Vic Sfriso: Learning from Trans Memories in Argentina

Last month, we had the opportunity to speak with Vic Sfriso (1989, Buenos Aires, they/them). Vic, who lives in Buenos Aires, is the Director of Programmes and Community Engagement for the user group Wikimedia LGBT+, a Co-coordinator of the Wikimedia Volunteer Supporters Network, and leads the Community and Advocacy Program at Wikimedia Argentina. They are also an author and researcher who focuses on LGBT+ experiences and sexual and reproductive rights.

Our conversation with Vic was part of a series of interviews with gender organizers for the project Wiki and GLAM: Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality. These interviews shed light on the collaborative efforts to promote gender equity within Wikimedia through partnerships with GLAM institutions. While each context has its own particularities – we discussed projects in Portugal, Spain, the United States, and India –, all our previous conversations focused on the history and memory of cisgender women. Speaking with Vic provided an opportunity to broaden this perspective by learning from the experiences of queer and trans communities. In this post, we will focus on the specificities of trans history, as it has much to teach us as we seek to understand the dynamics of collective memory and historical preservation within Wikimedia.

We use the words “trans” or “transgender” here to refer to a broad range of gender identities and roles that differ from those typically associated with their assigned sex at birth. Vic reminded us that these experiences are in turn shaped by factors such as race, ethnicity, class, social background, and geographical location of individuals and groups (for example, living in the Global North or the Global South). All of these factors interact with each other as they affect people’s access to institutions and technologies of memory.

Our conversation introduced aspects of collective remembrance mediated by the digital world that are not exclusive, but are particularly salient to trans memory efforts. It brought to the fore one central aspect of Wikimedia and GLAM collaborations dedicated to the memory of gender minorities: the formation of archives. This topic had already emerged in our previous interviews, but from a different perspective. By listening to Vic explain the efforts of trans people and lesbians to gather, research, and communicate their history, we gained valuable insight into how communities navigate the tensions between visibility and erasure that characterize the preservation of collective memory. Previously, we learned that much of the work carried out by gender organizers dedicated to the history of cis women consisted of “digging” through museum storage rooms, archives, and libraries in search of overlooked figures and histories. When we speak about the memory of trans people, however, we must go one step further back, as regular institutional archives are less likely to have records related to these communities. In fact, trans identities were not officially recognized in most places until very recently. In Argentina, for example, the pioneering Gender Identity Law that granted trans people the right to be recognized and treated according to their gender identity, without the need for gender-affirming surgery, was enacted only in 2012.

Challenges and opportunities

Without the consistent support of heritage institutions, trans communities have long recognized the potential of digital archiving, using blogs and social media platforms such as Facebook to call for contributions of documents, images, and testimonies of their own personal experiences and the memories of friends. According to Vic, Wikimedia can be a powerful tool in this process, serving as an ally in the preservation of trans people’s historical memories. There are, however, some challenges. Efforts toward transgender memory preservation tend to rely heavily on oral transmission and user-generated content, usually not considered reliable sources of information for Wikimedia. Although this issue emerged in all of our conversations with gender organizers, it has a particularly significant impact on trans memory work due to the still incipient institutionalization of their archives.

Moreover, online user-generated content tends to be ephemeral. Vic highlighted the fragility of privately maintained online archives, as domain registration costs money, web hosting costs money. Keeping digital resources also requires a significant investment of time and labor, resources that are often scarce among minorities. Therefore, communities that could benefit most from online archiving, those whose collective memories are especially vulnerable, are often the ones least able to sustain a long-term online presence on their own.

The obstacles are not limited to a lack of financial resources or time. Vic raised an important point that often goes unnoticed in discussions of heritage preservation: the emotional labor involved in remembering, revisiting keepsakes, photographs, and memories of friends. This made us think about what Medhavi Gandhi pointed out in our last post, “Medhavi Gandhi: Championing Open Knowledge in India”: we must consider the responsibilities we have, as Wikimedia contributors, when engaging with personal histories.

Yet despite these obstacles, trans communities have created significant examples of digital spaces dedicated to their memory and history. Argentina offers an emblematic example in the Archivo de la Memoria Trans (Trans Memory Archive), envisioned by trans activists María Belén Correa and Claudia Pía Baudracco. What started as a Facebook group dedicated to sharing personal images and stories of trans women in Argentina evolved into a collective dedicated to the preservation and digitization of materials in accordance with archival standards. The Archive has produced a podcast, a radionovela, and founded its own publishing house, dedicated to trans authors and themes. It also has an impressive Wikipedia page, created in 2018. Since there were no GLAM institutions dedicated to trans memory, the Archive became one itself—eventually entering institutions such as Museo Reina Sofia, Tate Modern, and the São Paulo Biennial.

While discussing strategies for documenting queer memory on Wikimedia platforms, Vic introduced us to the Wikipedia article on the Calchaquíes Valley, in northeastern Argentina. Editors added a section about LGBT+ culture in the valley that highlights the Marcha Plurinacional del Orgullo (Plurinational Pride March), a movement that acknowledges queer communities as well as the numerous indigenous peoples and multiple nationalities that inhabit the region. Adding short, but significant information to existing documentation on Wikimedia projects is a strategy that can be adopted by communities that don’t have all the resources, or the desire, to create and maintain large archives (online or offline). Similarly, queer communities might join forces with groups who have already established partnerships with GLAM institutions as a point of entry to future collaborations.   

Lessons learned

• If queer documents are absent from GLAM institutions, begin by documenting recent events.
• Start gathering documents somewhere. Social media can be a valuable tool for building networks and collecting memories, while closed groups may help protect contributors when needed.
• Approach personal histories with care and sensitivity. Remember that sharing memories can involve emotional labor and that exposing queer people’s data can compromise their privacy, safety, and autonomy, especially in contexts where these identities are stigmatized or criminalized.
• Think about a series of small, specific interventions on larger Wikimedia projects. This can relieve the pressure of building and maintaining resources. Adding brief but important information on existing Wikimedia articles is a good strategy, as seen with the LGBT+ section added to the Calchaquíes Valley Wikipedia article.
  

Learn more

This is the fifth blog post in our series for the Wiki and GLAM: Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality project.

• Read about the WELx and the Belém Library partnership in Portugal.
• Read about Wikiesfera and their GLAM projects in Spain.
• Read about the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, and their Wikimedian-in-Residence program. 
• Read about the many initiatives led by Medhavi Gandhi in India.
• Find out about the project Wiki and GLAM : Harnessing Knowledge to Foster Gender Equality.

Join us!

Want to learn more about GLAM partnerships for gender equality? Join our Telegram channel or send an email to wikiglamgender@gmail.com to learn about our next events.