Itzel II: A Three Knives Tale

In Itzel II, we continue to follow Nauta, Itzel, and Basta through the cascading outcomes of their desire for agency and for change in their world. We move from the Oaxaca coast back to Mexico City, from Nauta’s Brooklyn streets to her time in Canada, from the attraction between Basta and Itzel that has altered the characters’ friendship to the rumours and reckonings that result. The 1971 Halconazo is brought alive by the author’s intimate knowledge of an event that was in part organized from her phone. Nauta sees herself once more wielding the knife she has carried since puberty, as she is brought face to face not just with the violence of others but with her own.