CholiTrans, gender loneliness
Joanna is an Aymara woman born with a man's body and raised under the customs of her indigenous culture, in a small Andean town in Bolivia, near the border with Peru. Joanna dresses and thinks traditionally. She breaks stereotypes and leads a life rooted in her culture, where gender identity, far from being a rupture, goes hand in hand with tradition.
Joanna can't find her place. Women change the subject when she approaches their circles, men mock and despise her. Conversations about sex, men, and promiscuity of other transgender women, make her deeply uncomfortable.
Joanna knows that her condition caused the breakup of her family, today she lives in precarious conditions with her mother and two brothers aged 11 and 9. The lack of job opportunities prevents her financially from following hormone treatment. Considering an operation in this situation is unthinkable. Joanna feels physically and socially isolated.
Despite being convinced of who she is and feeling comfortable in herself, at 29 years old, Joanna daily considers reversing her transformation. "I don't want to reach fifty years alone and with a man's body"