WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.160 Serena's phone was always on and she was the one 2 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:09.040 that would go to get you out of Jailaia, keeping 3 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:11.280 me safe. She became like a mother. 4 00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:16.480 Her ability to help people escape trafficking situations, abusive situations, 5 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:17.960 unsafe situations. 6 00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:18.040 With the police. 7 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.639 I've never seen anyone like that before, and I doubt 8 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:21.800 I will ever see anyone again. 9 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:40.600 From Futuro Media, It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Rosa. Today, 10 00:00:41.040 --> 00:00:44.280 one year after her passing, we remember the life and 11 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:48.519 explore the legacy of Lorena Borjas. She's known as the 12 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:52.440 mother of the trans Latina community in Queens, New York. 13 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:00.200 Originally from a small town in the coastal state of 14 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:04.160 Vera Cruz, Mexico, Lorena arrived in the United States in 15 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:07.559 May of nineteen eighty one, just a few days before 16 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:11.600 her twenty first birthday. Less than a month later, the 17 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:16.120 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first recorded 18 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:20.240 case of a new and lethal virus spreading in the 19 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:21.440 United States. 20 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:25.880 Which shows as a lifestyle of some male homosexuals has 21 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:28.600 triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer. 22 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:33.720 This newscast from nineteen eighty one and the media at 23 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:38.120 large portrayed HIV and AIDS as the gay illness, some 24 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:42.560 reporters even calling it gay cancer. But even as the 25 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.280 deathol from AIDS grew in the following years, little was 26 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.680 being done to provide much needed treatment. 27 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:57.720 The demonstration was carefully choreographed by act UP, a two 28 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.480 year old coalition of gay groups set up to fight 29 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.040 what they called the governments in actions and silence on 30 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:04.960 aid We. 31 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.400 Have to let people know that there's an edge crisis, 32 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:08.080 that people are. 33 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.200 Dying, that we need money, that we need healthcare. 34 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:15.400 While the AIDS epidemic is recognized as a catalyst for 35 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:21.600 organizing in the LGBTQ community, trans immigrant women are often 36 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:26.600 left out of the narrative. In nineteen ninety five, at 37 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:31.040 the peak of the epidemic, Dorena, who had become HIV positive, 38 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:36.040 began what she called her Alcanse, or her outreach. She 39 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:40.919 was distributing condoms to trans immigrant sex workers in Queens, 40 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.920 New York. It was a means of not only addressing 41 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.760 the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but also a way 42 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:52.720 of connecting trans immigrants to critical medical and legal services. 43 00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:57.760 After decades of work building networks of mutual aid, it 44 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:02.799 would be another massive health crisis COVID nineteen that would 45 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:08.040 finally take the life of this beloved community leader. Today 46 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:12.399 on our show, The Story of Lorenez Alcanse. It's an 47 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:16.880 intergenerational portrait of a pioneering activist, and we're going to 48 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:19.320 see her life through the eyes of the women who 49 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:22.400 knew her as a mother and as a sister in 50 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:26.880 their struggle to tell this story. Here's producer Julia Rocha. 51 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:35.680 It's March a, twenty eighteen International Women's Day. Lorena sits 52 00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:38.840 at a Duncan Donuts on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights. 53 00:03:38.920 --> 00:03:42.800 Queen's the neighborhood that she's lived and worked in for 54 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:43.760 forty years. 