*Image from the film TransLatin@ Migration: Life, Love, and Triumphs by Salcedo. Courtesy Salcedo*

Cora Cervantes
@cora_cervantes

Bamby Salcedo is on a mission to spread TransLatina power.

Salcedo is president and chief executive officer of the TransLatin@ Coalition, a community-based organization that provides direct services to Transgender, Gender Nonconforming, and Intersex (TGI) immigrant women. Her work is focused on the visibility of the trans experience, and she wanted to capture what is happening in the present, but also to document the experience of transgender elders and members of the coalition who have community knowledge to share.

Salcedo produced TransLatin@ Migration: Life, Love, and Triumphs, a series of 25 short video stories about members of the “Trans Latinx” community who have crossed borders and are building a life in the United States. Salcedo says that what makes the project “amazing” is that it is completely centered on the trans experience and produced by a team of people with personal ties to the LGBTQ community, including the director of all the films, Armando Ibañez, known for uplifting LGBTQ+ narratives. “Many of us, you know, don't necessarily have the opportunity to tell our stories and document our stories… the media in general and primarily Hollywood has uplifted a few individuals who identify as trans people, but unfortunately, we're not part of those conversations. We're not part of that. So, this project was amazing in that way,” Salcedo said.

Translatin@ Migration: Life, Love, and Triumphs takes viewers across borders through the stories of TGI immigrants from Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The pieces highlight nuances in gender and sexuality, and allow viewers the opportunity to learn about how the individuals profiled affirmed their gender and the choices they have made to live their lives openly and authentically.

One example is Francesca, a trans immigrant woman from El Salvador. She was 14 when she decided to wear women’s clothes and openly declare herself a woman. She recalls her mother saying, “There is no problem for me because you were born from my womb. I am your mother, and you can be what you want to be.” But while her parents loved and accepted her, the place where she lived became a hotbed of gang activity.

‘We are letting the world know we are here.’

After facing insults and attacks, including a violent stabbing to the chest, Francesca found the hostile environment unbearable. She recalls living “like a prisoner” in her own home. Shortly after the stabbing, gang members recruited her, citing the many members of the LGBTQ community they had recruited to work selling drugs. Francesca was threatened with death if she didn’t join the gang. She managed to escape a brutal beating, and after arriving home severely bloodied and knowing she could not go to the police because of a history of dismissiveness towards transgender people, she decided to leave El Salvador.

She decided to migrate to the United States, where she thought she would be safe from harm. “If I did not leave my country, they would have killed me,” Francesca says in the video story, recalling the day she carried her bags and walked to the highway to cross into Guatemala. Shortly after, she joined the migrant caravan moving through Tecum, Guatemala. Through her story, viewers learn about her migration experience and her legal process to seek asylum in the U.S., including the hope she felt when she filed her asylum case while being placed in detention, and her overwhelming sadness at her request being denied. Francesca is still waiting for her asylum appeal to be reviewed. She says, “I am waiting and hoping everything will go well so I can stay here because I don’t ever want to return to my country.”

Salcedo’s 25 profiles come to light amid recent studies that examine the impact of negative transgender-related media messaging and it’s association with mental health outcomes for transgender adults. The Brown University and Fenway Institute research found that transgender individuals exposed to defamatory portrayals of the transgender community had a 28% elevated risk of experiencing psychological distress. This includes a 26% higher rate of anxiety, a 25% higher rate of post-traumatic stress disorder, and an 18% higher rate of depression. In the case of Translatin@ Migration: Life, Love, and Triumphs, the portrayals of the trans community center on empowerment, self-awareness, community, and self-acceptance. The piece not only transforms border narratives but creates a context that sheds a positive light on the trans community.

Victoria’s story is an example of an elder trans Latina. She left Acapulco, Mexico, at a young age and made her way to the U.S. in 2003. After struggling to find a job, she was offered an office job, but only if she cut her hair and presented herself as a man. She describes this requirement as painful, and something she agreed to do out of necessity. She kept a low profile for several years but eventually found a community-based organization with a space for sisterhood and the resources to seek hormone therapy and live more authentically. During this time, Victoria decided to live and work openly as a woman. She worked with human resources to ensure she was called by her name and that she was given the support she needed.

“It was a difficult process, but it was done, not at 100%, because there are still some people, older people, who did not accept those changes and did not want to.” Through her story, viewers are able to learn about the experience of someone trying to build a life on their terms while grappling with the challenges of not just gender but immigration, as someone who also worked to adjust their legal immigration status. Victoria is candid about being unable to be with her mother when she passed away because her legal status prevented her from traveling.

After producing the video stories, Salcedo also hosted a premiere that included a red carpet for the trans women who had shared their journeys. “We rented a theater, we did a red carpet, and it was to honor them, to make them feel like…they're also celebrities in their own right. Despite the fact that Hollywood doesn't necessarily recognize that, (I) wanted to show them that we recognize that,” said Salcedo, who also noted the sense of empowerment the event commanded. “What also makes it beautiful is that we are asserting ourselves in our society, right. Like we are letting the world know that, we're here, and you can learn about us and from us.”

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Cora Cervantes-Orta was born in México and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up within a diverse community taught her to understand issues from different perspectives. She completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia University and her Master's degree in multimedia journalism at New York University. Her work has been published by NBC News Digital, Al-Jazeera, NPR's Latino USA, Salon, NAHJ: palabra and Narratively. She has produced stories for MSNBC and NBC News NOW. During her time at NBC Universal she has worked as Diversity Coordinator for NBC News and MSNBC, and as an associate producer for MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton. Currently, she is an associate coverage producer for NBC News. Cora is passionate about equity in representation in media. She currently serves as vice president of NAHJ’s Los Angeles Chapter. She resides in East Los Angeles, California.