Introduction to a Group of Trans Women in Madrid
The metro station in Madrid’s Chueca neighborhood. Mattie Baird, August 2023.
Please note: Portions of the English version of this site/newsletter are translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence software (https://www.deepl.com/) Therefore, there may be grammatical errors present.
Dear reader,
I hope you are well. Over the past 3 weeks, I have been immersing myself in a group of trans women, all who have migrated from Latin America to Spain for their own reasons. I can't yet tell you all about what I have been encountering through my work with this group because I am working diligently on getting all the necessary types of consent. However, I wanted to share a few main notes with you about things that I have already obtained consent for or that do not require any type of consent to share.
While there is a lot of LGTBIQ+ culture in Chueca, some interviewees from Madrid have told me that Chueca is full of upper class people and the culture is dominated by cis gay men. From my observations, this is true. There are a few LGTBIQ+ organizations that have their headquarters in Chueca, but most of the organizations I have met are located in the Lavapiés (or Malasaña) neighborhood.
During my first day in Madrid, I had a scheduled meeting with the leaders of an LGTBIQ+ organization. We had planned for the meeting to be between me and two of the leaders of the organization. I arrived a few minutes before the scheduled meeting and there was a group of people gathering in the main room of the organization's headquarters. The person who greeted me at the door said, "Now our trans women's group is meeting in the room. Would you like to come with me to the meeting and then we can chat?" "Sure," I said. In the room, 6 transgender women greeted me with much joy and affection. They were participating in an activity that they do every week called 'dynamics.' How exactly the activity works changes each week... One participant in the group is chosen by another person in the group each week to lead the dynamic the week beforehand. That day when I first arrived, the dynamic consisted of all the group members sharing a bit about their experiences with activism and solidarity support. Each person had a unique mix of experiences to share with the group. From my perspective, the purpose of this activity was to help the group prepare for a community solidarity activity. For a long time, the group has been talking about how they could organize a solidarity event to support the community around them.
A few weeks later, the plans have slowly solidified. As of now, they are organizing an event that will take place on the first Saturday of September. There will be monologues, shows, food and more for the local community to come together and appreciate the talents of this group of trans women. Within the LGTBIQ+ community, according to several conversations I have had with leaders of LGTBIQ+ organizations in Spain, food insecurity is even though more prevalent within the LGTBIQ+ collective. Even, LGTBIQ+ people who are also immigrants/refugees have more barriers to accessing food. So, this organization I'm working with has a food bank. For the event that the trans women's group is organizing, instead of charging people who will be attending the event, the group is going to ask attendees to bring a food donation of 1 kilogram or more to refill the bank.
In addition to being part of the group and working with these women to support the group in moving towards its goal, I have had the great privilege of getting to know most of the members of the group through one-on-one conversations. At the moment, I am working on some writing pieces to highlight the experiences of particular individuals. When I proposed the research to the supervising entities at Davidson College, I had a slightly different idea of what to do in Madrid... originally I was thinking of interviewing 15-20 people in this city, but it has become clear that it is more powerful to focus on individuals that I can get to know deeply and work towards a more complete understanding each day that I am here, rather than switching between participants each day without hearing everything that the previous participant feels like sharing with me.
During my last days, I will be sharing more than once/week on this blog/newsletter. If it bothers you, it is possible to unsubscribe from the newsletter through the mailbox at the bottom of the post. As always, thanks for reading. Talk to you soon.
I'd love to hear from you. You can leave me a message in the comments area below, send me an email (mabaird@davidson.edu) or contact me through my contact page, which you'll find in the navigation panel at the top of any page on the site.