Fifth Post: "My Story Is Really Not Mine": An Interview with Latina Trans Activist Ruby Bracamonte
Ruby Bracamonte was born in El Salvador, which she would later flea to the U.S. Bracamonte survived many things in her life including kidnapping, gang rape, and being taken advantage of by immigration lawyers. After arriving in Washington D.C., she would come into the realization that she was not a gay men, but a trans woman. She has been an active member of support groups for Latinx LGTBQ groups.
Through Bracamonte’s transition story we can learn how difficult it can be find help in Spanish for trans folk. When she was in L.A. she was able to create La Clinica del Pueblo for Latinx people to meet. It was through socializing here that she was able to understand what she wanted to be. These meeting started to be a chosen family for the members. During the meetings they put on drag shows and attracted a larger crowd. Mariposas was another group put together in for latinx trans people to deal with homophobia and it was here that realized there was a difference between the gay community and them. After that they began to learn about transitioning, everything from medications to learning how to express the changes hey were gong through and demand respect for them. They were also able to create networks for health care, “If it wasn’t because of the support groups, La Clinica and all the other organizations, a lot of us wouldn’t be here. A lot of us would have killed ourselves,” (447).
Once Bracamonte becomes more comfortable in her trans identity and begins taking hormones, she refuse to hide herself away. She encourages her friends to make themselves visible during the day. She pushes for the visibility and doesn’t care who is watching. She also advocates for access to health care, jobs, and information. She wants people to know how to change their name and social as well as how to change their body. Barcamonte tries to go out of the way be people’s support system, at time housing 11 people in her apartment. She talks about being a latina trans activist, “If you’re going to do this, you need to be particular of the needs, particularly of the language,” (453). She really felt that she had a different voice because she had to speak for immigrant latinx transgender people. She talks about how her activism has changed her made her more public and less soft. She does important work with visibility, city council, jails, and rape survivors, amongst other issues.
This specific article felt right because I think I shows how the things on TV were being tied back to the activism going on in the community, or how the lack of services like Ruby Bracamonte provides could damage people. For example, visibility is at the core of a lot of Ruby Bracamonte’s activism, and stories like Jennifer Diva’s picture and Linda Yepes’ story was important to the visibility of other trans people. Seeing yourself reflected in media could be the driving force to transition or come out. In cases like the hate crime discussed later is an example of the kind of thing that she would fighting to pass policies about.
In addition, I think it show some resources that people watching these stories on TV need. Trans people who do not know where to go should be able to see stories like this on Univision and get resources from there. We do this for domestic abuse cases or eating disorders, so homeless trans people or sick trans people could really use it. Not only knowing where to get help, but also knowing that they will speak your language really is encouraging to go seek the aid.
Doestch-Kidder, Sharon. ""My Story Is Really Not Mine": An Interview with Latina Trans Activist Ruby Bracamonte." GenderWatch 37.2 (2011): 441-73. Print.