American utopia: trans women flee Central America
Four transgender women who fled Mexico and Central America for the United States recount why they embarked on the migrant journey. With different times and places, they all share the experience of state abandonment and a conservative society that pushed them to seek survival far from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador.
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Gender-based violence and a lack of opportunities force trans women from Central America and Mexico to migrate. The protagonists of this story, Sasha, Ana Andrea, Tanya, and Rachel, experienced abuses in their countries that drove them to flee for their lives.
They are part of some shocking figures: between October 1, 2019 and September 20, 2020, 350 transgender people were murdered worldwide, 98% of the victims were women and 82% of the cases happened in Central America, according to data from the Transgender Homicide Monitoring Project carried out by Transrespect vs Transphobia.
Faced with this reality, trans women not only flee but also organize and create their own ways of resisting and supporting one another. Ana Andrea Molina is proof of this. Undocumented herself, she created Casa Anandrea, . There, they also provide legal assistance to women so they can leave detention centers after crossing the southern border of the United States.
Sasha, Rachel, and Tanya have been there and share their story about the organization's work that brought them a new lease on life.
This report was produced with the support of the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) as part of its Express Yourself! initiative in Latin America.
This article was originally published in Alharaca
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