Trans Histories in Latin America

Becky Chung

Senior at Claremont McKenna majoring in government and history

I am a senior at Claremont McKenna College studying government and history. I was interested in the class Gender and Sexuality in Latin America because I am conducting my senior thesis on the history of lesbian activism during the AIDS epidemic. I am interested in better understanding the perspectives of gender and sexuality and I had never taken a history class on Latin America.

This class has introduced theoretical perspectives that have been really helpful in helping me better understand the concepts of sexuality and gender in different historical periods. I am interested in trans history, particularly in understanding the ways it has been erased in archives and by contemporary historians

Carson Herness

Computer Science major at Harvey Mudd College

I am a junior computer science major at Harvey Mudd College. In Fall 2019, I studied abroad in Quito, Ecuador to study Spanish. While in Quito, I worked with an organization called Proyecto Transgénero, which supports sex workers, trans people, and other queer populations in Quito and Ecuador through legal advocacy, social groups, support groups, and protests and marches. I principally worked with La Fraternidad Transmasculina (the transmasculine fraternity), where I helped with programming, translation of materials, and research. For my semester project, I researched the transmasculine transition in Ecuador by interviewing local trans men and people who work with local trans men, and by reading existing scholarship.

In Spring 2020, I enrolled in the class Gender and Sexuality in Latin America so that I could learn more about gender and sexuality in other countries in Latin America besides Ecuador, and I wanted to gain a historical context for contemporary trans issues. Throughout the course, I have also gained skills for studying gender in history. In this blog, I hope to help scholars studying contemporary trans issues by providing context and sources for future research.

Jordy Gertner

Junior at Pomona College (she/her/hers)

I am a rising senior studying Mathematics at Pomona College. After working in the summer of 2019 with the legal non-profit Santa Fe Dreamer’s Project and supporting their program of legal defense for trans women seeking asylum, I became especially interested in transnational transgender issues. In order to learn more about the history of sexually and gender-diverse people, I took Gender and Sexuality in Latin America and chose to create this blog with the other authors. For my contributions, I’ve researched and written in-depth about how frameworks for understanding gender diversity impact scholars and activists between Latin America and the anglosphere. None of this work would‘ve been possible without the historical and theoretical learning I did in this class. I believe that theoretical and political work by gender non-conforming people is of the highest importance when writing trans history.

Vi Nguyen

Junior studying Government and History at Claremont McKenna College

I am a junior at Claremont McKenna College studying History and Government. I decided to take the course “Gender and Sexuality in Latin America” because I have always been interested in Latin American History and wanted to look at the continent’s culture through a different lens. By studying history, I have discovered the importance of focusing in on an area of study to discover more about the overarching histories. Through this course, I have been amazed by the connections between the political history of Latin America and the gender and sexuality norms. It has been a great opportunity for me to grow as a historian and develop an open perspective when reading LGBTQI scholarship. I find myself thinking back to this class when reading my other history coursework and contemplating, “who wrote this and why does that matter?”

I was drawn to the subject of Latin American Trans histories because I noticed a lack of scholarship and saw an opportunity to genuinely make an impact for communities of interested scholars and activists. When writing my blog posts, I felt that I was giving a voice to a person/ group of people who are ignored in history. I was constantly surprised by what conclusions my findings led me to. Throughout my research, I would be set on my assumed interpretation of trans history until I found a contradiction in the scholarship. My experience underscores the difficulty in trans research because of the lack of scholarship which leads to less authentic trans perspectives. To address this issue, I found that documentaries, interviews, diaries, and forms of primary sources would allow me to understand trans identities and properly interpret the historical significance.

When people read my blogs I hope they can make their own discoveries about trans histories and either support or critique the perspectives I’ve documented and transform political discourse to include all sorts of identities.