Cactus CountryCactus Country

In Cactus Country RV Park, eleven-year-old Zo︠ has been given a fresh start and a new, shorter haircut. Although Zo︠ doesn't have the words to express it, he experiences life as a trans boy, and here, others begin to see him as a boy, too. As Zo︠ enters adolescence, he must reckon with the sexism, racism, substance abuse, and violence endemic to the working-class men he's grown close to. In response, Zo︠ adopts an androgynous style and new pronouns, but still cannot escape what it means to live in a gendered body, particularly when a fraught first love destabilizes their sense of self. Zo︠ persists in searching for answers, dreaming of a day they might leave the park behind to embrace whatever awaits beyond.