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Speaker 1: Ola Migrido. Listener, here's an award winning episode from our archios.

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Speaker 1: It's called Lorena's Alcanse.

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Speaker 2: Lorena's phone was always on and she was the one

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Speaker 2: that will go to hate you out of Jaila keeping

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Speaker 2: me safe.

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Speaker 3: She became like a mother.

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Speaker 4: Her ability to help people escape trafficking situations, abusive situations,

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Speaker 4: unsafe situations with the police. I've never seen anyone like

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Speaker 4: that before, and I doubt I will ever see anyone again.

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Speaker 1: From Futro Media and p RX, It's Latino Usa. I'm

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Speaker 1: Maria Rosa. Today, three years after her passing, we remember

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Speaker 1: the life and explore the legacy of Lorena Borgaz. She's

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Speaker 1: known as the mother of the trans Latina community in Queens,

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Speaker 1: New York. Originally from a small town in the coastal

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Speaker 1: state of Veracruz, Mexico, Lorena arrived in the United States

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Speaker 1: in May of nineteen eighty one, just a few days

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Speaker 1: before her twenty first birthday. Less than a month later,

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Speaker 1: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first

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Speaker 1: recorded case of a new and lethal virus spreading in

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Speaker 1: the United States.

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Speaker 5: Which shows as a lifestyle of some male homosexuals has

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Speaker 5: triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer.

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Speaker 1: This newscast from nineteen eighty one and the media at

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Speaker 1: large portrayed HIV and AIDS as the gay illness, some

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Speaker 1: reporters even calling it gay cancer. But even as the

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Speaker 1: deathol from AIDS grew in the following years, little was

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Speaker 1: being done to provide much needed treatment.

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Speaker 6: Is right.

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Speaker 5: The demonstration was carefully choreographed by act UP, a two

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Speaker 5: year old coalition of gay groups set up to fight

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Speaker 5: what they called the government's in action and silence on aid.

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Speaker 7: We have to let people know that there's an edge crisis,

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Speaker 7: that people are dying, that we need money, that we

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Speaker 7: need healthcare.

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Speaker 1: While the AIDS epidemic is recognized as a catalyst for

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Speaker 1: organizing in the LGBTQ community, trans immigrant women are often

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Speaker 1: left out of the narrative. In nineteen ninety five, at

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Speaker 1: the peak of the epidemic, Dorena, who had become HIV positive,

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Speaker 1: began what she called her Alcanse, or her outreach. She

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Speaker 1: was distributing condoms to trans immigrant sex workers in Queens,

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Speaker 1: New York. It was a means of not only addressing

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Speaker 1: the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, but also a way

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Speaker 1: of connecting trans immigrants to critical medical and legal services.

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Speaker 1: After decades of work building networks of mutual aid, it

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Speaker 1: would be another massive health crisis, COVID nineteen that would

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Speaker 1: finally take the life of this beloved community leader. Today

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Speaker 1: on our show, The Story of Lorenaz Alcanse. It's an

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Speaker 1: intergenerational portrait of a pioneering activist, and we're going to

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Speaker 1: see her life through the eyes of the women who

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Speaker 1: knew her as a mother and as a sister in

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Speaker 1: their struggle. To tell this story, here's producer Julia Rocha.

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Speaker 8: It's March a, twenty eighteen International Women's Day. Lorena sits

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Speaker 8: at a Duncan Donuts on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights.

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Speaker 8: Queen's the neighborhood that she's lived and worked in for

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Speaker 8: forty years.

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Speaker 9: Oh so you Noelina, trans get you le Fla.

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Speaker 8: Lorena calls herself a survivor, a trans Latina who's overcome

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Speaker 8: many obstacles in her life. It's almost nine pm. She

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Speaker 8: looks tired after a full day of work, but her

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Speaker 8: day is far from over. The backseat of her car

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Speaker 8: is full of boxes with condoms that she'll soon hand

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Speaker 8: out to sex workers in the neighborhood. She's talking to

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Speaker 8: Sophia Serre Campero, one of the producers of this story.

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Speaker 10: Kia Luma.

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Speaker 3: Chardo.

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Speaker 8: Lorena remembers growing up in Cosama. At twelve years old,

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Speaker 8: she was learning to put on makeup and loved to

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Speaker 8: secretly try on her sister's clothes. Her family often called

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Speaker 8: her a hoto, which is a derogatory term for gay.

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Speaker 8: One day, they caught her in her sister's clothes and

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Speaker 8: beat her. At just fourteen, she moved to Mexico City

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Speaker 8: on her own, where she would meet her first trans friends.

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Speaker 10: Makoian Lucca.

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Speaker 8: Lorena says that her friends used to call her Luca,

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Speaker 8: and while she found community in Mexico City, she also

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Speaker 8: found danger and discrimination.

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Speaker 9: The Onficiala in Nomcho cam mahem mipuer Vas Peola Criminaco.

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Speaker 8: Lorena says that one day five men forced her to

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Speaker 8: the top of a building and threatened to throw her

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Speaker 8: off the rooftop. She still hadn't transitioned and was terrified

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Speaker 8: that the violence would only get worse when her body changed.

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Speaker 8: In nineteen eighty one, some of her friends had come

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Speaker 8: to the US to access gender affirming medical treatment, and

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Speaker 8: they encouraged Lorena to do the same. Just a few

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Speaker 8: days before turning twenty one, Lorena across the border.

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Speaker 9: Ermite tomas Americasi.

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Speaker 8: I feel more American than those who were born here,

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Speaker 8: says Lorena.

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Speaker 10: Aqui baisefer a del.

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Speaker 9: Usi a chapel d alfargoro, lucap in sect on the

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Speaker 9: filmin alcolica inober for a paseaqi in America tapahive.

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Speaker 8: Lorena says that in the US she became strong. It

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Speaker 8: was in the US that she learned about sex, work, drugs, alcoholism,

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Speaker 8: So she says, if she went through all of that here,

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Speaker 8: then this is her country. Lorna's first job as an

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Speaker 8: undocumented immigrant was assembling furniture at a factory. She made

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Speaker 8: just enough to rent a room in Queens and buy

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Speaker 8: subway tokens. Then, in November of nineteen eighty six, a

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Speaker 8: stroke of.

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Speaker 11: Luck, This bill, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of

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Speaker 11: nineteen eighty six, that I was signed in a few

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Speaker 11: minutes is the most comprehensive reform of our immigration law

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Speaker 11: since nineteen fifty two.

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Speaker 8: Lorena secured legal residency in the US through Ronald Reagan's

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Speaker 8: immigration amnesty. With her new papers in hand, she applied

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Speaker 8: to Medicaid and began her hormone treatment. She was able

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Speaker 8: to get a legal work permit, a new job at

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Speaker 8: a belt factory, and eventually a scholarship to Turo College,

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Speaker 8: where she studied accounting. After school, Lorena would hang out

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Speaker 8: at Port Authority bus terminal.

