The book Señales: trans, travesti, no binarie...* by Niki Raveau opens a window into lives that are often overlooked, dismissed, or silenced. It is not a conventional chronicle but a vibrant collective portrait shaped through nearly three years of work alongside communities of trans, travesti, and non-binary people in Chile. What emerges is a living testimony that combines photography, storytelling, and personal accounts to build a narrative of identity, struggle, and resilience. Rather than presenting individual biographies in isolation, the book weaves together experiences across different ages and social realities, creating a sense of shared history and continuity. From the voices of children discovering their identities to adults fighting for dignity in the face of marginalization, Señales captures the complexity of lives lived at the intersection of visibility and exclusion.
One of the most striking aspects of the book is the focus on Fundación Selenna, a unique and groundbreaking school project in Chile. Created by families of trans children and youth, Fundación Selenna represents an oasis of recognition and dignity in an often hostile social landscape. By opening their doors to Raveau, they allowed the project to document a space where education becomes a form of resistance, where young trans people can grow without the constant burden of explaining their existence. This perspective makes visible the urgent need for spaces that embrace trans and non-binary identities without forcing them into the margins.
The book also highlights Transitar, the first organization in Chile dedicated to trans children and youth. Through this group, the narrative expands to show how childhood itself can be a frontline of struggle, demanding recognition and protection. The testimonies collected here present a childhood that is not merely innocent or passive but urgent, local, and deeply tied to community survival. By including these experiences, the book positions young trans lives as central to the conversation about human rights and social change rather than as peripheral concerns.
The final chapter takes readers to the streets, quite literally, where the lives of travestis experiencing homelessness intersect with daily survival in markets and alleyways. Raveau and the collective behind Señales collaborated with Acción Travesti en Calle, a grassroots effort that for three years has been present in the open-air markets near La Vega. The images and stories in this section reveal the stark reality that marches and slogans rarely reach these spaces of poverty and exclusion. Yet in the midst of this marginalization, the project found ways to plant seeds of hope, advocating for public policies that address the reality of trans lives in the street. The vision of creating a travesti kiosk, opening a shelter, and carving out a space of permanence in a world that erases them becomes not just a dream but a strategy for survival and dignity.
Throughout the book, the guiding metaphor of a “signal” emerges, an idea that speaks of fragments from the past, codes of the present, and signs yet to be deciphered. For Raveau and the communities involved, the signal is permanence, the act of staying present even when the world tries to push trans and travesti people out of sight. Permanence means constructing spaces where there were none, remaining visible in streets where erasure dominates, and carrying the memory of those who did not survive. The book asks urgent questions: where do we go after marching, how do we seek justice for friends and companions who died too soon, and from what place do we build the path for those who will come after us? These are not questions with easy answers, but they resonate as a collective call to action.
Published by Metales Pesados, Señales is described as a photo album, yet it defies the simplicity of that label. It is an artistic and documentary work that moves from trans childhood and adolescence to adulthood and finally to the realities of street life. National Art Prize winner Lotty Rosenfeld contributed the photographic record, while Niki Raveau brought her perspective as a trans activist and researcher, synthesizing countless hours of interviews into a single, emotionally powerful volume. The result is a book that does not simply portray discrimination, it frames it within the ongoing struggle to validate trans existence and to claim space in a society that too often denies it.
Señales is not just a cultural artifact, it is a political intervention. It captures voices that might otherwise have been silenced and preserves them in a format that demands recognition. The combination of portraiture, narrative, and testimony ensures that the book is not only a source of memory but also a tool for activism. It insists that trans, travesti, and non-binary people belong in classrooms, in public spaces, and in the future of Chile. The permanence that Raveau and the communities describe is not passive endurance but active creation, an insistence on building despite loss, despite discrimination, despite the weight of exclusion. In doing so, Señales becomes both a tribute and a guide, pointing toward the possibilities of justice, recognition, and collective survival.
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