Learn Spanish (Latin America): La mujer exige cosas como si fuera una reina. - The woman demands things as if she were a queen.

The phrase como si (as if) sets up a hypothetical situation—she isn't actually a queen. In Spanish, como si is always followed by the imperfect (past) subjunctive to show that the comparison is contrary to fact, even if the main action (exige) is in the present. This matches English, where we say "as if she were" instead of "as if she is".

I thought fuera was the imperfect subjunctive of ir (to go). Why is it used here?

The verbs ser (to be) and ir (to go) share the exact same forms in both the preterite and the imperfect subjunctive. You always have to rely on context to tell them apart. Here, "as if she went a queen" makes no sense, so we know fuera is acting as the imperfect subjunctive of ser.

Why do we use a form of ser here instead of estar?

We use ser because we are linking a person to a noun or identity (una reina). Even though it's a fake or hypothetical identity in this sentence, the rule for using ser to identify what someone or something is still applies.

What is the infinitive of exige, and does it have any spelling changes to watch out for?