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Speaker 12: Back then, you know, we didn't really have a lot

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Speaker 12: of places to hang out.

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Speaker 8: That's Christina Herrera. She's an immigrant from mel Salvador and

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Speaker 8: one of Lorena's oldest friends. Aside from being one of

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Speaker 8: the country's busiest bus terminals, Gristina remembers Port Authority felt

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Speaker 8: like a mercalo, fast paced, lively gathering place and one

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Speaker 8: of the few places where trans people didn't feel as

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Speaker 8: targeted by the police. It was Import Authority that a

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Speaker 8: friend introduced her to Lorena in nineteen eighty six.

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Speaker 12: She had a big smile on her face, she had

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Speaker 12: a pile of books on her hands, a big bag,

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Speaker 12: you know, hanging from her shoulder, and she had a

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Speaker 12: pencil on her ear, very like schoolgirl.

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Speaker 8: Christina was fifteen years old, and Lorena's schoolgirl look stood

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Speaker 8: out to her. At the time, higher education, a career.

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Speaker 8: All felt out of grasp.

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Speaker 12: Back then, like our reality was okay, so you're here

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Speaker 12: in New York, You're gonna do sex work in order

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Speaker 12: to begin your transition for the hormones and surgeries.

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Speaker 8: It was a reality. She started noticing around Port Authority.

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Speaker 12: Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, like around ten pm,

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Speaker 12: you would see this tall, slim Caribbean trans women walking

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Speaker 12: down talleras mohernas.

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Speaker 8: From Port Authority. They would catch the seven train to

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Speaker 8: Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens.

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Speaker 12: One night, I'm like, so where are you going and

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Speaker 12: stepping and they're like, are we going to work?

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Speaker 8: Roosevelt Avenue had become a hub for sex work.

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Speaker 2: When you look up and Roosevelt Avenue, you don't see

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Speaker 2: the moon and the start, you see the seventh train.

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Speaker 8: That's Cecilia and Tilly, who will hear more from later.

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Speaker 8: She's describing the elevated train tracks the tower above Roosevelt Avenue.

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Speaker 3: And it's very very very known.

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Speaker 2: You see a lot of taxis and a lot of

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Speaker 2: black cars, food cars with tackles and banadas, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of people very very drunk because they are coming

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Speaker 2: out of so many little bars. When doors open from

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Speaker 2: the you hear music, and as the door is closing,

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Speaker 2: that music goes away. So it's a beautiful chaos.

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Speaker 8: As Lorena began to transition, she felt less and less

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Speaker 8: accepted at her place of employment, and in nineteen eighty nine,

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Speaker 8: she decided to leave the belt factory. With a meager

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Speaker 8: unemployment check, Lorena found herself two months behind on rent.

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Speaker 8: A woman that she knew offered to help get her

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Speaker 8: money doing sex work. The woman began arranging clients for

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Speaker 8: her in exchange for a cut of her profits. Lorena

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Speaker 8: say she was coerced to meet with ten clients a

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Speaker 8: night and had no idea how much money was being

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Speaker 8: cut from her earnings. Blindley Edges, the legal director at

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Speaker 8: Transgender Law Center and an attorney who would represent Lorena

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Speaker 8: years later, says that these kind of situations were common.

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Speaker 4: With the combination of discrimination, inability to access employment, inability

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Speaker 4: to access housing, inability to access safety. In general, it

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Speaker 4: creates a higher likelihood of being victimized, whether it's in

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Speaker 4: an abusive romantic relationship, familial relationship, or what I have

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Speaker 4: seen extensively becoming a victim of human trafficking.

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Speaker 8: During this time, Lorena was also a victim to abusive

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Speaker 8: partnerships where she was forced to do sex work.

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Speaker 4: Trans people are very rarely identified as victims of human trafficking,

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Speaker 4: even when the information is right there in front of

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Speaker 4: law enforcement, social service providers, and attorneys.

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Speaker 8: Her friends say it would be years before Lorena recognized

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Speaker 8: herself as a survivor of human trafficking victor are.

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Speaker 13: You for.

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Speaker 11: For a f.

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Speaker 8: Lorena says. It was then that she began to use drugs,

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Speaker 8: many times provided by her clients who would pay a

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Speaker 8: extra for Lorena to use substances with them. Here's Christina again.

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Speaker 12: We saw additch NASA basic reality. It was like a

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Speaker 12: copy mechanism that our community was using just to kind

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Speaker 12: of like survive.

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Speaker 8: But as Lorena began using drugs, the US also ramped

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Speaker 8: up its criminalization of drugs and the expansion of policing

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Speaker 8: and communities of color. Then, in March of nineteen ninety four,

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Speaker 8: New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration implemented what was known

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Speaker 8: as quality of life policing, which aimed to quote unquote

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Speaker 8: clean up the city by allowing broader officer discretion to

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Speaker 8: stop question frisk and arrest for minor offenses. Arrests in

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Speaker 8: the trans community became more and more common.

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Speaker 12: One day, I was eating a chuso an asura, like

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Speaker 12: at nine o'clock at night, and they'd like drop it.

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Speaker 12: I'm like, why am I going to drop it? I

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Speaker 12: just bought it right now, and they're like, drop it.

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Speaker 3: You're coming in.

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Speaker 8: The loose language of quality of life policing made it

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Speaker 8: so that simply carrying condoms on you could be used

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Speaker 8: as evidence of prostitution. On top of that, New York's

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Speaker 8: anti loitering statutes, colloquially known as the Walking while trans Band,

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Speaker 8: gave police the discretion to detain anyone they presumed to

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Speaker 8: be loitering for the purposes of prostitution. While the statute

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Speaker 8: was finally repealed this past February, data cided by the

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Speaker 8: New York State Senate shows that as recent as twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 8: ninety one percent of people arrested under this regulation were

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Speaker 8: black and LATINX, with eighty percent identifying as women. Lorena

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Speaker 8: says her encounters with the police were always violent and humiliating.

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Speaker 9: Irato's date PASAA is defont t the u La te Conason.

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Speaker 8: Base Lorena would face several charges for prostitution, according to Linley,

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Speaker 8: all a direct result of human trafficking. Although Lorena hoped

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Speaker 8: to apply for naturalization and had even studied for the test,

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Speaker 8: her convictions made her ineligible to renew her green card

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Speaker 8: or applied to become a US citizen. In her last arrest,

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Speaker 8: the judge gave her a warning. One more arrest and

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Speaker 8: she would be sent back to Mexico. Carrying condoms was

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Speaker 8: increasingly putting trans women of color at higher risk of

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Speaker 8: arrest and deportation. While HIV infection in the trans community

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Speaker 8: continued to rise.

