Transgender Issues in Guatemala

My semester ended on Monday, when I submitted my last paper.  Now I wait for paper grades and semester grades.  As it stands, I’ve finished my second year of PhD studies.  Two down and three to go.  My second to last paper was Transgender Prejudice in Latin America for a course called  Globalization and Lifelong Learning.  I learned a lot writing it, and was honored to interview my dear friend, Transgender Icon Ana Christina Garcia as part of the research. Her bits are redacted from this paper as per our agreement.  As I’m still resting after an emotionally nasty semester, I thought I’d submit bits from that paper for this month’s column.  Fair warning, as this is academic writing, it’s um, formal.  Complete sentences and such. 

            In any case, what follows are excerpts from that paper.

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Introduction

My project investigates what it means to be transgender in the global south.  While I am intimately knowledgeable with transgender life in the United States, and am  familiar with what it means to be in transgender in the UK, I’ve only read about what it means in other cultures.  I know of the kothi-hijra and their struggle for rights in India, and of  Kathoeys in Thailand due to previous classes and friendship with some who emigrated to the US.  I know next to nothing about the transgender experience on the African continent aside from Egypt, where being a transgender woman means extreme punishment.  However, when I check the murder rates for transgender women in the world, Latin America always tops the list (Connell, 2021).  For example, “Transgender woman Andresa Santos was beaten to death Saturday morning April 24 [2021], in the capital city of Manaus Brazil” (“Brazilian Trans Woman Beaten to Death on the Street in the Capital City,” 2021, para.1).  In 2020, Latin America accounted for 287 (82%) of the 350 transgender people murdered in 2020.  Of those, Brazil had 152: 43% of the world’s total (Wareham , 2020, p.1).  As my dissertation work concerns violence against transgender women, I felt compelled to research the possible reasons.  My first challenge was that I do not know any transgender women in Brazil, nor do I speak Portuguese, but my friend “Maria” hails from Guatemala, and speaks English.

            I write this paper acknowledging my privilege as a person of white, western European ancestry, and that the land where I wrote this was once home to the Susquehannock people.  My ancestors were both colonized (Scottish) and colonizers (German).  I am still barely scratching the surface of my topic with this paper, as I have not lived the life as a person of that area.

[edit]

Numbers and threats in Guatemala

            As stated above, life is difficult for transgender women in Guatemala.  According to a paper submitted to the UN by Organización Trans Reinas de la Noche et al (2018), Guatemala has violated International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in four ways:

• “Guatemala fails to take effective measures to eradicate patterns of discrimination against transgender women. Guatemalan legislation does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This violates the State’s obligations under Articles 2(1) and 26 of the Covenant.
• Guatemala fails to adequately prevent, investigate and prosecute incidents of gender-based violence and killings against transgender women. Transgender women are constantly targeted for abuse. They suffer cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including a constant threat of violence that amounts to torture, forced disappearances and sexual violence. This violates the State’s obligations under Articles 2(1), 6, 9, 17 and 26 of the Covenant.
• Human rights defenders as well as political representatives who stand up for the human rights of trans women are subject to threats and harassment, and in extreme cases, human rights defenders are subject to physical violence by both state and non-state actors. This violates the State’s obligations under Articles 2(1), 6, 9, 17, 19, 22 and 26 of the Covenant.
• Guatemala violates the right to legal recognition of gender identity, by refusing to allow transgender Individuals to change the gender designation on their official identity documents. This violates Articles 2(1), 16, 17 and 26 of the Covenant” (pp 1-2).

Transgender women in Guatemala are usually seen as gay men by the public “due to society’s conflation of gender identity and sexual orientation, and experience physical and verbal abuse…” (Miller et al, 2020, p. 2).  If a transgender woman is arrested, she is often put in a men’s jail, which increases the likelihood she will be raped or assaulted (HRW, 2021). 

Latin American activists “coined the term “transfemicide” or “transfeminicide,” referring to the murder of trans women because of their gender, as female, and gender identity as trans women”  (HRW, 2021, p. 24).  Research shows that a transgender woman in Latin America has a life expectancy of 35 years (“The Average Latin American Trans Woman Will Die before Turning 35”,  2015), unless they encounter a group “social cleansing” at which time that number is much less (Connell, 2021).  Transgender women are often thrown out of their homes, are homeless, and must resort to sex work to survive (HRW, 2021).  In Guatemala, the TG population has a high number of sex workers (86%) most of whom use illicit drugs and/or binge drink (Miller et al, 2018, p. 50).

 Social cleansing

            One of the major dangers facing Latin American transgender women is social cleansing.  (Connell, 2021; Dfensor, 2012; Rodríguez Madera, 2020).  Social cleansing (or cleaning, depending upon the source) is “ threats from vigilantes, state-backed death squads, or armed para-statal groups” (Connell, 2021, p. 89).  Dfensor (2012) writes

“we observe various degrading events such as the forced displacement and confinement of which countless people who live and work on the streets of our country are currently victims to “clean” the urban image; the mass murders inside prisons and addiction rehabilitation centers to “get rid” of those who represent a supposed threat to the population; lynchings of those who are socially convicted of crimes; the hiding of indigenous people in tourist centers…” (p. 1). 