55 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:44.880 Oh so you no. 56 00:03:48.320 --> 00:03:54.040 Latina trance? Get Luca le Filla pla Sola. 57 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:59.080 Lorena calls herself a survivor, a trans Latina who's overcome 58 00:03:59.320 --> 00:04:03.960 many opsts in her life. It's almost nine pm. She 59 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.880 looks tired after a full day of work, but her 60 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:09.800 day is far from over. The backseat of her car 61 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:13.119 is full of boxes with condoms that she'll soon hand 62 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:16.200 out to sex workers in the neighborhood. She's talking to 63 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:20.080 Sophia Serra Campero one of the producers of this story. 64 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:24.520 Yea. 65 00:04:26.920 --> 00:04:36.120 Kiriau firmonaetaua Charois. 66 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.280 Ladna remembers growing up in cosam A, Lapan. At twelve 67 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:42.920 years old, she was learning to put on makeup and 68 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.880 loved to secretly try on her sister's clothes. Her family 69 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.120 often called her a hotel, which is a derogatory term 70 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.600 for gay. One day, they caught her in her sister's 71 00:04:53.640 --> 00:04:58.160 clothes and beat her. At just fourteen, she moved to 72 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:01.040 Mexico City on her own, where she would meet her 73 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:02.040 first trans. 74 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.120 Friends, Mexican Lucca. 75 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:07.440 Lorena says that her friends used to call her Luca, 76 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:11.520 and while she found community in Mexico City, she also 77 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:14.200 found danger and discrimination. 78 00:05:16.200 --> 00:05:24.600 The onficiala in Nomcho cam Ma mier va pola. 79 00:05:24.400 --> 00:05:28.800 Criminacio, Lorena says that one day five men forced her 80 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.320 to the top of a building and threatened to throw 81 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:35.520 her off the rooftop. She still hadn't transitioned and was 82 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:38.839 terrified that the violence would only get worse when her 83 00:05:38.880 --> 00:05:43.080 body changed. In nineteen eighty one, some of her friends 84 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.600 had come to the US to access gender affirming medical treatment, 85 00:05:47.200 --> 00:05:50.560 and they encouraged Lorena to do the same. Just a 86 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:54.240 few days before turning twenty one, Lorena across the border. 87 00:05:57.360 --> 00:06:02.880 Lmite americanase I feel more American than those who were 88 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:04.400 born here, says Lorena. 89 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:08.920 Achi biseper achiepel del. 90 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:15.400 You feel a chiepel di alfadoro Luca fin Sectary on 91 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:20.440 the priminal Bolica inober for a PASEAQI in America, where 92 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:21.560 tast me pahive. 93 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:26.280 Lorena says that in the US she became strong. It 94 00:06:26.440 --> 00:06:30.719 was in the US that she learned about sex, work, drugs, alcoholism, 95 00:06:31.400 --> 00:06:34.080 So she says, if she went through all of that here, 96 00:06:34.880 --> 00:06:41.039 then this is her country. Lonna's first job as an 97 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:45.400 undocumented immigrant was assembling furniture at a factory. She made 98 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:47.760 just enough to rent a room in Queens and buy 99 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:52.000 subway tokens. Then, in November of nineteen eighty six, a 100 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:52.520 stroke of. 101 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:56.520 Luck, This bill, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 102 00:06:56.640 --> 00:06:58.680 nineteen eighty six, that I was signed in a few 103 00:06:58.760 --> 00:07:03.120 minutes is the most comprehensive reform of our immigration laws 104 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:04.440 since nineteen fifty two. 105 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:09.040 Lorena secured legal residency in the US through Ronald Reagan's 106 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.960 immigration amnesty. With her new papers in hand, she applied 107 00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:17.200 to Medicaid and began her hormone treatment. She was able 108 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:19.320 to get a legal work permit, a new job at 109 00:07:19.320 --> 00:07:23.160 a belt factory, and eventually a scholarship to Turo College, 110 00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:27.480 where she studied accounting. After school, Lorena would hang out 111 00:07:27.640 --> 00:07:29.680 at Port Authority bus terminal. 