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Speaker 12: We were saying more of our peers become HIV positive.

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Speaker 12: Always knew is that people were dying all the time

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Speaker 12: and getting really stick. The messages that we were getting

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Speaker 12: from media was that it was a gay illness, ending

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Speaker 12: one that was like a part of the LGBT community

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Speaker 12: was going to die of ads.

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Speaker 8: In the mid nineties, Lorena herself became HIV positive.

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Speaker 12: Back then, disclosing about being HIV positive was like a

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Speaker 12: really big deal. We were just afraid of rejection. So

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Speaker 12: I don't know if she was able to speak about it.

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Speaker 12: Early in the beginning of her illness.

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Speaker 8: The crucial early stages of the epidemic were met with

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Speaker 8: a complete lack of government response. Although cases of death

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Speaker 8: and infection from HIV rose dramatically since the virus was

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Speaker 8: first discovered in the US in nineteen eighty one, President

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Speaker 8: Reagan did not publicly acknowledge the AIDS crisis until nineteen

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Speaker 8: eighty five. For years there was no treatment, and even

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Speaker 8: when it became available, it came at a steep cost.

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Speaker 7: It's the only government approved AIDS drug in America at

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Speaker 7: ten thousand dollars a year cost per patient. It's prohibitively

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Speaker 7: expensive for most and not widely available.

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Speaker 8: In nineteen ninety three, the CDC reported that black and

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Speaker 8: LATINX people accounted for fifty five percent of the over

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Speaker 8: one hundred thousand AIDS cases reported in the United States

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Speaker 8: that year. Trans people faced added barriers when trying to

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Speaker 8: access care.

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Speaker 12: I don't believe that there were any trans led organizations.

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Speaker 12: So a lot of times that services were like for

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Speaker 12: gay men, a lot of times we were misgendered. They

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Speaker 12: wouldn't allow us to use her prefer name, and a

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Speaker 12: lot of it was geared towards people who were non immigrants,

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Speaker 12: so people that spoke English people that had documentation. In

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Speaker 12: a way, we felt like that was some of our reality.

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Speaker 12: You engage in sex work, like you make that your career,

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Speaker 12: and then you get AIDS and then you die. We

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Speaker 12: wanted more than that.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino US, Lorena decides that if her

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Speaker 1: community isn't getting the services they need, she'll bring the

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Speaker 1: resources to them her alganse her outreach begins, stay with us, Yes, Hey,

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Speaker 1: We're back. And before the break, we'd been listening to

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Speaker 1: the story of the pioneering trans Latina activist Lorena Borgaz.

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Speaker 1: In the mid nineteen nineties, at the height of the

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Speaker 1: AIDS epidemic, Lorena would develop a personal approach in order

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Speaker 1: to connect trans immigrants and sex workers to the critical

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Speaker 1: medical and legal resources they needed. Back Now. To producer

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Speaker 1: Julia Rocha, it.

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Speaker 8: Was on Roosevelt Avenue in the heart of Queens that

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Speaker 8: Lorena was witnessing her community grapple with a crisis that

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Speaker 8: the world didn't want to acknowledge.

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Speaker 9: Jeg Avan facilmente, mila bor jego are partillo borge potat crescendo,

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Speaker 9: moues trances a young vextando sevan moriendo.

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Speaker 8: Lorena remembers that by the mid nineties, a condom was

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Speaker 8: a lot more than a piece of rubber. Due to

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Speaker 8: criminalization of sex work, condoms could be used as evidence

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Speaker 8: for prostitution charges. At the same time, trans women were

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Speaker 8: facing high rates of HIV infection. In nineteen ninety five, Lorena,

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Speaker 8: who herself had become HIV positive, started to volunteer at

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Speaker 8: a hospital of eight patients. Realizing that the condoms weren't

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Speaker 8: getting to those who needed them most, she began taking

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Speaker 8: condoms from local clinics to distribute to sex workers on

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Speaker 8: Roosevelt Avenue. In the early years of her work, Lorena's

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Speaker 8: office was the wheelie bag that she carried with her everywhere.

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Speaker 12: Lorena loved to always carry like a little senior City

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Speaker 12: Saint shopping cart. She would tuck in there like a

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Speaker 12: lot of her olders with resources, so she would really

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Speaker 12: like pack a lot of stuff in there. I don't

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Speaker 12: know how she would even carry it up the train

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Speaker 12: station because some trains didn't have elevators back then. And

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Speaker 12: I'll be like, Lorena, how do you do this?

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Speaker 8: Walking down Roosevelt Avenue with her Carrito, Lorena got to

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Speaker 8: know people, and everyone got to know Lorena.

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Speaker 12: She would remember everybody's name. She would walk down Roosevelt

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Speaker 12: Avenue like stopping people and being like, you know you

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Speaker 12: want this information or do you need any condoms? She

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Speaker 12: always had like a Walth Resources.

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Speaker 9: Labors AA GESU informata.

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Speaker 8: As she met people on Roosevelt Avenue, Lorena would connect

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Speaker 8: them to medical and legal services. She was building a

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Speaker 8: network and encouraging others to take on this organizing work.

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Speaker 8: By the mid nineties, Lorena and Christina, who had just

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Speaker 8: gotten a degree in human services, wanted to create the

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Speaker 8: support networks they wish they had had when they first

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Speaker 8: arrived in New York.

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Speaker 12: We were seeing some community members that were nearly diagnosed

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Speaker 12: and they didn't know where to live and stuff. So

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Speaker 12: I would take them in similar to you know, it's

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Speaker 12: like Latino culture on the cave ds. You know, even

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Speaker 12: if it's a little studio, ten of us can fit here.

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Speaker 8: Lorena felt there were no spaces specifically for trans Latinas,

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Speaker 8: transsex workers and HIV positive trans women, so she created

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Speaker 8: those spaces in her own apartment, known as La Caajai

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Speaker 8: Los Rios. The Matchbox Lorena Studio became a welcome center

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Speaker 8: for transwomen who would find themselves without a place to go.

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Speaker 8: If they fled violence and discrimination in Latin America, if

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Speaker 8: they were evicted, if they were released from prison, if

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Speaker 8: they were ostracized from their families, they would all find

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Speaker 8: refuge and a home with Lorena.

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Speaker 12: Back in the mid nineties, there were central for this

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Speaker 12: is controlled HIV intervention which was like a safety net party.

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Speaker 12: And like a safety net party was that you gather

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Speaker 12: a group of friends and you invite them to your

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Speaker 12: house and you provide them with HIV prevention, education and condoms.

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Speaker 12: If an agency wanted to provide HIV testing, you would

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Speaker 12: invite into your house and they would do the testing

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Speaker 12: in the bathroom. And so Lorena I used to love

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Speaker 12: to do those groups at her house.

