This November 2016 I took a long-planned and researched month-long book tour with the Argentinian author, Antonia Amprino, whose book I translated from Spanish to English in "Words of Fire! Women Loving Women in Latin America." What was apparent from the beginning is that we had so much work to do on the trip and that we are a bit insane for embarking on a 13-city tour all at once. I imagine I would have done a couple of cities per year if it had been just me, but since she had to come from Argentina, I and maybe we, decided that it must be done in bulk. Anyway, we took off, and made ourselves comfortable in inexpensive but welcoming hostels in Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Miami, Florida. You will notice that those are only 7 cities. In the other six cities, we stayed with friends, who welcomed us wholeheartedly into their homes, interrupted their lives and schedules to be near us and to listen to our story.

New Orleans was the first stop, and so Antonia stayed in my house. Vanessa and Sergio both welcomed her and took her to see the town, and at our book signing at the LGBT Community Center, many of my local friends came to support, listen and share this moment. Yes, these friends live in my city, but let’s face it, people are busy, and the ones who showed up are not people I see often at all. Nor are they people who are part of the LGBT community. It was also the day after the presidential election, a day when people in liberal New Orleans were walking around like zombies, teary-eyed and lost. These friends showed up for me!

Then in Austin, Texas, at our event at Bookwoman, Paige Schilt showed up and brought a friend. She is the author of “Queer Rock Love” also published by Transgress Press. She came out to support our reading, and later in the tour we would present at events together in Atlanta. In San Diego, we were welcomed into the home of Milena and Sutton, such beautiful souls whom I know from college. They are soon to be married, and the home is filled with love and joy. Sutton was finalizing medical school interviews and Milena working on becoming a middle school teacher. During those two busy days for them, they took time out to take us to the beach, cook dinner, sit and talk, practice their Spanish with Antonia, play guitar and piano for us. Ari was the first friend we saw in San Diego. She had the day off work and met us for lunch and then chatted with us until Milena came home. Gage came out to the beach also to visit. Ari also drove 45 minutes in traffic to come to our book presentation, and patiently listened to the Spanish conversation that I translated to English for her. I had not seen any of them for 3 years since college.

In Los Angeles we were received in West Hollywood by Alissa, the best friend of my friend Lisa, whom I worked with after college. Lisa lives in New Orleans and has been a true supporter of the book from the beginning of my translation process. She told me from the inception of the idea of the book tour, that Alissa would be a great contact for us in L.A. and would possibly offer us her home. That she did! Alissa cooked us breakfast, took us around the city on her free day, and came to our presentation, listened with interest and participated in the afterward mingling.

In Oakland, my high school buddy Abi and her girlfriend came to meet us, and we went to lunch and a museum, and they came to our event and to the bar after. We then met the book publisher who invited us to stay in his home. In Brooklyn, we stayed with my college friend Shelby who took three days off work to show us the town, eat, drink, talk and even took the train to Philadelphia with us to meet up with Anna, who also went to college with us. Andréia came to our Philly event also from her new home up north. In Philadelphia, we stayed with an author / photographer Rachelle, who I know from her book event with Barbara Proud, who was at our presentation in Philadelphia. Barbara wrote and photographed, First Comes Love: Portraits of Enduring LGBT Relationships, and Rachelle Lee Smith photographed and published Speaking Out. I found them through their event in New Orleans a year ago and also met them again in Philadelphia in July 2015 for the National LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration.

One thing that really made me feel at home with all of these friends is that they made it so natural to have us around and they continued with their lives. Sutton left one morning before daylight to fly out for an interview, Milena had classes and schoolwork to do, Ari went to work, Rachelle and Megan got up and had breakfast, paid bills, and ran off to work as I was leaving for my train. Everyone was delighted we were there and gave their time and space and comfort to share it with us, all the while continuing with their lives and making us feel like we are part of their lives rather than an interruption. How seamlessly these interactions were is a testament to true friendship, and to how people can affect your life and stay with you.

Thank you to all who housed us and who took time to come to our events. Barbara drove 40 minutes, as did Ari. Catalina rearranged her family night. Anna drove 3 ½ hours, Abi and Claire drove 2 hours, Alissa gave us the entire day, and Shelby took off three days of work to spend with us. Laura face-timed in to one of our events from Spain. You all really showed true friendship and a delight in giving of your time to show that this book, Words of Fire Women Loving Women in Latin America, means something, and that what we are doing has value. And most of all, for showing that friendship has value.

Thank you to Vanessa for supporting this process and for letting me leave for a month, although not ideal. I hope that it is clear now that the reach of this book and what we have done has essentially sewn together the edges of this country, connected people, touched so many hearts and torn down a barrier of language in order to allow culture sharing and the lesbian community to be connected, through one book, one dream. We have brought light to communities in fear of what the next four years will bring for them. And many young women have shared that this book came to them in the moment they needed it most.

We stepped out on a limb with this tour, and took a huge leap hoping that the time, money, effort and sacrifices would be worth it. I believe we have received so many rewards already from this journey. Thank you to all who have been present!