Cochinelli: A Historiography of Transfeminist Praxis in Ecuador

• In Event: Transfeminista: A Cartography of Transfeminist Praxis across the Americas

Abstract

This presentation historicizes travestis’ and trans women’s leadership and key roles in the movement towards the 1997 decriminalization of homosexuality in Ecuador through the work of an organization called Cochinelli. It contextualizes travestis' and trans women’s experiences of social marginalization and police violence within the broader political and economic landscape of Ecuador during the decades preceding the emergence of the decriminalization movement. A careful analysis of the historical context reveals that it was precisely the extreme social marginalization to which travestis and trans women were subjected which galvanized them to pursue a strategy for decriminalization that demanded a high level of public visibility and personal risk. Previously a largely underground network with a clear mission to combat police brutality through the decriminalization of homosexuality, Cochinelli's strategy and tactics were both groundbreaking and extraordinarily effective in empowering and mobilizing travestis and trans women. However, government recognition of the organization as an NGO resulted in the swift demise of Cochinelli. The disintegration of the group, following its formalization as an NGO in 1998, evidences the incompatibility of respectability politics and activist professionalization with the quotidian experiences of the travestis and trans women, predominantly sex workers, whose grassroots activism led to this historic advancement in LGBT rights in Ecuador. I theorize this incompatibility between formalized non-governmental structures and the self-organization of travestis and trans women as one of the central influencing factors in the articulation of a transfeminist praxis in Ecuador in the following decade.

Author

• Claudia S Garriga-Lopez, New York University