Negotiating Gender and Fútbol Matters in Yamile Saied Méndez’s Furia

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of gender and fútbol (soccer) as a process of negotiation that shifts from dependency to agency in the context of the Ni una menos movement in twenty-first century Argentina, in U.S. Argentine Yamile Saied Méndez’s first young adult novel, Furia (2020). As part of a generation of transnational U.S. Latina authors of South American descent, Saied Méndez focuses on the challenges and rewards of an aspiring female adolescent fútbol player in Rosario, Argentina, who must confront domestic abuse and gender inequality in this male dominated sport. By drawing attention to the protagonist’s multi-ethnic genealogy, Saied Méndez also intervenes in the revision of the national narrative of belonging in Argentine fútbol based on gender and heritage. She claims that the daughters as much as the sons of immigrants have a right to play fútbol if their talents permit. Saied Méndez further recovers a history of violence against women and young girls at home and in public to foreground the importance of women’s activism and consciousness to bring social justice for the victims and the survivors. Despite the social obstacles based on gender discrimination at the personal and institutional levels for young female fútbol players in South America, Saied Méndez maintains that achieving one’s goals and dreams of freedom to continue their college education and play professional fútbol are possible beyond national boundaries with community support, female role models, and the memory of one’s female ancestors who sacrificed for future generations.