Miss Puerto Rico: A Transgender Tragedy (Dollar Book)

A boozy old man can’t accept the faded beauty of his wife, a former Miss Puerto Rico. Against the backdrop of a poor Puerto Rican slum, he dreams of what he can never have…until her granddaughter arrives looking so much like the wife of his youth. Her sensual grace and luscious curves drive him crazy. But she is a transgender woman and the old man hates her as much as he desires her. Caught in a web of lust and faded dreams, how can he ever imagine his twisted emotions could lead to unspeakable tragedy?

A gritty tale of LGBT discrimination, Miss Puerto Rico: A Transgender Tragedy is an extremely vivid, engaging and emotionally charged work that aims to capture not only the long-muted voice of transgenders, but the tumultuous fight for transgender rights in Puerto Rico.

Excerpt: I followed the slumping walls to the bedroom where I found my father, The Old War Hero, sitting quietly on the floor with a towel over his dick, the cops laughing around him. His eyes were calm; the usual storm in them gone. One of the cops handed me a picture. “That’s what did it,” he’d said nodding at the picture; an amber-colored woman posing at an Old San Juan Mercado. “This Maria?” I asked. Another uniformed man cut his eyes at the picture and shook his head. “The Puto,” he said, his lips two tight, irritated ropes. The cop waved his hand to a black and white picture starring up at us from my father’s outstretched hand, and I stepped into a position where I could see it clearly. “That’s Maria,” he said.