Suitcases By Belén

For a long time, our archives were in the psychiatricand police archives. Today we have our own archiveswhere we are starting to tell our story', says Belén. Sheis a promoter of the Trans Memory Archive, that gathersimages and stories of trans women in Argentina, therebypreserving memories of those who suffered the abusesof the police, the abandonment of the state and thehostility of society.Cintia, Edith, Belén and Trachyn survived. They sharewith us the intimacy and complexity of those who facedinjustice and pain with humour and creativity, but alsowith organisation and community. In this documentaryessay they open the door for us to understand the realityof an entire community.In this episode, Belén reconstructs her own history,coming from a small village where being gay or trans wasstigmatised. Once she moved to Buenos Aires, she couldbe anonymous with the rest of the girls who were alsoescaping from someone or something. But they were alsoin danger. Belén tells the story of being trans in BuenosAires in the 80s and 90s, the beginning of her activismand also her exile. She lives in Germany now. Duringthe 80s, when one of her trans friends died, the familywanted to destroy all pictures of her. Saving the picturesfrom them was an act of activism itself - as was thebuilding and organisation of the Trans Memory Archive.