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Speaker 8: Most of this would be unpaid work and the costs

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Speaker 8: would come out of her own pocket from the money

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Speaker 8: she would get cleaning houses and from sex work.

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Speaker 12: A little by little bit, her mission to really save

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Speaker 12: lives also helped her propel herself to at different place

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Speaker 12: where she saved herself. She got cleaned from drugs, she

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Speaker 12: stopped drinking, She was in recovery for many many years.

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Speaker 8: Lorena would go on to host the first transcenered HIV

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Speaker 8: support groups at the Eighth Center of Queen's County, but

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Speaker 8: even as she partnered with local organizations, she never left

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Speaker 8: behind her outreach on Roosevelt Avenue. It was through her

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Speaker 8: alganse one night in two thousand and five that Lorena

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Speaker 8: met Cecilia and Tilly. Cecilia, who had fled gender discrimination

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Speaker 8: in Argentina, had moved to New York in two thousand

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Speaker 8: and four, and she was making good money as an escort.

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Speaker 2: I was invited to go to a club call Atlantis

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Speaker 2: at the time, which later became Evolution.

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Speaker 8: When she arrived at the club pounding with loud music,

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Speaker 8: Lorena was at the front door giving out condoms.

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Speaker 2: And when she saw me, I could see the excitement

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Speaker 2: in her and I remember she saying like, oh you

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Speaker 2: brokeet pra Oh you're very beautiful where you come from?

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Speaker 3: And she asked me a couple of questions.

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Speaker 8: Cecilia asked what she was doing, and Lorena explained.

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Speaker 2: I remember she called it I can't say. I used

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Speaker 2: to ask HER's like, what is I can say, what

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Speaker 2: does that mean? And she said I can't say it

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Speaker 2: Like when you go to the people, you go to

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Speaker 2: the Street, and I thought her she was a little

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Speaker 2: bit too invasive for me. And I was living and

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Speaker 2: feeling and doing fabulous, you know, at the same time,

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Speaker 2: I was also using a lot of drugs.

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Speaker 8: Life would reunite Lorena and Cecilia a few years later

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Speaker 8: at a different moment in Cecilia's life.

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Speaker 2: Because of that specific addiction, I lost my apartment and

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Speaker 2: I became homeless, and I started getting arrested and going

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Speaker 2: back to do street sex work. And one of those

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Speaker 2: days I ended up going to work on roosewellt Avenue

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Speaker 2: and there she was again offering me condoms like she

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Speaker 2: did years before, and this time I needed it.

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Speaker 8: Cecilia remembers how Lorena approached her with the same warmth

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Speaker 8: as the first time they met. Lorena offered Cecilia about

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Speaker 8: to eat and advice about staying safe on Roosevelt Avenue.

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Speaker 8: Cecilia would soon find herself in a trafficking situation, and

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Speaker 8: when one of the houses that she was working at

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Speaker 8: was raided, she too experienced the criminal justice deportation pipeline,

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Speaker 8: going from Rikers Island to an iced detention center until

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Speaker 8: she was finally released with an inkle bracelet and was

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Speaker 8: able to access long term substance treatment. Her case manager

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Speaker 8: recommended Cecilia support services at the LGBTQ Center.

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Speaker 2: I started going to meetings in Jackson Heights that where

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Speaker 2: in Spanish, and guess who was there, Lorena war Has Again.

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Speaker 8: Cecilia began to look at Lorena's work differently.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to give, like you know that person that

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Speaker 2: it was myself a couple of years ago who was

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Speaker 2: like using drugs, working in the street, access to healthcare.

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Speaker 2: So I asked Lorena, you have to connect me with

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Speaker 2: the girls, and she says, like, no, I'm not going

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Speaker 2: to connect you with the girls. If you want, you

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Speaker 2: can with me and do our reach like what she

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Speaker 2: told me the first time, I can say.

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Speaker 8: Lorena invited Cecilia to walk with her as she distributed

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Speaker 8: condoms on Roosevelt Avenue.

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Speaker 2: The first time, I made a terrible mistake of going

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Speaker 2: on high heels and looking like professional. I had to

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Speaker 2: leave right away because I couldn't talk on his She says, like,

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Speaker 2: no girl to dinner Kevin in Chang class.

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Speaker 8: Next time Cecilia joined Lorena, she got to see more

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Speaker 8: of her strategy. Word on the street was that having

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Speaker 8: three condoms or more would get you in trouble with

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Speaker 8: the police.

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Speaker 2: So Lorena walk up and down Roosevelt Avenue and she

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Speaker 2: always want the girls to have two condoms with them.

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Speaker 2: Every time that you use one day co Lorena and

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Speaker 2: Lorena would run and give them another one. So they

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Speaker 2: always have two condoms, but they never have three condoms.

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Speaker 2: But they always have condoms. But the problem was these

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Speaker 2: that while all these girls were walking Roosevelt Avenue with

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Speaker 2: two condoms, Lorena was working Roosevelt Avenue with hundreds of condoms.

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Speaker 2: And she said, the police know me, They're not going

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Speaker 2: to stop me, you know, and if they do, they do,

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Speaker 2: somebody has to do it.

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Speaker 8: As Lorena saw more and more of her community getting

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Speaker 8: arrested with charges of loitering for the purpose of prostitution,

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Speaker 8: she began mobilizing, knocking on the doors of nonprofits to

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Speaker 8: get money to pay for the bail, transportation, and fees

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Speaker 8: of trans people who would get picked up by the police.

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Speaker 8: Lorena's lawyer, Linley, describes how they first met because Lorena

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Speaker 8: was always at the courthouse.

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Speaker 4: I was representing one young transwoman who is in jail

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Speaker 4: on felony assault charges, and I needed her birth certificate

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Speaker 4: somehow in walks this woman and she said, I hear

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Speaker 4: you need someone's birth certificate.

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Speaker 3: And I was like, who are you?

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Speaker 4: And she just looks at me. She's like, I'm Lorena.

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Speaker 4: So she digs into her bag, which I later called

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Speaker 4: her Mary Poppins bag, and out pops this original birth

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Speaker 4: certificate for this young person I'm representing in Rikers and

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Speaker 4: I'm just like what. I was like, how do you

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Speaker 4: have this? She's just like, I'm Lorena, and I'm like okay.

