CHABÓCHI DOLL is the trans homegirl that keeps it real and doesn’t fear cracking citizenship by the neck. 
 
Part auto-fiction, part manifesto, féi iká shumarí’s CHABÓCHI DOLL snaps the present moment in America tainted by the persecution of undocumented and native bodies, extensive trans legislation seeking to seize the livelihood of trans people, all while negotiating the radicalness of her joy and two-spirited embodiment, when confronted with a brain tumor diagnosis. 
 
With laughable sass, switchblade precision, and exquisite analysis, these coming-of-age-at-thirty essays turn womanhood, citizenship, and disability on their head. From a confrontation with TSA to sexual escapades with Ethical Fuckboys, these essays weave us through the multi-layered reality of a woman unwilling to surrender. Whether it’s critiquing the faulty strategies of citizen activists or differentiating a drag queen from a trans woman, shumarí does it with exquisite generosity, fists squared up, and a whole lot of eye rolling.
 
PRAISE FOR CHABÓCHI DOLL
 
“CHABÓCHI DOLL troubles the topography of womanhood through Trans Possibility & Undocumented archive making. Her essays are delightfully ‘long-winded interrogations’ & ‘anthropological approach to discovering what trauma still plagues’ feels more conversational than calculated. Confrontation wears lipstick. Indigeneity sings in primary hues. Narrative is collaged to frame the realities of the world. The world is ‘brighter & sweeter’ with féi iká shumarí existing in her nuance.”
—Jzl Jmz, Local Woman
 
“CHABÓCHI DOLL models literary self-love and community care. With this book, féi iká shumari has gifted us good medicine.”
—Myriam Gurba, Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings
 
“With sensuous lyricism, CHABÓCHI DOLL reckons with womanhood, theorizes the 2020s fuckboy, troubles the ghosts of statehood, and keeps going further. féi iká shumarí’s luminescent voice is both breezy and biting as she invites readers into soft imaginaries only to check your reality and ‘facilitate your undoing.’ I am undone.”
—Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls
 
“féi iká shumarí refuses to cut herself into small digestible bits, she’d much rather have the unready reader choke on the fullness of her brilliance. In turns both harrowing and utterly hilarious, féi iká shumarí crafts a collection of essays that crackles with divine retribution for the state of the world and how we all play our roles within it. Her words are a burst of righteous fire, a blast that first hits you softly before burning down deep into your heart.”                  
—Nathan Alexander Moore, The Rupture Files
 
“Strutting defiantly at the intersections, shumarí’s new essay collection is an exploration of the mutability (and even knowability, full stop) of the mind and body in a statist context that relies on categories which are, necessarily, fictions — and a gender context that creates, inevitably, fuckboys. shumarí would rather have anime. Acrylics. Peace. A ‘negotiation of authenticity and desire,’ CHABÓCHI DOLL questions what it is to belong or be foreign to one’s self, one’s country, this bleeding world. Read it to unshackle your revolutionary sass.”
—Brian Sonia-Wallace, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles
 
“Not everyone has the luxury of daring to live, let alone write while doing so. féi iká shumarí—one conventionally left outside the borders of American possibility—not only seized the right to live but to write anyway, and dared to be possible. My soul is a witness. Yours will be too. I have watched féi shapeshift. Refuse the colonial narratives of desire, love, home, and family. I have watched the anxiety to produce transform into lineage, into archive, into a lyric narrative greater than any one self. CHABÓCHI DOLL is the work of a poet-as-autofictionist who has trudged through the interior and come back to tell it—turning the mirror on an America that persecutes undocumented and native bodies, wages war on trans lives, and yet cannot extinguish the liberatory joy of shumarí—not even a brain tumor.”
—Jada Renée Allen, ED of Frances Thompson Arts Foundation
 
“CHABÓCHI DOLL is a bold testament to all of us  learning and re-learning about ourselves during times when we are not even supposed to dare exist. This is precisely the moment that writings like féi’s should be published, read, and celebrated and read many more times. If you were already familiar with féi’s talent through her poetry, this collection of essays will take you to another dimension. These intimate pieces explore what it means to be diagnosed as autistic in your 30s, how disability moves and is defined when your body is both migrant and in transition, and the realities of educating others on how hormones work. From dating and loving to the presence of femmes—besties, fellow dolls, Tias, and mothers—this text is a vibrant witness to our lives and hearts. Despite mudslides, borders, and setbacks, this work perseveres. While the humor and screenshots offer moments of laughter, I was most moved by the unapologetic tone. These ‘hair flip’ moments remind the reader that regardless of the political climate, the super sexy doll will live on and continue to construct who she really is. May this essay collection reach Inglewood, NYC, Chicago, and every literary corner waiting to witness such a powerful work of art and testimony.”
—Sonia Guiñansaca (Kichwa-Kañari), Nostalgia & Borders
 
“CHABÓCHI DOLL is a profoundly compelling collection of personal narratives that offers thoughtful insight into the life of a young trans woman confronting significant challenges. Through a voice marked by both courage and introspection, shumarí renders her experiences in eloquent, poetic prose that engages and moves the reader. Far more than a conventional memoir, CHABÓCHI DOLL stands as an intimate personal anthology that thoughtfully examines the intersections of identity, adversity, and resilience with notable emotional depth and literary grace.” 
—Bamby Salcedo, M.A. President/CEO of The TransLatin@ Coalition