112 00:07:32.440 --> 00:07:34.720 Back then, you know, we didn't really have a lot 113 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:36.360 of places to like hang out. 114 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:40.720 That's Christina Herrera. She's an immigrant from mel Salvador and 115 00:07:40.840 --> 00:07:44.560 one of Lorena's oldest friends. Aside from being one of 116 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:49.520 the country's busiest bus terminals, Gristina remembers Port Authority felt 117 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:53.920 like a mercado, a fast paced, lively gathering place, and 118 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:57.040 one of the few places where trans people didn't feel 119 00:07:57.160 --> 00:07:59.720 as targeted by the police. It was in Port of 120 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.200 author that a friend introduced her to Lorena in nineteen 121 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:03.720 eighty six. 122 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.640 She had a big smile on her face, she had 123 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:09.720 a pile of books on her hands, a big bag, 124 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:12.680 you know, hanging from her shoulder, and she had a 125 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.680 pencil on her ear, very like schoolgirl. 126 00:08:16.880 --> 00:08:21.040 Christina was fifteen years old, and Lorena's schoolgirl look stood 127 00:08:21.080 --> 00:08:24.760 out to her. At the time, higher education a career 128 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:27.360 all felt out of grasp back then. 129 00:08:27.560 --> 00:08:30.960 Like our reality was Okay, so you're here in New York. 130 00:08:31.320 --> 00:08:34.560 You're gonna do sex work in order to begin your 131 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:38.319 transition for the hormones and surgeries. 132 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:42.960 It was a reality. She started noticing around Port Authority. 133 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:47.360 Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, like around ten pm, 134 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:52.720 you would see this tall, slim Caribbean trans women walking 135 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:57.559 down with galleras like Muheronas from Port Authority. 136 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:01.240 They would catch the seven train to Roosevelt Avenue in 137 00:09:01.400 --> 00:09:02.760 Jackson Heights, Queens. 138 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.719 One night, I'm like, so where are you going and 139 00:09:04.760 --> 00:09:07.000 stepping and they're like, are we going to work? 140 00:09:07.760 --> 00:09:10.560 Roosevelt Avenue had become a hub for sex work. 141 00:09:11.040 --> 00:09:13.839 When you look up and Roosevelt Avenue, you don't see 142 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:18.000 the moon and the start, you see the seventh train. 143 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:21.760 That's Cecilia and Dilly, who will hear more from later. 144 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:27.679 She's describing the elevated train tracks the tower above Roosevelt Avenue. 145 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:33.839 And it's very very very non You see a lot 146 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:36.760 of taxis and a lot of black cars, food cars 147 00:09:36.920 --> 00:09:42.959 with tackles and banadas, and a lot of people very 148 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:48.200 very drunk because they are coming out of so many 149 00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:52.560 little bars. When doors open from the bars you hear music, 150 00:09:54.640 --> 00:09:57.760 and as the door is closing, the music goes away, 151 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:00.520 so it's a beautiful KOs. 152 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.440 As Lorena began to transition, she felt less and less 153 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.040 accepted at her place of employment, and in nineteen eighty nine, 154 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:15.680 she decided to leave the belt factory With a meager 155 00:10:15.760 --> 00:10:19.280 unemployment check, Lorena found herself two months behind on rent. 156 00:10:20.040 --> 00:10:22.160 A woman that she knew offered to help get her 157 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:26.000 money doing sex work. The woman began arranging clients for 158 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:36.240 her in exchange for a cut of her profits. Lorena 159 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:38.640 says she was coerced to meet with ten clients a 160 00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:42.240 night and had no idea how much money was being 161 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:46.720 cut from her earnings. Blindley Edges, the legal director at 162 00:10:46.800 --> 00:10:50.640 Transgender Law Center and an attorney who would represent Lorena 163 00:10:50.800 --> 00:10:55.400 years later, says that these kind of situations were common with. 164 00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:59.599 The combination of discrimination, inability to access employment, inability to 165 00:10:59.640 --> 00:11:03.199 access housing, inability to access safety in general, it creates 166 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:07.720 a higher likelihood of being victimized, whether it's in an 167 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:11.320 abusive romantic relationship, familial relationship, or what I have seen 168 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.760 extensively becoming a victim of human trafficking. 