Zoe, president of Gondolín and victim of transvesticide, was laid to rest.
Zoe López, activist and president of the Hotel Gondolín, was laid to rest on Tuesday by her colleagues and friends. Her killer, who murdered her, is in custody and the case is being investigated as a homicide.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dozens of people arrived Tuesday night at the Hotel Gondolín, located at 924 Aráoz Street, to hold a wake for Aunt Zoe, the hotel's president. Zoe was the victim of a transphobic murder last Saturday , perpetrated by Fabián Norberto Villegas, with whom she had been in a relationship for many years.
Aráoz Street was closed off. A little before midnight, friends, activists, and family began to enter the wake to say their goodbyes. Before that, her friends read a moving text that reflected Zoe's spirit and driving force: to fight and never give up.
It was transvesticide
Zoe was murdered on Saturday afternoon. Her attacker contacted 911 to report an assault he had committed against his partner. They were at the Hotel Paraíso, located at 2300 México Street in the Balvanera neighborhood. Police officers from the 3B precinct of the Buenos Aires City Police responded and found Zoe with a fatal wound in her groin. Minutes later, paramedics from SAME (the city's emergency medical service) confirmed she was dead.
Zoe's killer, in addition to confessing his crime to the police, wrote three posts on Facebook. He not only justified the fatal stabbing of the 47-year-old woman, but also tried to blame the victim herself.
“I’m not going to play innocent, but we’re both to blame. My heart is breaking today,” posted 38-year-old Fabián Villegas on his Facebook page on Saturday at 11:32 p.m., after he had already been arrested. In other posts throughout the afternoon, he also mentioned other incidents of violence against his partner in the preceding days.
According to the Télam news agency, on Monday the perpetrator of the transphobic murder was transferred to the detention center of Unit 28 of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF), located at 550 Talcahuano Street, for questioning. He was charged with "aggravated homicide." It is still unknown whether the aggravating circumstance of the victim's gender identity was added, thus classifying the crime as transfemicide.
"We will never abandon your dreams"
“Today it’s our turn to march for her,” they wrote on the Instagram account of Hotel Gondolín, the place that was her space of identity and self-discovery since she arrived in Buenos Aires. And the space she presided over for years. There, she fulfilled the dream of a large community of transvestites and trans people who had nowhere to live. Zoe López García had daughters, nieces, friends. Dozens of trans women whom she sheltered and who sheltered, and who, after her murder, feel orphaned.
“We have no words to describe the pain we feel today. We don’t want to accept that this really happened. We walked so many marches together, shared so many struggles, and today we have to say goodbye to Aunt Zoe,” said the Mocha Celis Popular High School in their invitation to Zoe’s wake.
“We don’t want to do it. It hurts and disorients us; we find ourselves caught between anger, pain, and tears, but, as we learned so well by her side, we will raise our heads and fight for her so that justice calls this what it was: a transvesticide,” they added.
While the girls from the Hotel Gondolin bid her farewell with a motto turned into a promise: We will never abandon your dreams .
From Salta to Buenos Aires
Diana Zoe López García, known as Aunt Zoe, arrived in Buenos Aires in the mid-1990s, when she was 14 years old. She came from Salta, from where she was “expelled by the provincial system,” as she stated in a video made for LGBT Pride Day. Shortly after, she settled in the Hotel Gondolín, at 924 Aráoz Street in the City of Buenos Aires, where she became president.
The iconic shelter primarily serves women who experience transphobia, discrimination, and institutional violence. “It’s a non-profit organization where we empower our fellow women so they can have a better quality of life through education, health, and safety,” said Zoe del Gondolín.
Zoe in everyone's memory
As soon as the news of his murder became known, farewells multiplied on social media.
It was her work at the establishment over the years that made her "the great mother of a huge family, with many daughters and nieces," psychologist and activist Marlene Wayar told this agency.
The Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity stated: “Zoe López was brutally murdered by her partner. She was the manager of the Hotel Gondolín, a shelter that saved the lives of hundreds of trans women. We are filled with anger, outrage, and a sense of injustice. It was a trans woman. And from the Ministry of Women , we will continue to demand justice.”
The general secretary of the Association of Sex Workers of Argentina (AMMAR), Georgina Orellano, also expressed her condolences on the same social media platform: “With great sadness and anger, we received the news of the transphobic murder of our comrade Zoe, a long-time activist at the Hotel Gondolin and a member of the trans community. Zoe, comrade and sister in the struggle, we still can't believe it. We demand justice. Stop the murders of trans women!”
On Tuesday afternoon, Zoe's colleagues, friends, and people who worked alongside her, particularly those living in Gondolín, stated that they will continue working for the space.
Filmmaker Isa Solas remembered the hotel's president and expressed her shock. “How bitter it is to remember today that Zoe hosted and organized this workshop with us, and allowed me to film it, because she knew how important these issues were to members of the community. It is unbearable to know today that she died in exactly the same way as most trans femicides, so common in the world.”
“I barely knew her. I worked with her because I went to El Gondo to run workshops. I thought she was someone I cared about, and I did care about her a lot, but I didn't know her well,” María Pia Ceballos told Presentes. Hours after Zoe's murder was announced, she wrote on her Instagram account : “While we were marching in Salta, we received the news of the murder of Aunt Zoe, a woman from Salta who lived in Buenos Aires and who ran El Gondolín. It's the hotel where many trans women find support, shelter, food, and a family: the trans community. I knew her, and I'm grateful to her for the opportunity to work with the women at El Gondo.”
The dream of registered work
In 2022, thanks to the Diana Sacayán-Lohana Berkins Transgender and Travesti Employment Quota Law, Zoe obtained a job in the Casa Rosada dining hall. There, on Monday, November 13, two days before her murder, her colleagues paid tribute to her.
“This place is very important to me. This space gave me life and changed it. I broke down all those barriers because before, the police opened the doors of patrol cars and cells for me; and here, the police opened the door for me to enter my job, a formal and registered job,” Zoe said in a video published by the Casa Rosada account to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Trans Employment Quota Law .
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