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Speaker 8: While doing this kind of work, Lorena entered the Sylvia

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Speaker 8: rivera Law project as a client. She began to learn

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Speaker 8: more about the criminal justice system and its overlap with

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Speaker 8: the immigration system. She started to connect other women in

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Speaker 8: her network with legal advisors and ultimately help them file

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Speaker 8: for asylum petitions. Here, she met Chase Strangio, a lawyer

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Speaker 8: and trans writs advocate. Together, in April of twenty twelve,

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Speaker 8: they officially launched the Lorena Vojaz Community Fund to provide

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Speaker 8: bail and bond assistance to trans people. At the launch,

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Speaker 8: the crowd cheers as Rena cuts a ribbon held by

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Speaker 8: Christina and some of Lorena's friends and colleagues. Two months

434
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 8: after the launch of the Lorena a Boaz Community Fund.

435
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 8: Lorena attended a conference in Philadelphia where she met Liam Winslett. Liam,

436
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 8: who at the time was twenty three, was a guest

437
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 8: speaker at a panel about the persecution she faced as

438
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:22,720
Speaker 8: a trans woman in.

439
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 3: Ecuador gan A Tobasala.

440
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,320
Speaker 8: Lorena approached Liam after her presentation and gave her a hug,

441
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 8: thanking her for what she shared. In the following days,

442
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 8: Liam opened up to Lorena and told her she was

443
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,080
Speaker 8: hoping she could stay in the US and then migrate

444
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 8: to Canada to seek political asylum. Liam wanted to start

445
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 8: her transition and knew she couldn't do it in Ecuador.

446
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 3: Do you any who Iotada?

447
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 8: Lorena told Liam to come to New York, promising to

448
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:03,480
Speaker 8: help get settled. A couple of days later, Liam arrived

449
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,440
Speaker 8: in Port Authority. She remembers she was nervous. She didn't

450
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 8: know how to get around or what train to take,

451
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 8: but she managed to get to Queen's which was celebrating

452
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 8: the Pride Day parade.

453
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 3: Il Contre Club Evolution Kerasa.

454
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 8: She found Lorena sitting outside Club Evolution, Lorena's second home,

455
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 8: as they gave out condoms to bypassers. Lorena would tell

456
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,440
Speaker 8: Liam about the lawyers, doctors, and therapists that she would

457
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 8: connect Liam with doom In Lolvida, Lorena told Liam, you

458
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 8: can't be without papers in this country. Not having your

459
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 8: paperwork would mean to stay in the shadows forgotten. You'll

460
00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 8: fight and I'll fight with you, and she didnt.

461
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 3: Katya malonaa.

462
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 8: In Lia remembers sitting at that table on Roosevelt Avenue

463
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 8: with Lorena, feeling loved valued heard for the first time.

464
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 8: From that moment on, Liam and Lorena were inseparable. In

465
00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 8: the following weeks and months, Lorena would walk with Liam

466
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 8: to make sure that she made it to her medical

467
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 8: and legal appointments, and Liam remembers that arriving with Lorena

468
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 8: always made a difference. Providers knew her and she felt

469
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 8: that they treated her with respect.

470
00:31:46,800 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 3: Oh just sacking it to significa the Lokysona.

471
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 8: Liam, who had been doing community outreach in organizing since

472
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 8: she was twelve, started to work alongside Lorena. Yes, Lorena

473
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 8: would tell Liam, you know a lot. Liam in turn

474
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 8: would often tell Lorena, your work has power. Lorena, however,

475
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 8: would brush it off. A Lorena began getting recognition and

476
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 8: awards for her decades of community work, but at the

477
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:32,719
Speaker 8: same time, Liam recalls Lorena feeling insecure about her language skills,

478
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,360
Speaker 8: thinking this was a reason that some people may disregard

479
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 8: her woldo to Liam, Cristina, Cecilia, and many others in

480
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 8: her community encouraged Lorena to create her own organization, but

481
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 8: when Lorena sought out the help of established organizations and

482
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,960
Speaker 8: institutions around the city, she soon found doors shut. Liam

483
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,240
Speaker 8: recalls how they were often encouraged to continued to do outreach,

484
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 8: but to stay away from leading a whole organization.

485
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 12: Lorena, you know, she had built a huge network up

486
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 12: like lawyers, medical provider, she had developed relationships with, like

487
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 12: the court system in Queens.

488
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 2: She dared to dream to have her own organization. And

489
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 2: that's where, like, you know, she was like Cecilia, you know,

490
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 2: how can we get money?

491
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:34,320
Speaker 8: It became a Saturday virtual Lorena would go over to

492
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,480
Speaker 8: Cecilia's and the two would fill out grant applications.

493
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 2: A lot of my work was interpreting emails, but then

494
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,680
Speaker 2: she was learning some English and she was very proud.

495
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 2: I remember one time she called me and she said,

496
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 2: I want you to call me back, and I was like,

497
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,600
Speaker 2: why can you talk right now? And she's like, because

498
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 2: I want you to call me back, I need to

499
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 2: hang up and call me back. So I hang up

500
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 2: and called her back and it went to her voice mail,

501
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 2: and her voice mail was in English, and she was

502
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:17,320
Speaker 2: so proud.

503
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 8: After months of saturdays at Cecilia's, they were able to

504
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 8: secure funding, and in twenty fifteen, Lorena became the founder

505
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:36,960
Speaker 8: and executive director of the Collectivo Intercultural Transgrediendo. The organization

506
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 8: rented a small office in the basement of a building

507
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,240
Speaker 8: on their bustling and beloved Roosevelt Avenue.

508
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 3: Collectivo Yet.

509
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:55,880
Speaker 8: Liam remembers Lorena's beaming face. The day they opened the space,

510
00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 8: Lorena looked around and said, Liam, just how far.

511
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 12: Will we go?

512
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,400
Speaker 8: Even as she was building an entire organization to advocate

513
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 8: for trans women fleeing gender violence and discrimination in Latin America,

514
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 8: Lorena was still at risk of being deported due to

515
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 8: her pending criminal charges.

516
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 12: She needed to move on from being in that place

517
00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,520
Speaker 12: where she had of those convictions that were giving her

518
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 12: problems to become a US citizen.

519
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 8: Although Lorena was reluctant at first, her lawyer, Linley, proposed

520
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 8: that they file for a governor's pardon. The application that

521
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 8: Linley put together was hundreds of pages long, with letters

522
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 8: of support from organizations, elected officials, and most importantly, all

523
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,359
Speaker 8: of the people like Liam that Lorena had helped. Here's

524
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 8: Linley again, But.

525
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,360
Speaker 4: I remember her looking at those letters and her crying

526
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:05,359
Speaker 4: because it was the first time I think she had

527
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 4: taken a moment to acknowledge how much she's done.

528
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 8: In twenty seventeen, Lorena received a call from Governor Cuomo himself.

529
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:18,040
Speaker 8: He issued her a pardon, making it possible for Lorena

530
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 8: to apply for naturalization. Liam remembers that the momentum of

531
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:29,200
Speaker 8: the past few years felt like a snowball growing bigger

532
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 8: and bigger.

533
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 3: Nico looking at lomil qin se for Tomado for In the.