Rodríguez Madera (2020) writes that violence is mostly perpetrated by the Maras, or criminal gangs. “The Maras have been involved in the persecution of people who are seen as transgres­sors of the gender binary, and thus, trans people have felt the burden of their actions” (p. 12). She continues  “{Maras} are responsible for the enforced disappearances of people in Guatemala. They are extremely transphobic gangs” (p. 13). 

An article in the April 29, 2021 New York Times discussed the situation in Honduras, which is similar to Guatemala:

“Transgender women in Honduras say they are constantly harassed, beaten and even killed, and that the violence is often perpetrated by law enforcement.  “They call it social cleansing,” said Claudia Spellmant, a transgender activist who fled the country in 2013 after repeated attacks, and now lives in New York. “They don’t want trans people on the street… A lawyer for the government said that while it was clear that strong religious beliefs — 85 percent of the population of Honduras is either Catholic or evangelical — fostered discrimination against transgender people, Honduras “categorically rejects” the notion that Ms. Hernández was killed by police officers or soldiers.” (Robles, F. 2021).

Maya Berdache

            Robles (2021) quotes a lawyer about “Catholic or Evangelical” which bridges to the next topic.  The Maya who lived in this area before the Spanish obviously were not Christians of any kind.  This means that the Spanish colonizers brought the religion with them.  Is the current hate toward transgender people due to the religious beliefs handed down by the colonizers, or was it a holdover from the Mayan religion? 

            First, I’ll examine the role of women in Mayan society.  According to Brumfiel (2013) “Recent research on craft production also supports the idea that male and female household members collaborated in many activities” (p. 568).  Gendered  division of labor did not exist.  She later writes that males and females often were depicted together in Mayan sculpture show that could hold high status. “Archaeologists have ignored the clear evidence provided by figurines of men and women engaging in identical activities, such as sitting on artistic metates /benches, smoking cigars, and carrying out shamanic rituals (p. 569).  Brumfiel (2013) believes that the earliest Spanish texts may be biased.  “The texts were produced by sixteenth-century observers of native culture, and they are skewed by the biases of their mostly Western, mostly elite, mostly male authors” (p. 564).   Here we see the early influence of the colonial misinterpretation.  “Perhaps because much of this supporting ethnographic data was drawn from contemporary Maya-speaking communities, the model of gender complementarity was accepted by archaeologists working with the ancient Maya’ (p. 567).  Again, there is the stain of colonialism. 

Gilden (2006) writes “matrilineality and matrilocality in tribes like the Navajo historically accorded masculinity and femininity equal social status in contrast with the subordinate status that femininity has occupied historically in Euro-American culture” (p. 242).  Gilden and Brumfiel seem to agree.  Looper (2002) writes “many images of Mayan rulers negotiate a fluid mixed-gender  realm, which afforded multiple alternatives to polarized “male” or “female” identities” (p. 173).   He also believes that “there is strong evidence for the existence of this category [berdache or two spirit] among the ancient Maya” (p. 176), as are “a culturally recognized third gender” (p. 176).  Looper (2002) also writes that many Mayan deities have both male and female aspects, including the Maize God, who is one of the chief deities. 

            The European colonists called people who didn’t conform to their sexual or gender norms “berdache” (Gilden, 2006).   Gilden  writes “”Berdache” derives from the Arabic term for “male prostitute” and unsurprisingly has become disfavored” (p. 240). Gilden then writes “While the closest analogues to berdachism in mainstream American society, transvestitism and transgenderism, are marked by a heavily maligned and marginalized status, the berdache were traditionally well-respected and integrated into tribal life” (p. 241).  He further states “As with most Native American institutions that they failed to understand, European settlers and their American successors made a persistent effort to eradicate the berdache (p. 239).

Picq (2019) writes:

Debates on whether to approach Native sexualities as berdache, two-spirit, or third genders miss the point. Native sexualities are not relevant to add more genders to established sexual registries; they invoke complex social fabrics that are untranslatable in the limited framework of hetero-/homosexuality” (p. 7).

So, there is some evidence that the hatred of transgender people in Guatemala (and the rest of Central America which were once Mayan lands) is due to their forced conversion to Christianity.  Over the centuries, this prejudice became ingrained in the culture.  The plight of transgender people in Guatemala are another after-effect of the European white conquest and colonization of the Mayan people.

Conclusion

            Césaire (1972) wrote “Europe is indefensible” (p. 32).  Two of the injustices inflicted upon the colonized was the imposition of religion, and that of  European mores.  This changed the basic culture of the powerful Maya until today, present day Guatemala is a capitalist country gripped in poverty.  The Spanish treated the Mayans as inferiors, as colonizers do.  Césaire, (1972) writes

…that the chief culprit in this domain is Christian pedantry, which laid down the dishonest equations Christianity = civilization, paganism = savagery, from which there could not but ensue abominable colonialist and racist consequences, whose victims were to be the Indians, the Yellow peoples, and the Negroes (p. 33).