169 00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:17.560 During this time, Lorena was also a victim to abusive 170 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.160 partnerships where she was forced to do sex work. 171 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:23.920 Trans people are very rarely identified as victims of human trafficking, 172 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:25.839 even when the information is right there in front of 173 00:11:25.920 --> 00:11:28.599 law enforcement, social service providers, and attorneys. 174 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:32.760 Her friends say it would be years before Lorena recognized 175 00:11:32.760 --> 00:11:35.720 herself as a survivor of human trafficking. 176 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:40.959 Victor are you formed for the film moment? 177 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:47.720 Lorena says. It was then that she began to use drugs, 178 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:51.199 many times provided by her clients who would pay extra 179 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:55.200 for Lorena to use substances with them. Here's Christina again. 180 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:58.880 We saw addition as a basic reality. It was like 181 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:02.160 a copy mechanism that our community was using just to 182 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:03.319 kind of like survive. 183 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:07.679 But as Lorena began using drugs, the US also ramped 184 00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:11.200 up its criminalization of drugs and the expansion of policing 185 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:15.400 in communities of color. Then, in March of nineteen ninety four, 186 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:19.960 New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration implemented what was known 187 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:23.520 as quality of life policing, which aimed to quote unquote 188 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:29.880 clean up the city by allowing broader officer discretion to stop, question, frisk, 189 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.520 and arrest for minor offenses, arrests in the trans community 190 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:36.520 became more and more common. 191 00:12:37.160 --> 00:12:39.920 One day, I was eating achuso an asura, like at 192 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.319 nine o'clock at night, and they'd like drop it. I'm like, 193 00:12:44.400 --> 00:12:46.000 why am I going to drop it? I just bought 194 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.679 it right now, and they're like, drop it. 195 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:48.520 You're coming in. 196 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:52.839 The loose language of quality of life policing made it 197 00:12:52.920 --> 00:12:56.080 so that simply carrying condoms on you could be used 198 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:59.920 as evidence of prostitution. On top of that, New York 199 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:04.880 anti loitering statutes, colloquially known as the Walking while trans Band, 200 00:13:05.400 --> 00:13:09.199 gave police the discretion to detain anyone they presumed to 201 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:18.959 be loitering for the purposes of prostitution. While the statute 202 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:23.280 was finally repealed this past February, data cited by the 203 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:27.200 New York State Senate shows that as recent as twenty eighteen, 204 00:13:27.920 --> 00:13:31.719 ninety one percent of people arrested under this regulation were 205 00:13:31.800 --> 00:13:37.160 black and LATINX, with eighty percent identifying as women. Lorena 206 00:13:37.280 --> 00:13:41.800 says her encounters with the police were always violent and humiliating. 207 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:47.080 Io's date Nobasara is defon. 208 00:13:48.440 --> 00:13:50.880 The nw LA te conasona. 209 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:55.400 Lodina would face several charges for prostitution according to Lindley, 210 00:13:55.760 --> 00:14:00.599 all a direct result of human trafficking. Although hoped to 211 00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:04.079 apply for naturalization and had even studied for the test, 212 00:14:04.640 --> 00:14:07.760 her convictions made her ineligible to renew her green card 213 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:11.800 or applied to become a US citizen. In her last arrest, 214 00:14:12.280 --> 00:14:15.839 the judge gave her a warning. One more arrest and 215 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:27.640 she would be sent back to Mexico. Carrying condoms was 216 00:14:27.800 --> 00:14:31.440 increasingly putting trans women of color at higher risk of 217 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:35.760 arrest and deportation. While HIV infection in the trans community 218 00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:36.760 continued to. 219 00:14:36.880 --> 00:14:42.359 Rise, we were saying more of our peers become HIV positive. 220 00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:44.840 Always knew is that people were dying all the time 221 00:14:45.080 --> 00:14:48.160 and getting really stick. The messages that we were getting 222 00:14:48.160 --> 00:14:51.000 from media was that it was a gay illness and 223 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:52.920 theing one that was like a part of the LGBT 224 00:14:53.040 --> 00:14:54.440 community was going to diabate. 225 00:14:55.520 --> 00:14:59.280 In the mid nineties, Lorena herself became HIV positive. 