534
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:45,640
Speaker 8: Spring of twenty eighteen, Sophia met Lorena again, this time

535
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,400
Speaker 8: with Cindina and Gladis, another producer for this.

536
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 9: Story You think Strado and mivasettivas que buc serbizios.

537
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 8: Lorena shared with them she had built a database of

538
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:05,279
Speaker 8: over four hundred and ninety trans women doing sex work

539
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 8: in Queens and she was helping to connect them to legal,

540
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 8: immigration and health services.

541
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, she saw a possibility to materialize her

542
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 2: dreams for Collectivo. I think she finally had the pride

543
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,719
Speaker 2: to say, like, yeah, you know, I'm a trans Latina,

544
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,239
Speaker 2: my English is not the best, and I am an

545
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 2: executive director, and I deserve money for my girls.

546
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 3: I think she was ready, and she was like like

547
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 3: a rye papaya.

548
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino usay. A moment of hope interrupted.

549
00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 1: Lorena and the trans immigrant community in Queens find themselves

550
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 1: at the very epicenter of an unforeseen public health crisis.

551
00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 1: Stay with us notes, Hey, we're back. We've been telling

552
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:55,840
Speaker 1: the story of Lorena Borjaz, whose activism grew out of

553
00:38:55,960 --> 00:39:00,920
Speaker 1: a moment of crisis, the AIDS epidemic and its impact

554
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 1: on trans Latinas in New York City. After decades of

555
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:09,479
Speaker 1: movement building, the community Lorena had helped to forge would

556
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:14,760
Speaker 1: face another unexpected health crisis in twenty twenty. Producer Julia

557
00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 1: Rocha picks up the story from here.

558
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:25,840
Speaker 6: The number of confirmed coronavirus infections continues to grow worldwide.

559
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 6: There are now at least eighty nine cases in the US,

560
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:34,240
Speaker 6: with New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Florida reporting new infections.

561
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:37,080
Speaker 6: Very few tests have been done.

562
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,799
Speaker 8: It was early March of twenty twenty and the first

563
00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:45,400
Speaker 8: cases of COVID nineteen were all over the news, but

564
00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 8: the government continued to downplay the severity of the situation

565
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 8: and little was known about how to stay safe. Liam

566
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 8: remembers the trans community got together after Alexander grond Luciano,

567
00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 8: a transwoman, was killed in Puerto Rico.

568
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:12,040
Speaker 3: Toler Mundo.

569
00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:16,840
Speaker 8: Lorena arrived with her usual warmth, giving everyone hugs and kisses.

570
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 8: They had no way of knowing this would be Lorena's

571
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 8: last public appearance, that this greeting would actually be there goodbye.

572
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,280
Speaker 12: I did try to tell her to minimize interactions with people,

573
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:32,320
Speaker 12: but it was hard for her because you know, she

574
00:40:32,680 --> 00:40:35,799
Speaker 12: she loved to work with people, so she was hard

575
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 12: for her to limit herself to stay home.

576
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,799
Speaker 8: On March fourteenth, Cecilia got a call from Lorena. They

577
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 8: had made plans to see each other, but Lorena told

578
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 8: her she couldn't make it. After battling HIV for decades,

579
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,839
Speaker 8: Lorena's health was precarious and she wasn't feeling well.

580
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:57,080
Speaker 2: And I said, Lorena, can you taste food? And she

581
00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,800
Speaker 2: said no, no, really, And so Loreena, I think you

582
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,400
Speaker 2: are COVID and they said, like, you prefer if you

583
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:08,000
Speaker 2: go to a doctor, and she said, no, trance people

584
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:12,279
Speaker 2: will have a long history of mistressed with medical providers. Right,

585
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:14,360
Speaker 2: she was going to go and see a doctor that

586
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:16,800
Speaker 2: woun't know her, that doesn't know that she's trends, that

587
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 2: may misgender her. Most likely it's not going to speak Spanish.

588
00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 2: So you know, when you have all those things, of

589
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 2: course you don't want to go to a doctor.

590
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,520
Speaker 8: Cecilia called an ambulance that would take Lorena to the

591
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 8: er at Elmhurst Hospital and.

592
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 3: She said, no, no, don't do that.

593
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 2: Don't do that. Don't want to go to the hospital

594
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 2: and see Lorena. If I could, I'd be with you,

595
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 2: but you're not going to let me.

596
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:41,120
Speaker 3: You have to go by yourself.

597
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 8: The hospital, less than a mile away from Lorena's apartment,

598
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:50,920
Speaker 8: was already overflowing with COVID nineteen patients. At the time. Queens,

599
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 8: which has the highest rate of residents born outside the

600
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 8: US in New York City, accounted for thirty two percent

601
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:03,360
Speaker 8: of the city's confirmed career onnavirus cases all. He is

602
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 8: the epicenter of the epicenter of the cold crisis that

603
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:08,000
Speaker 8: were going through.

604
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 3: There are over five hundred beds here and all of

605
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:13,400
Speaker 3: those beds are filled.

606
00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,839
Speaker 8: Lorena was tested for COVID, but the results would take

607
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:22,880
Speaker 8: two days to come back. Hours later, when she got hungry,

608
00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 8: she texted Liam that there was no food in the hospital.

609
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,240
Speaker 8: Liam brought her Mexican food from one of her favorite

610
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:33,440
Speaker 8: restaurants on Roosevelt Avenue, chicken with rice and beans, just

611
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:34,200
Speaker 8: as she liked it.

612
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 3: Hell Gomla.

613
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 11: Went.

614
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,320
Speaker 8: Liam brought the food to the hospital. She wasn't allowed

615
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 8: to go in the room, but since the window of

616
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,839
Speaker 8: Lorena's hospital room faced the street, she saw Lorena one

617
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,000
Speaker 8: last time through the window and they talked on the

618
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:55,719
Speaker 8: phone and.

619
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 3: Comunia, so yeah, Maria eleven.

620
00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,920
Speaker 8: Even in the hospital, all Lorena could think about was

621
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,640
Speaker 8: her girls, her bajadas as she called them. She told

622
00:43:17,719 --> 00:43:20,880
Speaker 8: Liam they had to raise funds for the community. Liam

623
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 8: agreed and waved goodbye through the window. Early in the pandemic,

624
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,600
Speaker 8: the protocol was to send stable patients to recover at home.

625
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 8: So on March fifteenth, the hospital discharged Lorena.

626
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:37,520
Speaker 2: And when she went home, she had really really bad,

627
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:44,319
Speaker 2: really really sick, and that's where she stopped tearing.

628
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 8: My phone calls one day later, Lorna's test results came back.

629
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 8: She was positive for COVID nineteen.

630
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,000
Speaker 12: I went to take them girls series, but she couldn't

631
00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:00,080
Speaker 12: really talk or anything. She was like really sick Loadina's.

