By Victor Hugo Robles, from Santiago, Chile. While Valentine's Day was being celebrated on February 14th, Paloma, an elderly trans woman, passed away. She was a witness to and protagonist of an era buried after Pinochet's coup. Paloma died in a public hospital bed due to a stroke caused by a blow. This "blow," according to the complaint filed by the association TravesChile (which includes Paloma's own testimony), was the result of a transphobic attack. For this reason, the organization is demanding that the justice system investigate this death as a homicide. "On February 2nd, I was informed that Paloma had been admitted to the hospital with a blood clot. When I went to visit her and asked her what had happened, she told me that she had been assaulted by a tenant named Pablo, and that it had happened inside the house," Silvia Parada of TravesChile, Paloma's guardian, told Presentes – and filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Region Prosecutor's Office in Santiago.

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In addition to the victim's testimony from her hospital bed, where she directly blames her neighbor Pablo—evidence that was handed over to the prosecutor's office yesterday—the complaint includes testimonies from other acquaintances. Paloma lived alone with four cats in a small room in the Quinta Normal district, a working-class area of ​​Greater Santiago. Silvia Parada, Katy Fontey and Luchita  “I met Paloma before the 1973 coup, when the San Camilo neighborhood was full of brothels, women's houses, and transvestite houses—as trans women were called back then,” recalls Katty Fontey, president of TravesChile and a driving force behind various initiatives to welcome and integrate the elderly trans population, perhaps the most vulnerable and forgotten group within Chile's transvestite and transgender community. Along with Katty, Paloma was one of the few survivors of San Camilo, that mythical place where the renowned gay art collective “Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis” (The Mares of the Apocalypse), founded by Pedro Lemebel and Francisco Casas, staged a striking and unforgettable performance called “The Last Supper of San Camilo.”

So that it does not go unpunished

Paloma's testimony could become a key piece of evidence in the criminal investigation that TravesChile hopes will begin as soon as possible. The activists are saddened and uneasy, doubting the institutional concern and interest in uncovering the truth and achieving justice. They have good reason to be concerned. The case has no assigned prosecutor, and according to the documents submitted, it has been classified as "Other Incidents." "We will have to make public the serious allegation of Paloma's murder because when we don't protest or demand action through public channels, no one listens to us," said Silvia Parada. "This cowardly murder of an elderly trans woman cannot go unpunished. We have records of attacks and threats against Paloma from neighbors, particularly from a man named Pablo, whom we have fully identified," Parada told Presentes. She added, "Since 2004, there have been more than 14 cases of trans women who have died under suspicious circumstances, and no one is paying attention or conducting the necessary investigations. Impunity prevails over the desire for justice." TravesChile activists with Víctor Hugo Robles at Paloma's funeral

Where are trans people going to die?

Paloma lived alone. Those who knew her say she had a son in the north, but with whom she had little contact. Her only friends were Silvia and Katty, members of TravesChile. They were her lovers, accomplices, and allies. Coincidentally, shortly before Paloma's death, TravesChile had begun working enthusiastically on a ambitious project: a trans mausoleum in Santiago's General Cemetery, a unique space that—unfortunately—could not house Paloma because it is still under construction.

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Paloma was mourned for only a few hours and buried in a temporary earthen grave by “half a dozen faggots,” as Katty Fontey ironically described it outside the General Cemetery of Santiago. There, Katty recalled the difficulties they have faced in rescuing the remains of their deceased comrades when their families do not claim them. “One case occurred in the city of Iquique: Pascuala, who was from Santiago and died from a drug overdose in Iquique. She died in the street from tuberculosis and lay alone in the morgue for more than three months because no one claimed her,” Katty recalled, adding that the Nefertitis group claimed her and buried her. “Pascuala’s case was in 2015, but now we have the case of Tiare, who also died in Iquique, and no one from her family has claimed her for a dignified burial,” she said. And that is why, she added, the Trans Mausoleum, a groundbreaking project that will be inaugurated at the end of March, is so important.