may 17, 1993 the police raided her home armed to the teeth. they detained her. they separated her from three kids for whom she was their only mother. and she was. she was sentenced to a year in suspension. they said she kidnapped them, that she stole them, that she was a perverse transsexual who was intent on harming them. she then took to the media to tell her story. years later, sitting at the table of mirtha legrand she would describe that day as a day of cruelty. but she'd had to face many more things before being heard.
she was born the 24th of december of 1943 and was given a male name in the province of tucuman. 14 years later, in 1958 she decided to change her name. for all that wanted to listen, and for those that didn't too, she would be mariela. mariela elcira muñoz.
she spent her entire childhood receiving beatings, bullying, collective rapes. her father took her to psychiatrists, to brothels, did everything to straighten her out. and couldn't.
at age 15 she took care of a sick woman. she had two children, one of 6 and one of 2. naturally since the woman couldn't take care of them, she took them under her charge too. eventually they grew up and she never saw them again.
at 21 she moved to the greater buenos aires, in a house she bought in florencio varela. there, she started welcoming children into her home, children whom she raised and loved. the first was the child of a sex worker who couldn't raise him and gave him to her. then came a teen girl abandoned on a train station with a baby in arms. she took them both in.
she raised, throughout her life, 23 children and, by the end, 30 grandchildren. four of them were the children of a builder whom she lended a room in her house in exchange for help in upkeep. since he also couldn't take care of them due to work constrains she also took the children in as her own. "i raised them all until they got married. they left the house with their partners, like any couple." she would tell on an interview to gente magazine in 1993.
her labor with the children was that of care: she took them to school, she fed them, she kept them healthy and helped them with homework and life. but society wasn't ready for it.
one day a woman left her three children to her. mariela took them in. after a while, the woman changed her mind and without mediating any words, sued her. that was the day of cruelty, she was detained and never again saw those three children she had raised with all the love in the world.
it was then when she took to the media to fight for them, to tell her story. she said, without beating around the bush: "i want to clarify that i am a woman. my older children are progressive, they're well raised and educated, they take pride in it, that's why they show their face and say: mom is mom. i did everything i could for them, i never deceived anyone, never."
it was 1993 and argentina faced for the first time the debate of if a trans woman could be a mother. it was her, even if many doesn't know it, the one who kicked open that door.
mariela had underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1981 in chile. years later, during her tribulations, guillermo mac millen, the surgeon who worked with her had to say to gente magazine: "her womanly attitude, her motherly feelings, her nobility to achieve adoption, which are some of the most sublime sentiments in the world, are comforting. that's the response we always seek in every case we operate on."
in 1997, that very same interview with mirtha legrand opened up with the diva showing mariela's id to the camera. "this is impressive, i never saw a case like this before, it's revolutionary", she said, as she read "mariela muñoz. argentinian. tucumana" and finished: "i hand your id back to you, where you show up as a capital l lady". she was the first person in the country to achieve a sex and name change in the documento nacional de identidad.
mariela was now an icon, a woman who stood up not just for herself who, against the surprise of mirtha, said: "i believe that this is something important and that after me will come other transsexuals who will also do it, but i would like it to be by law". her struggle wasn't in vain: her wish came true in 2012, with the implementation of argentina's gender identity law.
in 2013 mariela had a stroke and a judge granted her an "extraordinary and reparative" pension due to the discrimination the country, the law, and indolence and apathy had subjected to. she was 70.
four years later, in 2017, mariela passed away at the age of 73. she left this world victorious. having sown the flag of a new homeland.
today is mother's day in argentina, and i wanted to share her story with people from outside the country. the story of our very own trans mom
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