632
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,800
Speaker 8: Health was declining quickly. She could no longer talk or

633
00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 8: swallow again. Cecilia called an ambulance. Lorena was taken back

634
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,800
Speaker 8: to Elmhurst, but they weren't taking new patients. She was

635
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 8: moved around looking for an open bed. She had her

636
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 8: phone on her and the only way Liam could find

637
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 8: her location was through the Find My iPhone app.

638
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 3: They sent her to Corney Island Hospital.

639
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:30,480
Speaker 8: That's a hospital on the other side of the city, and.

640
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:32,239
Speaker 3: She was there where she was intubated.

641
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:36,280
Speaker 8: Lorena was induced into a coma and according to Liam,

642
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,959
Speaker 8: the doctor said that if her heart stopped, they would

643
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:43,839
Speaker 8: not try to revive her. On March thirtieth, at five

644
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 8: point twenty two in the morning, the hospital called Cecilia.

645
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 2: I missed that call in when I woke up, I

646
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:54,800
Speaker 2: called back the NMBER because I knew that it was

647
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:59,880
Speaker 2: an hospital and they told me that Lurna had that.

648
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:14,239
Speaker 2: It was just this same incredible feeling of emptiness.

649
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,759
Speaker 8: Lorena was fifty nine years old.

650
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:25,320
Speaker 12: This all happened when Lorena was on top of the world,

651
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 12: like she had just become an unnaturalized citizen. She had

652
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:33,600
Speaker 12: bought herself a new car the year before. She was

653
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 12: driveling into Europe to Mexico, like things were going really

654
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:41,880
Speaker 12: good for her. And I think that in her last

655
00:45:42,239 --> 00:45:47,239
Speaker 12: few days a song, because it's like she probably knew

656
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 12: that she was really sick, seriously sick. She survived HIV

657
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,800
Speaker 12: for so many years and then this virus come along

658
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 12: and took her.

659
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,800
Speaker 8: With all in person gatherings halted due to the virus,

660
00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:09,360
Speaker 8: the process of grieving would take on a new and

661
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:14,640
Speaker 8: unfamiliar shape. Lorena's loved ones organized a memorial over zoom.

662
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:16,080
Speaker 3: It was beautiful.

663
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 2: It was so many people, hundreds of people in a

664
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:25,360
Speaker 2: virtual vigil, and all these people who are very private

665
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 2: and very shy, just saying I want to say something,

666
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:29,400
Speaker 2: I want to say something.

667
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:34,800
Speaker 8: Over two hundred and fifty people from across the US,

668
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:39,879
Speaker 8: Puerto Rico, and Mexico joined the call. Over and over

669
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,720
Speaker 8: people spoke about Lorena as.

670
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 2: Their mother, but a sonata logoa, so then God tres mamas.

671
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,640
Speaker 8: A friend describes Lorena as their third mother. After Lavin Wall,

672
00:46:54,719 --> 00:46:59,439
Speaker 8: Lupe and their birth mother. With Lorena's passing, Liam became

673
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:04,400
Speaker 8: the execus kitive director of the Collectivo Intercurtural Transcerrindo, the

674
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:07,320
Speaker 8: organization that she had pushed Lorena at a start.

675
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:12,760
Speaker 13: Your no kiro ser Lorena jocquiro recordari quiro manes leal

676
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 13: ipone in practicatolo keja mi signo.

677
00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 8: I don't want to be Lorena, Liam says, I want

678
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,520
Speaker 8: to keep her legacy alive and put into practice all

679
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:26,080
Speaker 8: that she taught me. And it's not only Liam who

680
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:31,320
Speaker 8: carries the legacy of Lorena's lifelong work. Cristina Herrera leads

681
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 8: the trans LATINX Network, an organization she founded in two

682
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:38,800
Speaker 8: thousand and seven to help trans and gender nonconforming folks

683
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 8: access legal and immigration services, as well as health and

684
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:48,719
Speaker 8: mental health support. Cecilia Hentili started Transgender Equity Consulting at

685
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 8: the beginning of twenty nineteen after serving for three years

686
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:56,279
Speaker 8: as the Director of Policy at GMHC, the world's first

687
00:47:56,360 --> 00:48:01,239
Speaker 8: provider of HIV AIDS prevention, care and advocacy, and many

688
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,319
Speaker 8: of the people Lorena helped and organized with are now

689
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:09,719
Speaker 8: involved in her organization. Others work closely with LGBTQ organizations

690
00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:13,439
Speaker 8: across the city, including the movement to decriminalize sex work.

691
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:21,719
Speaker 8: After witnessing how government indifference during the AIDS epidemic led

692
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:25,719
Speaker 8: to disproportionate infection in black and brown communities. In her

693
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 8: final days, Lorena had predicted that the COVID nineteen crisis

694
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 8: would hit her community hard. Many in the transsex worker

695
00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,520
Speaker 8: community have faced lack of work and access to any

696
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:41,840
Speaker 8: kind of government aid during the pandemic. Many have been evicted,

697
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:45,880
Speaker 8: putting them further at risk of becoming infected with COVID nineteen.

698
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:50,840
Speaker 8: At a protest on July seventeenth, twenty twenty, Liam and

699
00:48:50,920 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 8: the members of franz Geradiendo march in the streets as

700
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 8: sex workers. As undocumented workers, they've been excluded from stimulus

701
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 8: checks and access to unemployment.

702
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:25,240
Speaker 13: Benefits Valentia Para or Communa Napole Salajara.

703
00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:29,560
Speaker 8: During their last conversation through the hospital window, Lorena asked

704
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 8: Liam to start a fund to support their community through

705
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 8: the pandemic. Liam set up a gofund me after Lorna's passing,

706
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:39,720
Speaker 8: and to date, the fund has collected close to sixty

707
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 8: thousand dollars that they've been able to use to create

708
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,040
Speaker 8: mutual aid programs.

709
00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:47,360
Speaker 3: Lena maybea.

710
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 8: On a hot summer day in twenty twenty, Liam and

711
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 8: the volunteers hand out fresh fruits and vegetables at their

712
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:04,320
Speaker 8: mergarit Osalidario trans a food distribution mutual aid program that

713
00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:07,439
Speaker 8: they created in April of twenty twenty, just a month

714
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:11,640
Speaker 8: after Lorena's passing, with donations from local farmers' markets and

715
00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 8: the money from the fund that Lorena asked Liam to make.

716
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:18,720
Speaker 8: Despite the moment of pain and loss that they're living,

717
00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:22,560
Speaker 8: the volunteers laugh and dance to the music blaring out

718
00:50:22,560 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 8: of car speakers.

719
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:30,160
Speaker 13: Avanzi Zakiya, Ruthvel.

