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From Che Guevara to Che Flores

Brazil’s Corner, Episode XVIII.

How wonderful the free world is, Mr.*Car*. His glorious destinies, his small and large revolutions, his stories of emancipation and redemption. His tolerance and his example! His media, always so impartial and ethical on all the major issues of our time: the pandemic, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian one. A crescendo, a rising climax of good information in which we gradually become more and more free, more and more plural, more and more respectful of the facts and never, God forbid, ever guided by power groups or political interests, as happens instead in barbaric dictatorships.

How wonderful it is to live in the free world, where our freedom has the right and duty to be exercised, and only ends where the freedom of others begins (as long as the other does not). a resident of Gazait goes without saying).

And as I read last week’s “news,” I noticed that the most interesting was undoubtedly that of a Rottweiler who jumped from the third floor into space to chase a cat and landed on a pregnant girl in the center of Rome – Luckily she is alive and the fetus is doing well despite being hospitalized under code red, although many are distressed because no one thought of the dog when it helped the woman: “Nobody looked after the Rottweiler except me and the nearest barmaid“, Ms. Giulia explained in shock to the newspapers – I said as I scrolled through the news, thinking about how my historical gaps in math prevented me from understanding why 30 Israeli children were worth much more than about 3000 Palestinian children, in short, excuse the constant Side notes on this stream of consciousness thing, but I came across some strange news while reading.

A story that “revolutionized the NBA and perhaps even sports forever,” to quote the subtitle Piece From Magazine 11. The title instead read: “Thanks to Che Flores, trans and non-binary refereethe NBA has broken another barrier.” There She The story is really fascinating – they don’t come from the League, but from Che Flores, who strictly calls himself using plural pronouns, themAnd woe betide you if you don’t, otherwise you’re a regressive, racist, homophobic, conspiracy theorist Trumpian, one of those coup plotters who attacked the Capitol on January 6th and can’t stand the fact that America is the country of free men, a beacon of democracy in the world like Israel in the Middle East.

I told her story. Without making it too long, Che Flores… Sorry, I have to pause for a moment, I swear it will be the last time, but it is an important thing: But if the noun and the pronoun are plural, that will Verb then also be in the plural? ? That is, the correct form is “Che Flores sono”, subject them, or “Che Flores è”, subject a them, which, however, is a way of saying neither she nor him, nor she nor he, and which, however, declines in becomes singular? A nice Rottweiler to peel, we opt for the first one, which is more comprehensive, and set off again. That Flores exposed himself (in this case, fortunately, only metaphorically) and “confessed.” columns from GQ – I regret it when it was done in church with the priests who were at least the only ones who knew our business and yours She.

In this interview, defined as “historic,” “revolutionary,” “mind-blowing,” Che Flores, an American basketball referee, expressed candidly: “When I started refereeing you had to look a certain way. Now I feel comfortable, I feel like I can express the person I am without having to worry. No one knew how I identified and when I became a victim of misgender identity it was a hard blow to bear». It still is: “The decision I made is a way to let all queer people out there know that they/we can exist and that they/we can succeed in what we do».

I’m a little confused by this whole mix of singulars, plurals, dogs, cats, men and women, but the revolutionary fact, writes GQ and many to follow, is that “Flores will be the first non-binary trans referee in major American professional sports at a time when the competitiveness of trans athletes is under attack: Globally, trans athletes have been banned from international competition in both track and field and swimming 23 U.S. Starting in 2020, states passed laws banning trans athletes from participating in school sports». But think of the dark, even obscurantist times in which we live. Crazy stuff.

«When I was growing up, you chose either the female or male role and identified as a lesbian, and that was it», continues Che Flores. «That word never seemed right to me. But I had no idea whatever else was out there that you can identify with».

Uh, my friend, indeed, my friends, there was a glorious world out there full of acronyms and sensibilities, a rainbow of identities and genres that, once the rain had passed, took up the entire sky, to the point that I asked myself: But will a single alphabet be enough, 21 or 25 letters, to identify them all, these sensitivities? LGBTQIAPK, we are now quickly moving towards the consumption of graphic characters, which is why they also added a +, but I wonder if a vulgar + sign can restore all the colorful inner world of today’s Western society’s identity? Can a + describe someone who wakes up tomorrow morning feeling like a dog and long live God wants to marry a parrot, or someone who feels like an anaconda and wants to hug and squish a sheep? Let’s think.


In the meantime, what Flores hears «the responsibility to be exactly who I am without hiding anything,” a personal responsibility because it is social. Essentially a pioneering role, one of avant-garde and emancipation, of self-knowledge and pride; An example for many young people who are confused and trapped in this primitive binary world, the world of the two genders, man and woman, albeit with different sexual orientations, heterosexual or homosexual. And this is where the revolution took place, not a gala lunch but perhaps an aperitif in Manhattan, yes. In authentic words Revolutionaries After all, everyone is talking about itnot just GQ or 11. According to the values ​​of the West also the revolutions of the West.

And that’s at least, a little ironically, nice She let’s call them The. That we have moved away from Che Guevara, who is now banished to the attic, worse than Marx, who was not so open towards homosexuals and also not so petty with his wars, his filth, his Home or deaththen all the blood”But oh my God, how can you make war, that is…“, and in short, we passed from the political, social, anthropological and existential liberation struggle of Che Guevara to the sexual and gender liberation struggle of Che Flores. What can I say. At first glance, everything has been going well in the last few decades. And the feeling is that, just as with information, the peak is rising and the long march of progress is unstoppable: everything is getting better, getting better. As long as we agree, maybe this yes to grammar and pronouns.


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