Text and photos: Georgina González, from Mexico City

This September 30th marked the fourth anniversary of the murder of Paola Buenrostro, a 25-year-old trans woman who worked as a sex worker. Paola was killed in a car on the corner of Puente de Alvarado and Aldama in Mexico City. Paola's murder garnered unprecedented media attention in Mexico thanks to the activism of her friend Kenya Cuevas . Today Kenya is no longer standing alone in her demand for justice. Along with her lawyer, activists, and trans sex workers, they held a tribute at the site where she was murdered.
 

Kenya remembers that early morning as “freezing and strange,” and also that her friend Paola was sad. Along with two other coworkers, they drank anise to ward off the cold. “That night, four people played the roulette of death, and Paola was among them,” she told Presentes. 

Minutes later, Paola's voice uttered a cry for help. "Kenya, Kenya! " Kenya ran, heard gunshots, and saw Paola dying. He was in the passenger seat of a gray car, next to her was a former soldier.

Kenya became the main witness to the murder of Paola Buenrostro that night. 

"She gave her life to turn the tide in the history of murdered trans women in Mexico and bring about a paradigm shift. From that moment on, I haven't stopped fighting against the authorities who denied us our right to identity and access to justice when they arrested and released (two days later) Paola's killer due to lack of evidence."

“She was an explosive woman but also very noble”

Paola was born in Chiapas and was rejected by her family as a child. “She grew up resenting her mother. That made her an explosive woman. She had a strong character, but beneath it all, she was also very noble. She could see you, and if you didn't have anything to eat and had 20 pesos in your pocket, she'd give it to you,” Kenya said.

Paola, like many trans women, does not choose to live in circumstances of family exclusion. The rejection she experienced prevented her from accessing education and, consequently, the labor market. Paola migrated to Mexico City at 17 and, to earn a living, worked as a sex worker every day from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. 

“On weekends after work, we would sometimes go to Garibaldi, at 33rd Street. Paola and I called it 33rd Street because almost every time we walked into the bar, a customer would come out. We'd have a drink, dance to Mónica Naranjo, Jeny Rivera, all of those,” Kenya recalled.

In 2016, the year Paola was murdered, there were 80 transfemicides. It represents the most violent year for trans women in Mexico, according to the Trans Identities Support Center's records from 2007 to the present. That same year, the National Front for the Family , a conservative, anti-rights group supported by the Catholic Church, held two national marches and received media coverage to broadcast its speeches.

Justice and reparation for Paola and Kenya

The man who fired the weapon at Paola's body was released two days later, on October 2, pending evidence. In protest, Kenya, along with sex workers from Puente de Alvarado, held a body blockade with Paola inside a coffin on Avenida Insurgentes, one of Mexico City's main thoroughfares.

“From that moment on, I haven't left the Prosecutor's Office alone. They never imagined that two years later, a trans woman, a sex worker, would back them up against the wall and make them relive and admit that they did everything wrong, that they violated due process, and that they violated Paola's rights and mine.” 

In 2019, the Mexico City Human Rights Commission (CDHDF) issued , for the first time in history, a recommendation that the Attorney General's Office address the transfemicide of Paola Buenrostro from a gender perspective, provide reparations to Kenya Cuevas, and establish a future model for investigating hate crimes against the LGBT+ population.

Throughout her struggle, Kenya has received death threats. For this reason, she requested protective measures from the authorities. Initially, the Prosecutor's Office granted them; however, Equis Justicia, the organization that is legally supporting the case, has filed two injunctions against attempts to withdraw Kenya's protection.

"The Investigative Police, which reports to the Prosecutor's Office, has denied her protection twice, arguing that Kenya is no longer at risk," explained Viridiana Valgañón, a lawyer with Equis Justicia, in an interview with Presentes.

"The Prosecutor's Office does not recognize the right to identity"

“We hope the Prosecutor's Office complies with the recommendation, because on the one hand, it recognizes the structural violence against trans women. It recognizes that when they are victims of a crime, prosecutors criminalize them for engaging in sex work and don't recognize their right to identity. We want them to be recognized as witnesses or victims within the investigation files. And we want them to take effective measures, not measures that expand the case file. We want them to be able to apprehend, prosecute, and prosecute them,” says Valgañón.

Four years after Paola's murder, the Mexico City Attorney General's Office has issued two search warrants for the former soldier, both in 2017, but there is no line of investigation. 

“ For Kenya and trans women, it is important that the State publicly apologize and acknowledge, in Puente de Alvarado, that trans women are subjects of law . That prosecutors' offices across the country issue the protocol and implement it. Also, that they train both ministerial and police personnel with the goal of ending cases of discrimination against trans women and eliminating further impunity,” warns Viridiana Valgañon.

Transforming pain into life

After her friend's murder, Kenya began offering shelter to her fellow trans women. For a long time, her own home became a home for many trans women living with addiction, lacking access to HIV treatment, and homeless. 

in her head during those years, materialized in 2018 Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias , an organization that supports sex workers, drug users, and people living with HIV. Additionally, in December 2019, Mexico's first shelter for trans women , called Casa Hogar Paola Buenrostro, located in the Gustavo A. Madero Municipality.

Changed lives

Tonight, four years after Paola Buenrostro's murder, Rebeca Martínez feels happy. She worked in the Puente de Alvarado area as a sex worker, starting at 18 and using drugs for 10 years. That situation led her to "a serious point of vulnerability," she explains to Presentes.

During the pandemic and hotel closures, Rebeca had no options and began living on the streets. Kenya met her there and invited her to the Casa Hogar. Rebeca was afraid; she thought it was an annex "where you're often treated badly, brutally ." Kenya insisted.

Rebeca has been at the Children's Home for four months. "I'm about to finish high school, and I've taken beauty classes. We have psychology and an Alcoholics Anonymous group, which is what's helping me. I'm overcoming my fears; I feel confident in myself," she says excitedly .

“ And tonight I don't feel alone. I know we're not alone. We have rights and we can defend ourselves. Soon they'll give us a course to understand why they can't take me to jail just for wearing women's clothing , why they can't deny me service in places. Now I know we can defend ourselves and that the law is also on our side. I feel very happy about all of this,” she adds.

Four years after Paola Buenrostro's murder, Kenya has transformed her pain into tangible dreams and livable lives. 

Tonight she decides to pay tribute to her friend. She's accompanied by her lawyer, friends she made along the way, and transgender sex workers who lived with her on the night of September 30, 2016. 

Today, to remind us not to forget, they're preparing a performance. They recreated that night, from the moment they drank aniseed to when Paola got into the gray car and yelled for help to Kenya.

"This whole journey has been titanic, but I think there was a reason why Paola yelled at me that night. And tonight, four years later, I remember her with her smile, with her zest for life," Kenya Cuevas told Presentes.