226 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:04.360 Then disclosing about being HIV positive was like a really 227 00:15:04.680 --> 00:15:08.360 big deal. We were just afraid of rejection. So I 228 00:15:08.400 --> 00:15:11.000 don't know if she was able to speak about it 229 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.240 early in the beginning of her illness. 230 00:15:14.040 --> 00:15:17.240 The crucial early stages of the epidemic were met with 231 00:15:17.400 --> 00:15:20.760 a complete lack of government response. Although cases of death 232 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:24.320 and infection from HIV rose dramatically since the virus was 233 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:27.880 first discovered in the US in nineteen eighty one, President 234 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.920 Reagan did not publicly acknowledge the AIDS crisis until nineteen 235 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:36.680 eighty five. For years, there was no treatment, and even 236 00:15:36.760 --> 00:15:39.640 when it became available, it came at a steep cost. 237 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:43.600 It's the only government approved AIDS drug in America at 238 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:47.320 ten thousand dollars a year cost per patient. It's prohibitively 239 00:15:47.400 --> 00:15:50.160 expensive for most and not widely available. 240 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:54.240 In nineteen ninety three, the CDC reported that black and 241 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:58.000 Latin X people accounted for fifty five percent of the 242 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.800 over one hundred thousand EIGHTS cases reported in the United 243 00:16:01.800 --> 00:16:06.080 States that year. Trans people faced added barriers when trying 244 00:16:06.160 --> 00:16:06.960 to access care. 245 00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:11.040 I don't believe that there were any trans led organizations, 246 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:13.520 So a lot of times that services were like for 247 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.880 gay men, a lot of times we were misgendered. They 248 00:16:17.880 --> 00:16:21.120 wouldn't allow us to use her prefer name. And a 249 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:24.600 lot of it was geared towards people who were non immigrants, 250 00:16:24.640 --> 00:16:28.600 so people that spoke English, people that had documentation. In 251 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:32.520 a way we felt like that was some of our reality. 252 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:35.520 You engage in sex work, like you make that your 253 00:16:35.640 --> 00:16:39.520 career and then you get AIDS and then you die. 254 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:42.880 We wanted more than that. 255 00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:53.760 Coming up on Latino USA, Lorena decides that if her 256 00:16:53.800 --> 00:16:57.240 community isn't getting the services they need, she'll bring the 257 00:16:57.320 --> 00:17:47.760 resources to them. Say her outreach begins, stay with us, Yes, hey, 258 00:17:48.280 --> 00:17:51.840 we're back. And before the break, we'd been listening to 259 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.440 the story of the pioneering trans Latina activist Lorena Borcas. 260 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:59.359 In the mid nineteen nineties, at the height of the 261 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:03.320 aides at aademic, Lorena would develop a personal approach in 262 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:07.080 order to connect trans immigrants and sex workers to the 263 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:11.359 critical medical and legal resources they needed. Back Now to 264 00:18:11.480 --> 00:18:18.760 producer Julia Rocha, it. 265 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.119 Was on Roosevelt Avenue in the heart of Queens that 266 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:26.159 Lorena was witnessing her community grapple with a crisis that 267 00:18:26.280 --> 00:18:28.119 the world didn't want to acknowledge. 268 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:39.920 Los jegavan facilmente milabor diego are partiloe orque crescendo moues 269 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.879 trances a young veextando cevan moriendo. 270 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:47.280 Lorena remembers that by the mid nineties, a condom was 271 00:18:47.320 --> 00:18:49.879 a lot more than a piece of rubber. Due to 272 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:53.600 criminalization of sex work, condoms could be used as evidence 273 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:57.720 for prostitution charges. At the same time, trans women were 274 00:18:57.760 --> 00:19:03.080 facing high rates of HIV infection. In nineteen ninety five, Lorena, 275 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:07.719 who herself had become HIV positive, started to volunteer at 276 00:19:07.760 --> 00:19:12.080 a hospital of eight patients. Realizing that the condoms weren't 277 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:15.359 getting to those who needed them most, she began taking 278 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.800 condoms from local clinics to distribute to sex workers on 279 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:24.399 Roosevelt Avenue. In the early years of her work, Lorena's 280 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:28.600 office was the wheelie bag that she carried with her everywhere. 