Trans memory The Argentine Archives started out as a closed Facebook group where friends from the 1980s and 1990s could reconnect. It succeeded, and the digital space was soon filled with anecdotes, letters and chronicles. Then, photographer Ceci Estalles proposed “extending it beyond anecdotes.”
The forward is an exhibition This one left, this one was killed, this one died ((esta se fue, esta la mataron, esta Murió), intimate portraits in prison, exile or other absences. Soon after, the Archives team began to dream of building a bigger presence.
Today, Nastri works with managers of archivists, who are senior witnesses of community history as they archive, save and digitize files. For them, going to work is an act of resistance. In Argentina, 9,000 people (as of 2021) have revised their national identity documents to reflect their gender identity. People between the ages of 40 and 79 account for only 17% of that figure, while those over 60 account for only 4%.
Argentina’s Trans Memory archive houses over 100 documentary collections, dating back to 25,000 items from the 1930s to the early 2000s: photos, movies, recordings, letters, brochures, posters, press releases, police documents, magazine articles, identity documents and personal cultivation. Their work is from big through projects, book sales and monthly donations.
On the website, there are childhood, exile, activism, letters and postcards, carnival celebrations, private parties, birthdays, sex work, daily life, performances, portraits, and images of people’s professional lives. The documentary archives created by PIA now live with 40 other similar archives in Latin America.
In late June, during the winter in Argentina, Hernández told me in a video call that future generations must know the repression they are experiencing. During the dictatorship, her generation survived the persecution and harassment of the police. Without this archive, Nastry believes that not only will the key parts of history be lost, but many moments of joy will be forgotten. “This community has a strong family bond,” she explained. “They have a tragic history, but share in a very happy way.”
