TransLatin@ Founder Bamby Salcedo Talks Trans Advocacy

Trans Latinxs have been at the forefront of change and fighting for better representation for the the trans community as a whole. In a 2016 survey, it was reported that 21 percent of people living in the U.S. who identify as transgender are Latinx. While there haven’t been more recent reports or studies done, queer pride remains strong in 2024, with more than 33 million Latinxs across Latin America identifying as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Still, trans Latinxs face unique cycles of discrimination and oppression based on their gender identity, ethnic or racial identity, and immigration status. Trans Latinxs currently experience a 20 percent unemployment rate (compared to the national average at 7 percent), 28 percent live under the poverty line, and 47 percent have attempted suicide. They are also more likely to be harassed, physically and sexually assaulted, expelled, incarcerated, and experience homelessness.

That’s why trans rights activist Bamby Salcedo and her work as the founder, President, and CEO of the nonprofit group The TransLatin@ Coalition is so important. Serving trans, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGI) people in the L.A. area, the organization offers leadership development programs, economic and workforce development programs, violence prevention programs, reentry programs to assist with life post-incarceration, HIV testing, legal and housing assistance, free food distribution, and more. Salcedo’s work is changing lives. But every step of the way, she emphasizes that it’s work that’s bigger even than herself, instead emphasizing that it truly takes a village:

“Even though I am the leader of the organization and many members of our community consider me a leader, I don’t see myself as that. I see myself as a servant to the people,” Salcedo tells HipLatina. “I’m a piece of broader movement. It’s a collective effort. I’m someone who is here for a purpose because I have survived anything and everything that you can probably think of. I have that privilege and responsibility to my community. All of those things are not just what keeps me grounded but also focused on the work that I need to do.”

From an early age, Salcedo experienced challenges growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico. Raised by a single mother in poverty, she endured sexual abuse, drug and substance abuse, crime, gang violence, and juvenile detention. As a trans woman, she also faced legal and social persecution for her gender identity. After reuniting with her father and immigrating to the U.S. as a teenager, she was then placed placed in an immigrant detention center with male inmates, which led to unprecedented violence.

“I was violently attacked and assaulted to the point that I had to be transported to a hospital outside of immigration detention,” she says. “I personally lived and experienced the mistreatment that we received while we were detained. I’m a survivor of that system.”

But as she points out, she’s not the only trans person that this anti-immigrant discrimination has happened to. She references the 2007 case of Victoria Arellano, an undocumented Mexican trans woman who was denied her HIV medication and medical attention while detained in an immigration detention center. This led to a series of horrifying symptoms including weight loss, fevers, vomiting, and diarrhea, and she ultimately died in a hospital from an AIDS-related infection with two ICE officers guarding her room. Salcedo and many other trans advocates have called for her death to be recognized as murder due to the willful way they denied access to life-saving medication and medical care.

In many ways, however, it was also the jumpstart that Salcedo needed to start The TransLatin@ Coalition. Two years later in 2009, she was working at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. At that point, she’d already had about 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector after developing and serving several other organizations. And especially after hearing about Arellano’s story, she knew she wanted the lives of TGI Latinxs in L.A. to change.

“It started with a conversation because it’s really hard to build something from the ground up,” she explains. “I had to continue to work at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles while at the same time organizing this amazing group of people who were doing volunteer work. We volunteered for six years until I left my job to dedicate myself to building the organization. We got our first grants in January 2016 and since then, we’ve become the biggest trans-led organization in the United States.”

Today after 15 years, she supervises a staff of 63 TGI people, a brick-and-mortar center in downtown L.A., another center in El Monte, and a third center in Orange County that is set to open this November. The organization provides access to employment and reentry assistance, housing (the organization currently owns a property that can house 25 people), and food. Besides conducting outreach to prisons and other centers to spread awareness about their services, the organization also works on legal policy and research work to advocate for their lives on the political stage. Research is especially critical because it shows outside stakeholders and potential funders the essential needs that the organization is meeting and why it’s critical to meet them sooner rather than later.

“We’re directly supporting our community through service provision, but also we believe in influencing change in the institutions that marginalize us,” she says. “Because you can’t organize or mobilize people if they’re struggling with their basic needs.”

One of the biggest challenges that The TransLatin@ Coalition currently faces, however, is funding and attaining greater economic power for the people they serve. In a study that the organization conducted with TGI Latinxs in L.A. earlier this year, 22 percent of respondents reported having no individual income, 20 percent had no household income, and 54 percent earned less than $25,000 of annual income, meaning that 52 percent of respondents either lived near or under the poverty line.

“We are not situated at the same level as the gay and lesbian community,” Salcedo explains. “They have money. They have resources. They’re well situated within our society and we as trans people are not necessarily. Funders for LGBTQ Issues released a report in 2020 that said that of all the funding that it is allocated for the LGBTQ community, only four cents out of every $100 is allocated to trans organizations. So most of what we do is done with no resources. We talk about LGBTQ as if trans people are a part of that acronym and even though we are in theory, we’re not at the same level. There’s this huge disparity even within our community.”

Still, it’s a point of pride for her not only that The TransLatin@ Coalition is the largest trans-led organization in the U.S., but also that’s been doing this critical work for 15 years. Especially as someone who has seen many nonprofits come and go without ceremony.

Looking ahead, Salcedo plans to implement many projects in the next few years including purchasing a piece of land, building a new center, reaching a $35 million fundraising goal for the new building, releasing a documentary about aging trans women, and expanding their services to better serve trans elders.

On Nov. 16 called GARRAS, a fashion show and fundraiser that embraces the joy and resilience of the TGI Latinx community while raising money to support the organization’s work. The name GARRAS refers to the double meaning that the word holds in Spanish, which could either be raggedy clothing or the claws of an eagle. But it’s also an acronym that stands for Groundbreaking Activism Redirecting and Reforming All Systems. It was created to contrast Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, which honors trans people who have lost their lives to anti-trans violence.The fashion show took place in West Hollywood in Los Angeles and had 700 attendees including Zaya Wade, Curly Velasquez, and VP & Chief Operation Officer of TransLatin@ Coalition Maria Roman-Taylorson and raised approximately $300,000.

“GARRAS highlights the spirits of trans, gender non conforming, and intersex people who walk the runway as high fashion models,” she says. “Members of the trans and queer community also contribute with hair, makeup, and clothing, so it’s a collaborative process to celebrate members of our community while we’re still here, not just remember us when we’re gone. This year, we’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of GARRAS and our 15th anniversary as an organization, our quinceañera, so to speak.”

Salcedo, who has a Master’s Degree in Mexican and Latin@ Studies from California State California Los Angeles, is well aware of the weight of the work she does for the trans community as a whole. With The TransLatin@ Coalition at the forefront of the trans liberation movement, Salcedo doesn’t deny the responsibility that comes with being one of the most visible organizations doing this work.

“One of the reasons I’m so passionate about this work is that very few of us are doing it. If we compare ourselves to the broader society of the United States, we’re a minute community. That’s why our allies, friends, and comrades are so important. We are the reflection of the possibilities of our people. We want our people to see that it is possible to create and to actualize. We need all of us to participate and understand that we as trans, gender-nonconforming, and intersex people also deserve to be heard. We deserve to be happy, to be healthy, to have good jobs, to have the ability to go to school, to truly be integrated into the tapestry of a society that sees our community as human beings and where we’re not criminalized simply because of who we are. Even if I don’t get to live the world that I want to live in, I know that I’ve contributed to it.”