281 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.400 Lorena loved to always carry like a little senior City 282 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:37.280 Saint shopping cart. She would tuck in there like a 283 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:40.960 lot of her olders with resources, so she would really 284 00:19:41.080 --> 00:19:43.160 like pack a lot of stuff in there. I don't 285 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:45.600 know how she would even carry it up the train 286 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.399 station because some trains didn't have elevators back then. And 287 00:19:48.520 --> 00:19:49.560 I'll be like, Lorena, how do. 288 00:19:49.600 --> 00:19:50.000 You do this? 289 00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:55.080 Walking down Roosevelt Avenue with her Carrito, Lorena got to 290 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:58.520 know people, and everyone got to know Lorena. 291 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:03.120 She would remember everybody's name. She would walk down Roosevelt 292 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:06.399 Avenue like stopping people and being like, you know you 293 00:20:06.520 --> 00:20:10.000 want this information or do you need any condoms? She 294 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:12.840 always had like a wealth of resources. 295 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:16.879 Laborers AAESU format. 296 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.280 As she met people on Roosevelt Avenue, Lorena would connect 297 00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:25.440 them to medical and legal services. She was building a 298 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:29.200 network and encouraging others to take on this organizing work. 299 00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:33.600 By the mid nineties, Lorena and Christina, who had just 300 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:36.920 gotten a degree in human services, wanted to create the 301 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:40.080 support networks they wish they had had when they first 302 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:41.080 arrived in New York. 303 00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:45.280 We were seeing some community members that were nearly diagnosed 304 00:20:45.320 --> 00:20:47.480 and they didn't know where to live and stuff. So 305 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.920 I would take them in, similar to to Lorena, you know, 306 00:20:52.040 --> 00:20:56.200 it's like Latino culture on the Cave Cavin. Yes, you know, 307 00:20:56.280 --> 00:20:58.840 even if it's a little studio, ten of us can 308 00:20:58.920 --> 00:20:59.280 fit here. 309 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:04.800 Lorena felt there were no spaces specifically for trans Latinas, 310 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:09.680 transsex workers and HIV positive trans women, so she created 311 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:13.760 those spaces in her own apartment known as La Caajai 312 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:18.680 Los Rios. The Matchbox. Lorena Studio became a welcome center 313 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:21.800 for transwomen who would find themselves without a place to 314 00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:26.040 go if they fled violence and discrimination in Latin America, 315 00:21:26.560 --> 00:21:29.399 if they were evicted, if they were released from prison, 316 00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:32.920 if they were ostracized from their families, they would all 317 00:21:33.040 --> 00:21:35.600 find refuge and a home with Lorena. 318 00:21:36.560 --> 00:21:40.080 Back in the mid nineties, there were center for this 319 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:44.639 is controlled HIV intervention which was like a safety net party. 320 00:21:45.280 --> 00:21:47.639 And like a safety net party was that you gather 321 00:21:47.800 --> 00:21:50.159 a group of friends and you invite them to your 322 00:21:50.280 --> 00:21:56.520 house and you provide them with HIV prevention, education and condoms. 323 00:21:56.800 --> 00:22:00.440 If an agency wanted to provide HIV tests, you would 324 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:02.480 invite into your house and they would do the testing 325 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:05.560 in the bathroom. And so Lorena I used to love 326 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:07.080 to do those groups at her house. 327 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:10.680 Most of this would be unpaid work and the costs 328 00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:13.160 would come out of her own pocket from the money 329 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:15.720 she would get cleaning houses and from sex work. 330 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:18.960 A little by little bit, her mission to really save 331 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:24.720 lives also helped her propel herself to at different place 332 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:28.800 where she saved herself. She got cleaned from drugs, she 333 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:32.359 stopped drinking. She was in recovery for many many years. 334 00:22:33.280 --> 00:22:36.800 Lorena would go on to host the first transcenered HIV 335 00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:40.480 support groups at the Eighth Center of Queen's County. But 336 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:44.360 even as she partnered with local organizations, she never left 337 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:48.159 behind her outreach on Roosevelt Avenue. It was through her 338 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:52.000 algance one night in two thousand and five that Lorena 339 00:22:52.320 --> 00:22:57.800 met Cecilia Hendie. Cecilia, who had fled gender discrimination in Argentina, 340 00:22:58.280 --> 00:22:59.959 had moved to New York in two thousand and five 341 00:23:00.080 --> 00:23:02.800 for and she was making good money as an escort. 