The French women sent to America to marry desperate colonists

BarcelonaJulia Malye (Paris, 1994) published her first book, Tocqueville's Bride, when she was only 15 years old. "I started writing because when I was little I was really afraid of forgetting things," she explains. She reread all those diaries from when she was 12 or 13, but they didn't evoke anything in her, they didn't transport her to the past. So she decided to write fiction. "I had another fear, of being locked in my mind, it was a feeling of claustrophobia, and writing allowed me to live other lives," she says. Now, with The Louisiana Girls, translated into Catalan by Josep Maria Pinto (Empúries/Salamandra), puts you in the shoes of a group of French girls who in 1720 set sail aboard The Whale. They had all come from the Salpêtrière, an orphanage and correctional facility with an infamous reputation where orphans, prostitutes, the sick, abortionists, daughters rejected by their families because they didn't fit in, or simply women with a rebellious streak lived. Their destination was America, specifically Louisiana, where settlers desperate for women awaited them. "They were like merchandise," Malye explains. "On the voyage I'm describing, they embarked with a group of Ursuline nuns; they were somewhat protected; on the previous voyage, many had died because they made the journey in terrible conditions and in chains," the author adds.

Malye gives these women a voice, but it's not easy to know what they thought or who they were. "A lot of literature from the period is adventure novels, but I wonder what kind of adventures they were when they went out to destroy, kill, and plunder," she says. The author wanted to write from the women's perspective. "They were victims, but at the same time they were part of colonization and I couldn't write about them without also talking about their bodies, because their mission was to have children," she says. They are practically invisible, they don't appear in historical accounts: "According to the archives, a woman is born, marries, has children and dies. On the other hand, when you look at men you have much more information; for example, you can know what profession they had," laments Malye, who has spent seven years on this book and has done a lot of research.

She worked with the passenger list of The WhaleBut he only had the names of the women, who ranged in age from 12 to 30. protagonists, but the number was reduced and he used his imagination to describe and tell the lives of three: a 12-year-old orphan, an aristocrat rejected by her family and an abortionist "In the end, each woman represented a few," he assures Curiously, a plaque of the women is at the Salpêtrière. "There are the daughters of the king, which is a group that traveled to Canada a century earlier, between 1663 and 1673. They are remembered, perhaps because their name has more glamour and they had the protection of the king, and they are present in the history of Canada. On the other hand, no one remembers those who were sent aboard Pelican, The Whale, The Mutine either The Two Sisters", says Malye.

The Natchez point of view

The author wanted to take into account the perspective of the Natchez, one of the human groups that populated the lower reaches of the Mississippi. "I was a little afraid, because to what extent do I have the right to put myself in the shoes of a Natchez woman who lived three centuries ago? I wanted to be very rigorous and tried to obtain sources, but it's complicated because all their tradition is oral," she explains. Finally, Malye will contact Hutke Fields, chief of the Natchez nation.

There are two versions of the novel. "I started writing in English and worked in that language for five years, but then I rewrote it in French. It was a very interesting experience because I met the women speaking their native language. I realized that in French they told me things they didn't tell me in English," she explains. Thus, there is the English version that has been published in the United States and the French version, which can be found in French bookstores. In the countries where it has been translated, there have been different preferences. Catalonia has chosen the French version, but Greece, for example, has opted for the English one.