These selected photographs serve as a representation of the activist work carried out by documentary photographer Eugenia Azar, who accompanies the struggle of the travesti trans collective Las Históricas Argentinas (The Historic Trans Femininities and Travestis). Las Históricas are at the forefront of the fight for historic reparations as victims of a genocidal state whose organization is designed to systematically eliminate them. This claim emerged in 2005 but was overshadowed by other demands for civil rights, such as marriage equality and a law recognizing gender identity. It resurfaced with renewed strength in 2021 amid the pandemic. Faced with the socio-sanitary crisis and state abandonment, the travesti trans collective self-organized. The pandemic exposed the ongoing material deprivation of socioeconomic rights for the collective that results in avoidable deaths under conditions of extreme poverty. Settling this debt, along with the generational trauma of having survived genocide, entails laying the foundation to ensure...
To Exist and Resist: A Photographic Essay
Eugenia Azar completed her studies in visual arts at the National Arts University in Buenos Aires. She is a cultural producer, artist, and curator. For several years, she has been working with the travesti trans collective, creating archives based on testimonies and photographs to preserve the memory of trans femininities and masculinities.
María del Pilar Cabrera (Pili Cabrera) is an audiovisual producer and creator of the YouTube channel Activismo Travesti Trans (Travesti Trans Activism), showcasing fifteen years of original content dedicated to the travesti trans community. She holds a master's degree in documentary journalism, and her master's thesis, the documentary Me llamo Marian (My Name Is Marian), was a finalist for the Asterisco Festival Internacional de Cine LGBTIQ+ (Asterisco International LGBTIQ+ Film Festival).
Tania Libertad Balderas is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow within the Department of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. She holds a PhD in English literature from the University of New Mexico. Her field of study is twentieth-century comparative literature, centering on Chicanx, Latin American, Francophone Caribbean, and Native American literature. She specializes in Marxism, feminism, theater studies, social movements, and decolonial theories.
Eugenia Azar, Pili Cabrera, Marlene Wayar, Tania Libertad Balderas; To Exist and Resist: A Photographic Essay. TSQ 1 February 2024; 11 (1): 141–148. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-11131754
Download citation file:
Advertisement