342 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.520 I was invited to go to a club call Atlantist 343 00:23:07.640 --> 00:23:11.000 at the time, which later became Evolution. 344 00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:17.159 When she arrived at the club pounding with loud music, 345 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:20.800 Lorena was at the front door giving out condoms. 346 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:24.080 And when she saw me, I could see the excitement 347 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:29.680 in her and I remember she saying like, oh, Oka Ra, Oh, 348 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:31.800 you're very beautiful where. 349 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:32.160 You come from. 350 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:33.560 And she asked me a couple of questions. 351 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.800 Cecilia asked what she was doing, and Lorena explained. 352 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:40.960 I remember she called it I can say. I used 353 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:42.560 to ask, it's like what is I can say, what 354 00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:44.520 does that mean? And she said I can't say it 355 00:23:44.600 --> 00:23:47.119 like when you go to the people, you go to 356 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:49.400 the street. And I thought her she was a little 357 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:53.359 bit too invasive for me. And I was living and 358 00:23:53.520 --> 00:23:56.960 feeling and doing fabulous you know, at the same time, 359 00:23:57.040 --> 00:23:59.600 I was also using a lot of drugs. 360 00:24:04.840 --> 00:24:07.840 Life would reunite Lorena and Cecilia a few years later 361 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:10.480 at a different moment in Cecilia's life. 362 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:16.200 Because of that specific addiction, I lost my apartment and 363 00:24:16.520 --> 00:24:22.480 I became homeless, and I started getting arrested and going 364 00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:26.360 back to do street sex work. And one of those 365 00:24:26.440 --> 00:24:30.480 days I ended up going to work on Roosevelt Avenue 366 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:35.240 and there she was again offering me condoms like she 367 00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:39.280 did years before, and this time I needed it. 368 00:24:43.280 --> 00:24:46.800 Cecilia remembers how Lorena approached her with the same warmth 369 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:50.560 as the first time they met. Lorena offered Cecilia about 370 00:24:50.600 --> 00:24:53.920 to eat and advice about staying safe on Roosevelt Avenue. 371 00:24:55.640 --> 00:24:59.280 Cecilia would soon find herself in a trafficking situation, and 372 00:24:59.520 --> 00:25:01.520 when one of the houses that she was working at 373 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:06.160 was raided, she too experienced the criminal justice deportation pipeline, 374 00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:10.200 going from Rikers Island to an iced detention center until 375 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:12.840 she was finally released with an inkle bracelet and was 376 00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:17.119 able to access long term substance treatment. Her case manager 377 00:25:17.280 --> 00:25:21.240 recommended Cecilia support services at the LGBTQ Center. 378 00:25:21.520 --> 00:25:25.000 I started going to meetings in Jackson Heights that ware 379 00:25:25.080 --> 00:25:30.120 in Spanish, and guess who was there, Lorena war Has. 380 00:25:30.200 --> 00:25:34.000 Again, Cecilia began to look at Lorena's work differently. 381 00:25:34.440 --> 00:25:36.200 I wanted to give, like, you know, that person that 382 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:38.680 was myself a couple of years ago, who was like 383 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:43.040 using drugs, working in the street, access to healthcare. 384 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:45.760 So I asked Lorena, you have to connect me with 385 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:48.679 the girls, and she says like, no, I'm not going 386 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:50.520 to connect you with the girls. If you want, you 387 00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:53.879 can come with me and do our reach, like what 388 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:55.760 she told me. The first time, I can say. 389 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:59.600 Lorena invited Cecilia to walk with her as she distributed 390 00:25:59.640 --> 00:26:01.200 condom on Roosevelt Avenue. 391 00:26:01.560 --> 00:26:04.200 The first time, I made a terrible mistake of going 392 00:26:04.280 --> 00:26:07.680 on high heels and looking like professional. I had to 393 00:26:07.800 --> 00:26:10.960 leave right away because I couldn't talk on his She says, like, 394 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:14.080 no girl to Dinna Ken and Chang class. 395 00:26:14.560 --> 00:26:17.600 Next time Cecilia joined Lorena, she got to see more 396 00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:20.680 of her strategy right on the street was that having 397 00:26:20.760 --> 00:26:23.320 three condoms or more would get you in trouble with 398 00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:23.920 the police. 399 00:26:24.440 --> 00:26:29.680 So Lorena walk up and down Roosevelt Avenue and she 400 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.400 always want the girls to have two condoms with them. 401 00:26:33.880 --> 00:26:37.360