Porpora Marcasciano - Tra le rose e le viole

2002, 2020, Italian, Porpora Marcasciano,

Original title: "Tra le rose e le viole: la storia e le storie di transessuali e travestiti " (Among roses and violets: the story and stories of transsexuals and transvestites) by Porpora Marcasciano.The book was published in 2002, and the new edition was reprinted in 2020.

Porpora Marcasciano is a historical figure of Italian transfeminism and an authentic free voice of the LGBTI community. She is a honorary President of MIT, an italian transgender rights organization, after having been its president from 2010 to 2017. Her activist commitment has always gone hand in hand with her cultural contribution to the transgender cause, the tangible proof being her books: "Tra le rose e le viole. La storia e le storie di transsexuals e travestites" (2002), "AntoloGaia. Sesso, genere e cultura degli anni '70" (2007), "Favolose Narranti. Storie di transessuali" (2008), "AntoloGaia. Vivere sognando e non sognare di vivere: i miei anni Settanta", and "L’aurora delle trans cattive. Storie, sguardi e vissuti della mia generazione transgender" (2018), and "Transformare l'organizzazione dei luoghi di detenzione. Persone transgender e gender nonconforming tra diritti e identità" (2018).

The book reconstructs the transsexual experience in Italy from the end of the 1950s, in which it began to be visible, through the story and eyewitness accounts, until today, focusing on the stories of transgender women. Their testimony already belongs to the past but is at the same time a basis and a projection towards the future. The stories, the memories, and the references, extensively document the socio-cultural identity of the transgender community to pass it on as an experience to future generations.

'The godmother of the Italian transgender movement, Porpora Marcasciano, a historical activist for civil rights and author of texts that have now become cult books, with a series of interviews reconstructs the history of the transgender cause through the voices of her heroines. With a lucid political gaze intertwined with its typical irony and fabulousness, the book brings to light a segment of history kept too long underground, to recognize it and affirm it outside the margin in which it has been relegated.

In the new 2020 edition, the old stories are updated by those of the new trans generations. Stories in which the difficulty of being forced into hiding is mixed with the light-hearted joy of being able to create bonds of solidarity to build a path of collective claims.

Available via manifestolibri.it

and Amazon