Community-Based Resistance Strategies among a Group of Trans Women in Lima, Peru during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This study explores the community-based strategies that a group of trans women living in Lima, Peru, employed to resist the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their wellbeing. Data was collected through participant observation and focus group discussions during the implementation of a social aid campaign targeted to this population and analyzed through reflexive theoretical thematic analysis. Resistance strategies were understood as forms of social capital grounded in relations of support and connectedness. Results underscored the importance of social cohesion to ameliorate increasing levels of precarity, community leaders as key for linking trans women across different networks, and unified efforts of social groups who share values to influence institutional power. The analysis also captured barriers and challenges that could hinder the development and articulation of social capital. Fostering trust relations and community-organization should be fundamental components for advocacy programs that seek to support the trans women community.

KEYWORDS:

• Trans women
• COVID-19
• Peru
• social capital
• community strategies
• precarity
• resistance

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Lucila Rozas, Emilia Fernández, Roxana Núñez and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Our deepest appreciation goes to the trans women community of Lima Centro.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no potential conflict of interest

Notes

1. “Trans” is employed as an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, expression or behavior differs from what is culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth (American Psychological Association, 2014). Trans women (mujeres trans) was the category used by this group to identify themselves as a collective composed of female-identified and female-presenting individuals.

2. Large colonial houses, most in dilapidated conditions, which have been modified to accommodate various people in small rooms.