Toward a Trans* Masculine Genealogy in South America

Abstract

L atin American trans* masculine individuals have often been erased from public discourse, both within their societies and within trans studies. On the one hand, within the region, it is frequent to hear that trans* masculinities are invisible. This invisibility or, rather, this erasure of our subjectivities, is directly related to the fact that trans* masculine identities are often not recognized as such and are thus disregarded (Álvarez Broz 2017;Fernández Romero, Torres, and Lenzi 2021). This situation can be attributed both to anti-trans discourses from conservative and progressive sectors, including trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), and to some sectors that consider themselves allies of a "trans* movement" yet do not address its plurality. Cissexist historical narratives have often also overlooked certain aspects of our histories that are crucial for understanding our biographies and our community-building and political practices.Within trans* studies, Latin American trans* masculinities have also tended to fall through the cracks. On the one hand, as a whole, trans* studies leans global North-centric (Rizki 2019), similar to queer, gay, and lesbian studies (Pérez and Radi 2019). Moreover, work on trans* in Latin America from both within and outside the region usually focuses on travestis and trans women (Radi 2018(Radi , 2019Rizki 2019). Trans* masculine contributions to Latin American trans* rights movements have also been undervalued and at times even unacknowledged.In this article, we focus on South American trans* masculine existence, especially in the continent's southern region. We begin by recuperating certain historical subjects who are often read by historians through a cissexist framework as examples of "strategic transvestism," a category that suggests that masculine "transvestism" was employed as a ruse to gain upward social mobility. 1 We attend instead to these subjects' narratives, histories, and first-person accounts, suggesting that, rather than examples of strategic transvestism, these subjects are of

Exposing Fascism: The Rise of Bolsonarismo and the Naked Politics of Brazil’s First Trans Men’s Football Team

“…The milieu in Brazil from 2016 to 2018 was turbulent, especially for queer and trans people, who found themselves in the crosshairs of the culture wars. The MBB contends that the very existence of its members’ trans bodies is a form of protest: one of the team’s taglines, for example, declares, “Our bodies on the pitch are art, activism, and resistance.” Trans contributions to LGBTQ+ activism are often sidelined (Fetner 2008), and trans men in particular have been historically invisibilized even within LGBTQ+ movements (Romero and Mendieta 2022). Thus, even though the MBB team is small in numerical terms, its members are significant representatives in the struggle for equality.…”