A trans woman gets ready for the evening in her room. The majority of trans women in downtown Lima, Peru, live in communal homes as they also face housing discrimination. Because of stigmatization, many people refuse to rent to them or are charged high rates for rooms that are often rundown.
Camila, a trans woman from Brazil living in Lima, Peru, left, gets out of a taxi after a long night of dancing with friends.
Trans women wait for clients on the street in Lima, left, while a family passes by, right.
Asumi, left, and Oriana, right, stand in the light of a police car during a nightly patrol in Lima, Peru.
Kiara is pursued and then arrested by “serenazgos,” or municipal police officers, in a nightly patrol. Many trans women are oftentimes taken by police on the basis of not being able to show their identification cards.
Oriana's boyfriend leans in to kiss her before she leaves for work. Though he says living with her helps him lead a better life, he also talks about how their relationship is not right under the eyes of God.
Briss's room is left in shambles after a fight with her boyfriend, who punched the mirrors and threw furniture. Eighty percent of homicides of trans people worldwide occur in Latin America.
Trans women are questioned by police officers on the streets of downtown Lima.
After work, Danuska and her friends go out dancing at a club that hosts a night for the LGBTQIA community. “Identity in general is very strong. Nobody can deny you it, because it’s inside of you,” said anthropologist Ximena Salazar. According to Salazar, when people deny who they are, many problems such as self-rejection and self-destruction begin.
Beer from broken bottles paints the floor of an LGBTQ+ nightclub. According to anthropologist Ximena Salazar, poor health habits such as not eating, frequent use of purgatives and alcohol, and drug abuse can lead to other diseases such as tuberculosis. “HIV is one of the many problems, but it’s not necessarily the only one,” Salazar said.
Sandrelli, right, watches her landlord’s daughter play with a dog as she waits to go to work.
Police in downtown Lima arrest trans women who were working on the streets. According to a study by the Peruvian Cayetano Heredia University, serenazgos, or municipal police officers, and the Catholic Church are the two most homophobic institutions in Peru.
Danuska, left, holds hand with her friend as she passes by on her way to work.
Tamara in her room as she gets ready for work.
Tamara says that it's not easy being trans because of all the aggression and humiliation they face. Though she has grown to deal with it, she says that even when walking down the street people will insult her. Here, Tamara walks with a neighbor's daughter back to their apartment after buying food from a corner store.
After resisting sexual relations with a client without a condom, Tamara was injured with a broken glass that he threw at her face. "You have to be careful with clients because they're not clients, they are bad men that can cheat you, that can take you somewhere. They treat you bad, they beat you, they rob you…I have suffered through that a few times," said Tamara in a previous interview.
Tamara comforts her mother, Evila, right, after fighting. Though many trans women don't have support from family, Tamara has a very close relationship with her mother. Though her mom visits when she can, Tamara often spends her days alone.
"Sometimes I think about leaving prostitution behind. But, because I'm alone, it's really expensive," said Tamara, who sometimes skip meals in order to pay her room.
Tamara dances to music at her apartment building in Lima, Peru.
Tamara works on the streets of Lima, Peru.
Tamara, right, laughs after Paloma, left, smashed cake on her face during a celebration for Tamara’s birthday.
Tamara, left, does a line of cocaine with a friend.
After many hours of drinking and doing drugs, Tamara argues with her mother Evila about her work on the streets.
A detail of Tamara's bed.
A nurse at Hospital Loayza explains the HIV medication Tamara will begin taking.
Shortly after getting on HIV medication, Tamara is diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Here, a doctor examines a CT scan of her lungs.
Tamara, who always keeps a collection of saints in the corner of her room with a lit candle, often talks about how she will not live past 30.
Tamara leaves to work on the street. Though she has looked for other work she says that people think they have diseases and are vulgar, so they are turned away. "I want to have a job with somebody I know, someone who trusts me. Because otherwise, they discriminate you, they look at you up and down when you're looking for work."
Evila, Tamara's mother, cries next to Tamara's casket. Tamara died from AIDS and Tuberculosis on January 11, 2017, less than a month after her 30th birthday.
Oriana, left, and Asumi, right, sit on the hood of a taxi in downtown Lima.
Anny, left, and a friend, right, hang out in Anny's room in Lima where she lives with other women.
Oriana, who began prostituting at 12 years old, moved from the Amazon region of Peru to Lima because of family rejection. Once when Oriana returned home to visit they forced her to cut her hair and throw away her feminine clothes.
Yasuri, 24, right, who sleeps next to her boyfriend, moved to Lima at 17 because of bullying at home and school. Her mother, who she says is homophobic, would often beat her and her brother once cut her hair to the scalp. Yasuri has since passed away.
Oftentimes women in the community play volley ball or other games such as Bingo before work for extra money. Since many of them live together in communal houses it is easy to organize afternoon games.
Trans women argue with a municipal police officer who prohibits them from playing volleyball on a blocked off street. Though they were playing with other people from the neighborhood the day before, the street was opened to prevent them from continuing their game.
Briss, left, and Erica, right, look at her computer together. Erica has since passed away.
