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The voices of five lesbians with decades of activism are featured in the podcast Tortilleras: una memoria lesbiana (Tortilleras: A Lesbian Memoir ), the first from Agencia Presentes. Produced by Luciana Leiras and Tati Español, it seeks to tell the story of the movement from 1980 onward in the City of Buenos Aires. It's about "listening to how we got here": who threw the first stone and who continued the fight. What was it like in times when the laws weren't on our side? What were our strategies? These were some of the many questions that drove this series of episodes, filled with anecdotes, laughter, reflections, media archives, and data.

The protagonists of the four episodes of this first season are psychologist and feminist Ana Rubiolo; biologist and activist María Luisa Peralta; lesbian activist, former player and current football director, Mónica Santino, part of La Nuestra Futbol Feminista ; Adriana Carrasco, journalist and lesbian activist; and Lucrecia Rojas, lesbian activist and advocate for the recognition of care work.

"The Tortilla Awakening", "A Gay Party", "Pride and Prejudice" and "All Together, All Lesbians" are the names of the chapters in this first season, with stories and anecdotes experienced in the City of Buenos Aires. 

Through a chorus of voices and archival television footage and popular memory, hosted by Tati Español, Tortilleras explores a genealogy of the lesbian struggle, the ways of naming themselves, the spaces of lesbian encounter and resistance, the tensions and alliances with feminism, and chosen families. It also engages with current events, describing the networks being built today and imagining the future. Each episode concludes with a glossary: ​​what the Cuadernos de Existencia Lesbiana (Lesbian Existence Notebooks ) and Potencia Tortillera (Lesbian Power , who Ilse Fuskova and Karina Urbina , among other information.

The podcast was launched on March 7, Lesbian Visibility Day, at Espacio Cultural JJ, which was packed for the Escándalo Tortillero festival. There was a public listening session of the first episode, which deals with the lesbian awakening. Luli and Tati shared how the initiative came about and thanked Agencia Presentes for the opportunity and the teamwork involved in its production. Ana Rubiolo, Mónica Santino, and María Luisa Peralta also participated. "There is an attempt to eliminate us in various ways—physically, economically, culturally, and symbolically—so it is very important to have these spaces," shared Peralta, who also acknowledged that Presentes' work is used to support international denunciations of human rights violations.

The research was challenging. Along the way, Tati Español and Luli Leiras repeatedly encountered untraceable information, inaccessible books, and anecdotes difficult to reconstruct. They were guided by the urgent need to build a historical archive together. We spoke with them on Presentes —where Ana Fornaro and Maria Eugenia Ludueña coordinated the podcast.

How did this project come about?

Tati: We had traveled to the National LGBTIQNB+ Meeting in Rosario and met some older women from other provinces. They sparked our intrigue and curiosity about how other lesbians had lived through the years we didn't experience. Faced with the anguish of this government, I found myself with a very deep need to investigate how other lesbians had survived times of such oppression. Today we don't live the same way thanks to the activists we interviewed, and many more of them.

Luli: We really wanted to do something to rescue the voices of older lesbian women. Tati and I talked a lot about the invisibility of lesbian history and our difficulty in finding stories that reflect it. At that moment, Ilse (Fuskova) died, and that's when we said: we have to do it. 

Why a lesbian memoir podcast?

Luli: We felt it was very important to tell the story from their perspectives. Not only to learn about their experiences, but also to hear them speak in their own words, with the passion they bring to each anecdote they share. That's an added benefit of this format. And we think it's essential that it be preserved as an oral record.

Tati: It's a tool for us. I'm passionate about history because it explains things, it speaks to us of cyclicality, it can help us avoid repeating the same mistakes. The idea is that this historical recovery will be a tool for collective memory that preserves these stories . We felt it was essential that it be something simple, something that everyone can access.

What place do archives and memory have in activism?

Luli: It has a foundational place, at least that's what we hope. For some years now there has been a public lesbian movement that has to do with the possibility of inhabiting spaces or living daily life in a way that has a lot to do with the steps taken through activism , with the rights that were fought for.

Tati: History, the archives, are essential for building ourselves into others. Today we can get married, walk down the street without being arrested, we can adopt. The archives and memory give meaning to our activism . They help us realize that we are much more than two —as Sandra and Celeste (very present in the podcast) say when they sing Mario Benedetti's poem—that someone started it and someone else continued.

What is the importance of this podcast in a context of attacks on diversity and, in particular, on lesbian identities?

Tati: I think it 's very important for us to connect, to know that lesbians have a network, that there are many of us, and that we have ways of navigating things that are different from perhaps other norms or identities. One way to counteract all the hate speech is to make ourselves visible and show how others have lived, in order to lower the level of myths surrounding lesbianism in society .

Luli: When we started thinking about this project, although attacks had already happened—the Pepa Gaitán case, the fight for Higui's acquittal—it wasn't as rampant as it once was. I think there's been a resurgence of hate speech, both officially and in the media. That enables the attacks we've seen recently . That's why the content of this podcast is so important to us. We're talking about a time when the reality was not only more repressive in its rhetoric than we remembered, but also one of curtailed rights. That's why it's important to hear about the strategies and methods used to fight for those lesbian lives. And it gives us a glimmer of hope .

What would you like to see happen with the podcast?

Luli: Let it be heard, let it reach a lot of people, especially people who don't know what they're going to find. That way they'll start Googling who Ana and Adriana are, what the Lesbian Existence Notebooks are, what María Luisa did, where Moni was an activist, the places Lucre mentions. That it makes them want to know a little more.

Tati: This is just the beginning. We can't limit ourselves to only showcasing the experiences of lesbians in Buenos Aires. We don't want it to be confined to that. The goal is to secure funding to produce more seasons, to travel to other provinces, and to find other lesbian stories. The intention is for each season to be based in a different province. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be able to go abroad or make a documentary.

What did they learn and enjoy doing it?

Luli: Many strategies, especially of resistance and activism: organizing a lesbianism workshop at a Latin American and Caribbean Meeting in a garage. Or what Ana tells us, that even though they were in a central place for feminism, they were made to meet in the kitchen, and from there they devised strategies for actions that ended up leading marches and planting a flag. And of course, there were also the anecdotes of enjoyment, of the places they frequented—all of that was spectacular. 

Tati: I also learned that our history isn't so easily traceable. There are many inaccessible books, histories that are very difficult to reconstruct. And forget about trying to delve into earlier times: there's nothing. On the other hand, I was able to understand much better the frictions and synergies that lesbians have with feminism . For many, feminism is the tool that gives them the opportunity to connect with others, but at the same time, it's the activism that expelled lesbians during those times. I also learned that we weren't few in number, but we were very isolated . And today we are more united, working together, reflecting, connecting, and that's beautiful.

The first episode of the podcast is available on Spotify. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly. The episode was written, directed, and produced by Tati Español and Luli Leiras for Agencia Presentes. Editing was done by Andy Cukier . The illustrations are by Jules Mamones ( Feminutancia ). General coordination was handled by María Eugenia Ludueña and Ana Fornaro.

The Tortilleras community: a lesbian memory is on Instagram.