720
00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 8: And on weekend nights on Roosevelt Avenue, Liam and the

721
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:41,160
Speaker 8: Transgredienda volunteers are still there to hand out condoms. On

722
00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 8: October of twenty twenty, one of Lorena's most ambitious dreams

723
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:49,600
Speaker 8: for the organization would come true. El Colectio expanded beyond

724
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:52,800
Speaker 8: their tiny one room office and was able to secure

725
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:57,799
Speaker 8: a whole floor with rooms for offices, meetings, community gatherings.

726
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 8: As she walks around the half furnished space, Liam imagines

727
00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 8: all that the organization will do in each room an

728
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 8: area for legal services, an area for their syringe exchange,

729
00:51:19,640 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 8: a desk for all of their employees, a space for

730
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 8: people to come and relax.

731
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:28,880
Speaker 3: Lorena says, until the contained that.

732
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:33,840
Speaker 8: Via Standing next to Lorena's old desk, Liam says she

733
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,960
Speaker 8: can still feel Lorena's support. She consents how proud she

734
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 8: must be knowing that her work continues. Liam says that

735
00:51:42,719 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 8: their next step is working to found the Lorena Borjas

736
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 8: Shelter in Queens to provide safe housing for the trans community.

737
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,839
Speaker 8: On March thirtieth, twenty twenty one, a year after Lorena's death,

738
00:51:57,440 --> 00:52:01,320
Speaker 8: people from the community, neighbors, and politicians representing the district

739
00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:15,840
Speaker 8: gather on Roosevelt Avenue and Baxter Street. Lorena Liam speaks

740
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:20,880
Speaker 8: into the mic, Lorena is here, plcente in a ceremony

741
00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:24,760
Speaker 8: that would unveil the new name of the intersection, Lorena

742
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 8: bore has a way, you.

743
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:28,799
Speaker 3: Know, we can say in Queens it's.

744
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 14: A street that has the name of her, or you know,

745
00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:36,960
Speaker 14: with so much pride, it's a street that has the

746
00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:43,520
Speaker 14: name of a drug addict. We did all of these together,

747
00:52:45,840 --> 00:52:47,480
Speaker 14: but I'm also like a little.

748
00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:51,520
Speaker 3: Bit mixed feelings to have a name in your street.

749
00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:56,200
Speaker 14: If it's girls how they are, they don't have anything

750
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:58,400
Speaker 14: to eat. If the girls how they are that they

751
00:52:58,440 --> 00:52:59,359
Speaker 14: can't pay the rent.

752
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 3: If it's girl is that with the ear that.

753
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 14: They don't have a doctor. Only in tears don't mean nothing.

754
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:10,080
Speaker 14: If we don't have a commitment to do better for

755
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 14: the community, that's the only.

756
00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:13,400
Speaker 3: Thing that doesn't make her happy.

757
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:19,319
Speaker 8: At the event Jenny Rivera's Mariposa Barrio, a song about

758
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 8: embracing hardships is playing from a speaker, almost drowned out

759
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 8: by the Seven Trains.

760
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 6: Thanks.

761
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:42,439
Speaker 8: Liam remembers that when the song would play, Lorena would

762
00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 8: stop everything and sing until the.

763
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:53,680
Speaker 3: Very end, you're crooky, yeah, like we we can know.

764
00:53:54,600 --> 00:53:59,000
Speaker 8: Liam says, Lorena was that butterfly, the one who, as

765
00:53:59,080 --> 00:54:04,440
Speaker 8: the lyrics say, turns pain into color. On April first

766
00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 8: of twenty twenty one, Lorena's ashes were taken by her

767
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:19,680
Speaker 8: closest friends to a crypt at a local cemetery. Now

768
00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,960
Speaker 8: in prayer, they were once again united by the woman

769
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:29,000
Speaker 8: guilasal Canso who saved their lives, the same woman who

770
00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:32,000
Speaker 8: found in them her motor a reason to.

771
00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:35,279
Speaker 2: Live, yo.

772
00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 10: Afom Parabi and motor de vida.

773
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:47,600
Speaker 1: On May twenty ninth of twenty twenty three. If she

774
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:51,480
Speaker 1: was alive, Lorena Bodas would have turned sixty three years old.

775
00:55:14,560 --> 00:55:18,080
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Julia Rocha, Sofia Serdra Campero

776
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,320
Speaker 1: and Cindy Nanclaris. He was edited by Andrea Lopez Grusado.

777
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:26,000
Speaker 1: Fact checking for this episode by Any tardev Our Latino

778
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:31,440
Speaker 1: USA team includes Mike Sargent, Taisy Contreras, Marta Martinez, Victoria Strada,

779
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 1: Rinaldo Leanos Junior, Patrisa Subran, with help from Sofia Sanchez.

780
00:55:36,719 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Cristina Errera, Cecilia Gentili, Liam Winslet, Lindley

781
00:55:42,640 --> 00:55:45,520
Speaker 1: Edges and all of the people who shared their stories

782
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:48,799
Speaker 1: and memories of Lorina Borgas. We also want to give

783
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:53,680
Speaker 1: special thanks to Collectivo Intercutural Transgrediendo for documenting the trans

784
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:57,560
Speaker 1: Latina movement in Queens and for sharing their archive with us.

785
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:01,400
Speaker 1: Our editorial director is Fernandes Santos. Our director of Engineering

786
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:05,040
Speaker 1: is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Grusso. Our

787
00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:09,160
Speaker 1: associate engineers are Gabriel Lebias and JJ Krubin. Our marketing

788
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:12,160
Speaker 1: manager is Luis Unatt. Our new York Women's Foundation fellow

789
00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 1: is Elizabeth Lowenthal Torres. Our theme music was composed by

790
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:18,680
Speaker 1: saying Itt Rowinos, I'm your host, and executive producer Mariango Hoos,

791
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:20,800
Speaker 1: I remember to join us on our next episode. In

792
00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:23,080
Speaker 1: the meantime, look for us on social media and acquer

793
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:23,480
Speaker 1: that day.

794
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:25,239
Speaker 3: Yes Choo.

795
00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:34,640
Speaker 15: Latino USA is made possible in part by New York

796
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:39,320
Speaker 15: Women's Foundation, The New York Women's Foundation funding women leaders

797
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:43,400
Speaker 15: that build solutions in their communities and celebrating thirty years

798
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 15: of radical generosity, and the Ford Foundation working with visionaries

799
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 15: on the front lines of social change worldwide. Funding for

800
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 15: Latino USA is coverage of a culture of health is

801
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 15: made possible in part by a grant from the Robert

802
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:00,200
Speaker 15: Wood Johnson Founderation.

803
00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:06,400
Speaker 3: Come On, come on in that and I says to

804
00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 3: least Macha Tasso