Students from the Mocha Celis trans high school become activists

The study program lasts three years and students graduate with the title of Assistant Expert in Community Development.

December 18, 2019

By Martha Farmelo, Manuel Mireles and Eugenia Velázquez*

The Mocha Celis Popular High School is the world's first high school for transgender people. Founded in 2011, its mission is to promote the inclusion of transgender people in formal education, addressing the opportunity gap and structural discrimination they face. It empowers its students with free, quality education; trains leaders who strengthen the transgender movement; and promotes integration into the workforce through diverse strategies.

The program lasts three years, and students graduate with a degree as an Assistant Expert in Community Development, which allows them to continue their studies at any institution in the country. It is an inclusive space where transgender, cisgender, and gender-diverse individuals, as well as people of diverse identities such as migrants, Afro-descendants, single mothers, and others, study.

The Community Development course, taught in the third year, makes a concrete contribution to developing the capacity for community and political management and participation, particularly for transgender and transvestite individuals. Within this course, students collectively reflect on political and social participation from a human rights perspective, identifying problematic situations that they deem necessary to address from a community standpoint.

This year, each student analyzed and shared a social problem that was personally important to them. Discussions included urban waste, environmental degradation, communication difficulties, and gender-based violence. Two of these issues were collectively selected for group work to design participatory projects addressing these specific situations: the violation of the right to education for transgender people and problematic substance use.

With the colleagues from El Gondolín

This year, the students designed an initiative to increase the participation of the trans community in public education. To implement it, they worked in partnership with the Hotel Gondolín, a three-story, 20-room boarding house in Villa Crespo, which was reclaimed by the community and has been self-managing it for over 15 years.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, the students met with approximately 70 hotel residents to discuss the importance of access to education and share information about the opportunity to complete high school at “La Mocha Celis.” They recounted their own experiences of violence and exclusion from the formal education system, which led them to choose “La Mocha” as a place of study where sexual identity is respected, and where a gender perspective and comprehensive sex education with a focus on sexual diversity are offered. That day, 12 residents of the Gondolín Hotel enrolled to study at La Mocha Celis.

Regarding the issue of drug use, an activity was organized for the educational community of "La Mocha Celis" to reflect together on the causes and consequences of addiction and substance use in general. A meeting was held with the participation of Vientos de Libertad (Winds of Freedom), a civil association that provides a space dedicated exclusively to prevention and awareness in schools and public spaces. They also offer support and rehabilitation services in their homes for individuals and families experiencing difficulties with addiction.

La Mocha “moves”

The students noted that the presence of trans, non-binary, and cisgender individuals at the meeting in Gondolín reflected the diversity of the student population and the inclusive environment there. Regarding the workshop with Vientos de Libertad (Winds of Freedom), they positively evaluated the first-person accounts shared about substance use and rehabilitation, the attentiveness shown during the discussions, the number of questions asked, and the subsequent interest expressed in maintaining contact with the organization.

These activities put into practice "La Mocha's" perspective on the importance of addressing the positive re-signification of political action at the local level and generating activism from the perspective of sexual dissidents. The students expressed that they felt empowered to influence the reality of the trans and travesti community.

*teachers of the Mocha Celis High School

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