Trans Histories in Latin America

Vi Nguyen

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.