intriguing book.

Celeste

While Celeste is not a free, it is a digital platform where you can read stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people who have been murdered in Colombia. The website takes you on a journey through stars and constellations, people who are no longer with us but who still have a lot to tell.

Find it here

Middlesex

By Jeffrey Eugenides

It is a story about a girl named Cal, an intersex person who comes from a Greek family but lives in the United States. Her story presents an interesting one with war, incest, Greek mythology and intersexuality.

My story is told by me

By Marta Álvarez

This real-life book is the harrowing diary of the lesbian woman who fought for intimate visits for same-sex couples deprived of their liberty in Colombia. Its pages recount her harrowing years in prison where she experienced a double sentence, for being a lesbian and for the crime she committed.

And as a bonus we leave you with academic and research texts, among others.

To cope with quarantine, UNESCO releases its World Digital Library

Historical timelines, interactive maps, among other documents and books of interest to the whole world are now just a click away as Unesco has released its virtual library. You will be amazed by the manuscripts, stories about expeditions, translations of ancient documents into Spanish, among other fascinating texts.

Find it here

To cope with quarantine, UNESCO releases its World Digital Library

It is a collection of around 20,000 items from 194 countries in 145 languages. An impressive collection of manuscripts, timelines and fascinating texts translated into Spanish.

Enter here

A carnival of resistance: Memories of the trans reign of the Tuluní River

"I always wanted to be a queen, because (...) everybody wants them, so since nobody wants us here, that's why I wanted to be queen". These words sum up the experience of a group of trans women and gay men from the municipality of Chaparral (Tolima), who during 2000 and 2015 invented and held a pageant on the banks of the Tuluní River, to seek the sympathy of a community that has historically marginalised, beaten and humiliated people with non-hegemonic sexual orientations and gender identities.

As this work on the construction of historical memory shows, trans women are the protagonists of the Tuluní River pageant, an event that began as a "pot walk" among friends, and which little by little became a collective action for the visibility, gathering and celebration of the lives of LGBT people in the south of the department of Tolima. This reign emerged in the context of bloody clashes between FARC guerrillas, the army and paramilitaries for control of the region, considered a strategic corridor for drug trafficking and the passage of troops, as well as a historical guerrilla rearguard zone.

Research and digital resources carried out by Colombia Diversa

In this link you can find different contents that will be useful if you need research on topics such as LGBT people and arms conflict, figures of violence and murders of LGBT people, databases, among other topics.

Being queer in the midst of armed conflict

This report by the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (CNMH) narrates the memories of LGBT people in Magdalena Medio. The book was written in response to the first judicial order of the Justice and Peace Chamber of the High Court of Bogotá against several members of the Autodefensas Campesinas de Puerto Boyacá (ACPB) for crimes committed against this population.

Between 1981 and 2016 in the framework of the Colombian armed conflict, 175 LGBT victims were registered in Magdalena Medio in 39 municipalities of the region, who suffered a total of 261 cases of violence.

• Of these 39 municipalities, Barrancabermeja (Santander) appears as the place with the highest number of cases, with 79, which is explained by its population density. In second place is Puerto Boyacá (Boyacá) with 49 cases, and in third place is Puerto Berrío (Antioquia) with 19.
• Of the total number of cases, 118 are the responsibility of paramilitaries, followed, at a significant distance, by the guerrillas with 34 cases.