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BUENOS AIRES (Argentina). When the snow lashed in Tres Lagos , a town in deep Patagonia, three children gathered in the warmth of a 1990s-era home to dance some cumbias. They fought the frost by shaking their bodies, while "Ni de piedra ni de madera" by Los Cartageneros played in the background. At 18, one of them, Martín, decided to migrate to Buenos Aires. Gaby and Nayla experienced their gender transition and stayed in this town in the province of Santa Cruz—then with fewer than 200 inhabitants, but today it has fewer than 500. There they built their homes—shelters, loves, and heartbreaks.

The house and the body

Three and a half decades later, at the Espacio Tole Tole Teatro , in the popular and cosmopolitan conclave of the commercial district of Once (Buenos Aires), a different kind of group is being built, a trench and a "balm" in times of crisis. Martín Marcou directs the play Mi corazón no es de piedra ni de madera (My Heart Is Not Made of Stone or Wood ). Premiered in September, it will run until November. It stars Morena Berenise Torres (Morena Yfran), Facundo Tomás, and Cris Bernal Niño. It is a tribute to Martín's friends. The play depicts the daily life of Gaby, a trans woman living in a town in southern Patagonia, and her relationship with her loved ones. Her estranged mother, a dog she adores, her occasional husband who is a foreman for a local asphalt company, and Jairo, a traveler she has just met.

“One of the questions I asked myself when writing this play was why they decided to stay in Tres Lagos . Their homes are very important as a physical space and , way of being in the world, by staying there, is eminently political. The strongest political action is to exist ,” Marcou shared in a conversation with Presentes at the theater she opened in 2013.

“We migrated to big cities in search of answers.”

“ Many of us migrated to big cities in search of answers. Most of us were expelled from our homes for being part of a sexual dissidence. We had to rebuild our identities ,” Marcou explained.

The play focuses on the love and heartbreak of southern Patagonia , where the towns are visited by men traveling for work, and far from family mandates, other possibilities emerge. “ There was something in that gossip of bodies meeting that transcended the question of gender and sexual identities. They allowed themselves to be with a trans girl or a gay boy. There was something that prevailed that had to do with desire. I found it fascinating that you allowed that to circulate,” Marcou confessed.

When Morena read the script for the play, she didn't hesitate. "I was interested in it being a love story," shared the actress from the transvestite collective who plays Gaby. Morena is 54 years old and is from the Buenos Aires town of Bernal, where she decided not to migrate, but to stay. 

“We long for someone to love us. But we also ask ourselves—and we're still working on it—how do we let our guard down a bit and say, well, yes, there are people who love us, who fall in love with us ? History has always portrayed us as people of consumption. We've heard it so many times, and from such a young age, that even we believe the story. So when someone approaches us who truly wants to share something, we say They're crazy, they're lying, '” the actress said of the collective's emotional experiences.

Gaby and Nayla, from friends to characters

With its harsh steppe grasslands and cold, dry climate, the village of Tres Lagos encompasses seven blocks along Route 40, at kilometer 765. It was founded in 1937 and its name refers to the crossroads leading to Lakes Viedma, Tar, and San Martín. According to the latest census in 2022, it has a population of 408. 

Gaby, the inspiration for the work, recently retired after working as a municipal employee. Nayla Fernández—who, along with Martín and Gaby, formed the trio of childhood friends—is the first transvestite to be a Tres Lagos Development Commissioner .

“Now we have the internet, there's a different level of communication and access to information, but at the time, one of them took hormones by mail . She would go pick up the hormones in El Calafate, 160 kilometers away,” Martín commented. Her theatrical quest was to show other configurations of the trans universe that were different from those that exist in the city .

“These aren't the girls who go out onto the streets of big cities holding up a sign. They were fighting their battles, but in a small town. It's very different, neither better nor worse, and it's good to see that. Those stories, those lives exist, they have value. I wanted to tell them through theater ,” she explained.

Real lives

Morena Yfran wakes up early every day to go to the National Congress in Buenos Aires. She works on the security staff. Sometimes she gets emotional and thinks, "I have a job thanks to my colleagues." Since the Transvestite Labor Quota Law , she can reveal herself at work. In her previous jobs, she disguised herself as a man . It's a great challenge for her to portray another transvestite who is independent, has her own home and job. Every weekday, she anxiously awaits Saturday to do so.

From a young age, she knew she wanted to act. “My mom danced, my dad painted. I dabbled in art. I loved dancing, I did shows, I did school events. I would go anywhere to perform,” she recalled.

For her, art is a "fundamental pillar through which we express ourselves and feel." "Not giving art space is stagnant, hurting us. Neither the community nor the people who love art will allow it, so we will continue fighting," she reflected, referring to the current situation of cuts and censorship in Argentine culture .

“ Besides being a balm, art is a space where you produce thought and research in terms of acting . Meanwhile, you reflect on the situation and construct responses for survival through encounter. We in our community know a lot about that. Everything that's happening is very powerful, and here we are creating theater as a response, no matter what,” Marcou concluded.

"My Heart Is Not Made of Stone or Wood" will be presented on Saturdays at 9 p.m. at Espacio Tole Tole Teatro (Pasteur 683, Buenos Aires). Tickets can be purchased through Alternativa .