Woman Crush(ing the Patriarchy) Wednesday: Catalina Velasquez

Catalina Velasquez is the director of Young People For (YP4), a progressive leadership development program of People For the American Way Foundation, an organization that conducts research, legal, education, and advocacy for a wide variety of liberal causes. She also founded the firm, Consult Catalina, to work on the intersections between immigration status, sexual orientation, gender and ethnic background. She has been involved with the development, advocacy and communications departments at Casa Ruby and the TransWomen of Color Collective; served as an appointed commissioner for the Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs; and was a policy analyst with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. Catalina also serves on the advisory council of United We Dream’s Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project. As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always thought I would pursue a legal career. I wanted to learn how to navigate a system that was so difficult and foreign for my family. I entered the U.S. at the age of 14, my parents came to this country seeking asylum, escaping civil war in Colombia. There had been a kidnapping attempt and a shooting, there were all sorts of violent situations that led to my family’s decision to migrate.

"It is a process to live unapologetically and there are all sorts of safety concerns...It’s a very unwelcoming world for trans people."

It was difficult coming here and trying to understand a whole new culture and legal system. But it was more than just that: I’m more than an immigrant. As a transgender and queer person, I always saw people on the news speaking poorly and mythically about my complex and nuanced identities. I felt I needed to pursue law or something in politics in order to make a difference.

How did you succeed in making your sexual orientation and gender identity an accepted part of your life at such a young age and within the confines of a traditional Latin American family structure? With regard to my sexuality, I had a lot of conversations with my mom, who was always worried about why I had a strong attraction to masculine beings when she had the expectation of me being attracted to feminine ones. Those conversations started when I was 11 and they were difficult conversations.

In terms of gender, I started outwardly expressing my gender later on in life. It is a process to live unapologetically and there are all sorts of safety concerns. But at an early age, because my mom was so worried about me, we explored conversations with psychologists to the point that I suppressed my sexuality until the age of 18. I said “We have tried going to psychologists, we’ve tried pretending that it doesn’t exist and now I’m going to start living more authentically.”

Identifying as a trans Colombiana – that took more time. It’s a very unwelcoming world for trans people. The average life expectancy for a trans woman is 34 years of age and this is because people who defy gender norms are systematically persecuted. Due to societal bias, being a trans person increases your chances of being discriminated in housing, healthcare and many other areas of everyday life. And once you are displaced and sidelined by society, you’re likelier to engage in survival economies and tactics that could lead to increased rates of incarceration, violence and even death.