Trans women in Mexico City honor hate crime victims on Day of Dead

Mexico City, Nov 3 (EFE).- Trans women in Mexico City held a traditional Day of the Dead vigil to pay tribute to members of their marginalized community who had been murdered.

“Today we are making an offering with which every year we remember women of our community. It is a way of remembering them with love and affection on this traditional day,” said Kenya Cuevas, one of Mexico’s most influential trans rights activists.

At least 43 trans women were murdered in Mexico in 2020.

“To all of them I would say that they will never be forgotten, that the Casa (de las Muñecas Tiresias) will remember them with love. I will never be able to give them back their lives, but I will give them back their dignity with things like tonight,” Cuevas said.

Cuevas is the founder of the Casa de las Muñecas Tiresias and the Casa Hogar Paola Buenrostro, centers where trans women can seek counseling and shelter.

The vigil took place on the street where Paola Buenrostro, a trans woman, was murdered in 2016.

Mexican authorities issued a public apology in September this year for the murder of Buenrostro.

The trans women said they were grateful their rights are starting to be recognized even though there is still a long way to go.

“Our revenge is to be happy,” Cuevas says. EFE

ia/mp/jt