Katalina holds a newborn kitten after she found it on the street. She said that the mom had been killed by a car. She named her Michelle and feeds it milk in the hopes that she will survive.
Oriana hugs her boyfriend Josue.
Along with other members of Peru's only transgender cumbia dance group, Briss, center, waits backstage before performing at a local LGBTQIA night club. Though Briss says it's hard to live as a trans person in Peruvian society because of the psychological abuse, she said dancing for the Tranxgresoras strengthens them and helps them to push forward.
After a long morning of medical exams, Piojo lays exhausted at the hospital. Piojo’s CD4 cell count, or quantity of white blood cells that help prevent infection, is 49, confirming that HIV has advanced to AIDS.
Due to chlamydia, Piojo winces in pain as she attempts to swallow her tuberculosis medication. Despite her worsening condition, she refused to go to the hospital due to fear of transphobia.
After living in a room infested with cockroaches and very little light, Piojo packs a suitcase of belongings to move to a nearby building.
Piojo is moved from the emergency ward to the pneumology ward. According to Piojo’s doctor, Dr. Eduardo Matos, discrimination greatly affects trans women’s health. “They think a lot about leaving their world where they feel safe. Coming to a hospital means exposing themselves to abuse. They think twice, even three times. That postpones their care and they end up in a situation like that of Piojo,” Matos said.
Piojo's friends visit her in the hospital. Salome, far right, passed away nearly a year after this image was photographed from tuberculosis and AIDS.
A surgical mask, which is used by tuberculosis patients and those in contact with them, lies on the floor.
![Piojo reads a letter that the family that raised her as a child sent after learning she was in the hospital. "Despite the abuse [from my adoptive mother], I care for her a lot. Thanks to her, I know how to do a lot of things, like cook," Piojo said i](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e92f865fd7a75746164346c/1593960248749-K3Q4VTZ9TCKME04G6RG5/A_LIGHT_INSIDE_D.VILLASANA_44.JPG)
Piojo reads a letter that the family that raised her as a child sent after learning she was in the hospital. "Despite the abuse [from my adoptive mother], I care for her a lot. Thanks to her, I know how to do a lot of things, like cook," Piojo said in a soft voice. "I felt like trash, like I was abandoned, but not anymore."
Piojo sits in a wheelchair between her adoptive parents, whom she hadn’t seen in more than 10 years. While Piojo and her mother discussed Piojo’s experience with drugs, incarceration, and work on the streets, Piojo’s father suddenly stood up and said: “But honey, you have to stop saying ‘son’ and calling her ‘José.’ Bowing her head, Piojo’s mother said, “Yes, I know, I know. It’s just that I have always known him as my ‘cholito,’ as my little ‘José.’ It will take time, step by step.”
Piojo’s friends visit her in the pneumology ward, after a week in the emergency room where she was being treated for extremely low blood pressure, which doctors said could cause a heart attack and likely death.
As days passed, the IV, oxygen, and feeding tubes grew in number, framing the base of Piojo’s bed like a web. Dr. Matos explained that many illnesses are affecting Piojo at once: hepatitis, possibly caused by the tuberculosis medication, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, yet to be confirmed, discovery of a parasite, potentially fatal.
At 5 a.m. on March 29, 2015, Piojo passed away from multisystemic Tuberculosis. Her body, Dr. Matos said, was too weak to fight the virus that ruthlessly infiltrated her system.
Nearly every week, Yasuri visits the Baquijano Cemetery to leave flowers and pray at a Peruvian saint's tomb. She said that she can no longer stand prostitution. "It makes me sick," said Yasuri, who dreams of having a family and getting married one day. Yasuri passed away a few years after this image was photographed.
Colombian transwoman, Karen, right, is comforted by her mother, left, who flew to Peru after hearing that Karen was shot by a police officer. That evening, police officers insulted Karen and her friend during a nightly patrol, which targets trans prostitutes who are arrested without reason. Angry, Karen's friend threw a rock at their vehicle. When Karen turned to run, she was shot in the stomach. "In this country for the fact of being trans, you are not valued as a human being. Even though I was between life and death, I was still considered guilty," said Karen.
During an afternoon of drinking, Paloma, right, is held back by her boyfriend who tries to restrain her after she punched his nose out of jealousy.
Katalina sits in Tamara's room after talking to her mom on the phone. She cried off and on that afternoon, saying that she missed her.
Jordy, left, gives her friend a shoulder to cry on after she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with another trans woman. According to anthropologist Ximena Salazar the structures and traditions of gender are very rigid in Peruvian society, thus making it very easy for society to discriminate those who do not fulfill traditional roles. "The family is the first big social space where the female trans is going to have a fight.” Because of this constant fight, many leave home and move to Lima where they know there is a network already waiting. “[Sex work] is a social world complete with friends and enemies. Their real family rejects them, so their chosen family is also there,” said Salazar.
Members of las Transxgresoras, a cumbia dance group of trans women, ride in a taxi through downtown Lima to a performance at an LGBTQ+ nightclub. "The feeling is unexplainable. We leave the stage and girls are applauding, they admire you. You get down off the stage and they take photos of you. You feel good about yourself and you feel good about society," said Briss, a member of las Tranxgresoras (not pictured.)
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