            In this case, I add another category to his list: transgender people, especially transgender women.  Latin American transgender women who “come out” live short, unhappy lives.  As Kendi (2019) wrote “From the beginning, to make races was to make racial hierarchy” (p. 40).  Lower class transgender women lose their homes, family, access to health care, and are often forced into sex work just to survive.  While out on the streets, they can be targeted by roving gangs seeking to “cleanse” them from the city. 

            [I believe] education is the answer to anti-transgender prejudice.  However, is that possible in Guatemala?  Stromquist & Monkman (2014) write “Where cultural and social impediments to educational access exist, significant racial, caste, religious, or gender gaps may still persist if rights are limited to laws on paper to be enacted by governments and absent engagement with unequal social structures and hierarchies” (p.65).  There are significant cultural disparities in Guatemala, as there appear to be in so many former colonies in the global south.  There is no easy solution.  Transgender women in Latin America face centuries of ingrained prejudice.  Perhaps someday, people like [Maria] who educate one person at a time, will make enough of a difference that the culture will begin to shift.  Perhaps, the Maras will no longer be able to roam the streets freely, “cleansing” whomever they deem deviant.  Transgender women face a hard road in the United States, but nothing compared to what those in Latin America or other former colonized countries in the global south face.  The question I must answer for myself is “what am I prepared to do about it?” 

References:

• Arifuddin, M. R. (2021). Gender dan ideologi dalam media di Indonesia: Analisis pemberitaan komunitas crosshijaber (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pelita Harapan).
• “‘They Call It Social Cleansing’: Court May Force Honduras to Better Protect Trans People.” The New York Times, 29 Apr. 2021. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/world/americas/Honduras-transgender-rights.html.
•  “Brazilian Trans Woman Beaten to Death on the Street in the Capital City.” Planet Trans, 26 Apr. 2021, https://planettransgender.com/brazilian-trans-woman-beaten-to-death/.
• Brumfiel, E. M. (2013). The Archaeology of Gender in Mesoamerica: Moving Beyond Gender. A Companion to Gender Prehistory, 564.
• Césaire, A. (1972). Discourse on Colonialism. 1955. Trans. Joan Pinkham. New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Guatemala – The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/guatemala/. Accessed 20 Apr. 2021.
• Connell, R. (2021). Transgender health: on a world scale. Health Sociology Review, 30(1), 87-94.
• “Defining Transgender Terms.” Https://Www.Apa.Org, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/09/ce-corner-glossary. Accessed 23 Apr. 2021
• DFensor. (2012). Limpieza social: respuesta falaz ante la crisis social. Special issue of DFensor: Revista de derechos humanos, D.F. México, April 2012, 10(4).
• Gilden, A. (2006). Preserving the Seeds of Gender Fluidity: Tribal courts and the berdache tradition. Mich. J. Gender & L., 13, 237.
• HRW – Human Rights Watch : “It’s What Happens When You Look Like This”. Violence and Discrimination Against LGBT People in Guatemala, March 2021
  https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/2047571/%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s+What+Happens+When+You+ Look + Like + This% E2% 80% 9D_0.pdf (accessed April 19, 2021)
• Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One world.
• Looper, M. G. (2002). Women-men (and men-women): Classic Maya rulers and the third gender. Ancient Maya Women, 171-202.
• Miller, W. M., Miller, W. C., Barrington, C., Weir, S. S., Chen, S. Y., Emch, M. E., … & Paz-Bailey, G. (2020). Sex work, discrimination, drug use and violence: a pattern for HIV risk among transgender sex workers compared to MSM sex workers and other MSM in Guatemala. Global public health, 15(2), 262-274.
• Organización Trans Reinas de la Noche, et al. Violaciones de Derechos Humanos Contra Mujeres Transgénero En Guatemala. 122^o período de sesiones del Comité de Derechos Humanos Ginebra, Feb. 2018.
• Picq, M. L. (2019). Decolonizing Indigenous Sexualities: Between Erasure and Resurgence.
• Rodríguez Madera, S. L. (2020). From necropraxis to necroresistance: transgender experiences in Latin America. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260520980393.
• “The Average Latin American Trans Woman Will Die before Turning 35.” PinkNews – Gay News, Reviews and Comment from the World’s Most Read Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans News Service, 9 Dec. 2015, https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/12/09/the-average-latin-american-trans-woman-will-die-before-turning-35/.
• Robles, Frances. (29 Apr. 2021) “‘They Call It Social Cleansing’: Court May Force Honduras to Better Protect Trans People.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/world/americas/honduras-transgender-rights.html.
• Stromquist, N. P., & Monkman, K. (Eds.). (2014). Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures. R&L Education.
• Trexler, R. C. (2002). Making the American berdache: Choice or constraint?. Journal of Social History, 35(3), 613-636.
• Wareham, Jamie. “Murdered, Suffocated And Burned Alive – 350 Transgender People Killed In 2020.” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2020/11/11/350-transgender-people-have-been-murdered-in-2020-transgender-day-of-remembrance-list/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2021.

 

 

Tags: featured, Guatemala, Transgender

Category: Transgender History