Transformistas By Marcia Ochoa Analysis

Marcia Ochoa explores citizenship for “GLBT” people in the “civil society” and those marginalized by it, specifically, transformistas. The metropolitan police find ways to penalize these “transformistas” in any way they could; whether an adopted civil code or an imagined one. Transformista refers to a person who was assigned the male label at birth, but identified as a woman her entire life – does not necessarily imply transgender or transsexual. Though Ochoa considers herself part of the civil society, she wanted to see how transformistas survive oppression and marginalization. Silence seemed to be a tool for the transformistas; slowly changing their appearance, hormone treatments, and subtle wardrobe changes until they were what they wanted. Through this …show more content…
The perversion of citizenship, the influence of modernism in Venezuela and policing techniques played a role in the way transformistas lived their life and how society saw them. One example that encompassed these three concepts was the one where Ochoa and her companion saw five armed national guardsmen escort two transformistas under a bridge. The trasnformistas seemed cynical while being dragged and made a remarked about being really screwed this time. Ochoa and her companion tried to see what the guards were going to do or listen for gunshots, but did not have any luck with either. One idea is that the guards probably demanded some sexual favors in order to be released. It is this perverse action towards transformistas and power dynamic between police and non-civilians that expresses the distortion of the modern society. As mentioned, citizenship has two components, the structural and the affective components. This part reminded me of Horton & Baker’s idea of “sanitary citizenship” in which citizenship was not only the legality of one’s place in the government, but also the adaptation to society and its