By Lara Bertolini* Evening was falling, the heat oppressive, the Federico Lacroze station was bursting with activity, hundreds of women began to surround it. As I climbed the two floors of the building to the Mutual Sentimiento, I felt the explosive energy building: the 8M Assembly, the International Feminist Strike, was beginning to ignite, and we, the trans women, were going to participate and assert our position as dissident feminists. A few meters away, the trans women, little by little, began to arrive. After so much dissent, we began to unite our discourse. After being deeply affected by the death of Lohana Berkins, after the transphobic murder of Diana Sacayán. Since the second floor of the Mutual was unbearable, we decided to go to the train station plaza because the place was too small. Walking there, the process began: Will they understand our demands? Is this truly the moment for feminism to evolve on its political path? Alma Fernández, Florencia Guimaraes, Yazmín Segovia, Paula Arraigada de La Nelly Omar, Viviana del Mocha, Say Sacayán de MAL, all gathered together, lost and wandering around, and Violeta Alegre thoughtful, calmly exploring the place, seeing how to position ourselves.

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When the ten-person committee was formed, we quickly raised our hands, perhaps unaccustomed to asking for participation, perhaps out of fear or pain. Determined, we moved forward, measured, knowing our combative, warrior, and defiant spirit. We trans women know about feminism because we betrayed the patriarchy twice: first by leaving it, and second by attacking it. Very few of us are surviving; we are dying younger and younger. Many activists thought, "We need to be given a voice, otherwise we will die with our mouths covered." Let the world know how trans women, women, and other feminine voices raise their voices and cries out against this patriarchy that is annihilating us. Alma Fernández and I were the two who spoke. We had slogans that we had agreed upon with our comrades: "accompaniment and unity," "create and read our own document," "be accompanied along with our own voice." Our document will be drafted in eThe Binational Transvestite Trans Meeting (to be held on February 10 with colleagues from Uruguay) and there we will vote on who will be our speaker for #8M.  Looking for those loving eyes I was surprised by how much we had talked, discussed, laughed and cried, and today standing on the axis of the universe it was for the first time that the transvestites and trans people after so long came out together determined to be, even if only heard.

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The three minutes passed: the slogans poured forth, accompanied by a narrative and a plea not of pity, but rather a call to make it known that we know the patriarchy well, the one that trans women and trans people have betrayed twice. Those of us who survived sexism and patriarchy know it well, now included, first since March 8th and then through this understanding of feminism. It was time for feminism to understand that the future of society must be diversity. May Lohana, Diana, Mocha, Pía, and so many others see from trans heaven that we continue fighting, and as Marlene Wayar said: “I believe positively that transformation is possible, starting with the freedom to envision oneself as powerful, to take charge of that power, and to be responsible.” *Transvestite activist, law student at the National University of Avellaneda ]]>