I'M A WILD SEED

A graphic memoir about the forming of one woman’s queer identity.

De La Cruz tells the story of growing into her queerness, illustrating moments of adolescent confusion and repression leading up to eventual confidence in her adult self. The author not only explores how her queer identity formed, but also how the intersection of her other identities—for example, race and gender—compounded the struggles she experienced. A Black woman from a Caribbean Latinx family, De La Cruz delves into her juggling of many forms of internalized oppression, from the shame caused by familial, community, and internalized racism to the discomfort and stress of strict gender binaries and their impact on her feelings about clothing. As De La Cruz contended with surviving stressful external realities while also deconstructing harmful ideologies, her journey to being out was a long but rewarding one. She also educates readers on queer and racial history, as in a section that illustrates the background to the Stonewall uprising. The book expects readers to already be somewhat familiar with terms like patriarchy and heteronormative to get the most out of the text’s more advanced concepts. A sketchy, zinelike art style combined with the interesting framing of panels and gutters effectively portrays both the fears and joys of discovering one’s marginalized identity and vividly and effectively conveys the author’s changing understanding.

This potent memoir assuredly navigates the complicated intersections of identity.