Alexandra Braga - Fez Parte do meu show

2025, Alexandra Braga, Brazil, Portuguese,

Original title: "Fez Parte do meu show" (It was part of my show) by Alexandra Braga.

“Fez Parte do Meu Show”, translated as “It Was Part of My Show”, is not merely a memoir, it is a raw, painful, and deeply human testimony of survival written by Alexandra Braga, also known as Alexandra Adriana Braga de Vasconcelos. The book unfolds like a life lived under constant spotlight, sometimes illuminated by applause, more often exposed to harsh judgment, misunderstanding, and violence. Alexandra invites the reader into a journey of self discovery that begins long before she had the words to name who she was, in a world that repeatedly told her she was wrong for existing as herself.

 

From early childhood, Alexandra sensed that something within her did not align with the roles imposed upon her. What initially appeared to her family as innocent play, wearing her mother’s shoes or experimenting with feminine gestures, soon became a source of tension and fear. Raised in a religious environment that interpreted difference as sin, she internalized shame and learned to deny her feelings. This inner conflict, so vividly described in the book, becomes one of its central themes. Alexandra does not romanticize this period. She writes about confusion, guilt, and the terror of believing she was condemned simply for being who she was.

 

As adolescence arrived, the pressure intensified. School, which should have been a place of safety and learning, became a daily arena of prejudice. Transfobia was not yet named, discussed, or challenged in the way it is today. Alexandra was not seen as a student in need of understanding, but as a problem to be removed. The emotional violence she faced eventually pushed her out of the classroom and into the margins of society. In her narrative, leaving school is not portrayed as a choice, but as an expulsion carried out by silence, hostility, and neglect.

 

Without access to education or family support, Alexandra found herself pulled into the same reality that traps an overwhelming number of trans women in Brazil, prostitution. In “Fez Parte do Meu Show”, she describes the nights on the streets with brutal honesty. The loneliness, the fear, the normalization of danger, and the fragile sense of belonging that came from being accepted only in the shadows. These chapters are some of the most difficult to read, because Alexandra does not soften the violence she endured or the violence she sometimes mirrored back to the world as a means of survival. Her body became both currency and battlefield, and the line between victim and survivor blurred under constant threat. Yet even in the darkest moments, the book never loses sight of Alexandra’s inner spark. She writes about the moment she truly felt Alexandra being born, not as a metaphor but as a lived experience, when she first stepped into the streets presenting herself as the woman she had always been inside. That emergence, however painful and dangerous, was also an act of truth. Alexandra shows the reader that authenticity can appear in the most unlikely places, even when society offers no safe stage.

 

A turning point in her story comes through love, not the idealized version often found in fiction, but a grounding, life saving connection. Meeting her partner Alex marked the beginning of a slow return to daylight, to stability, and to the possibility of a future beyond survival. Love, in Alexandra’s account, is not a miracle cure, but a door that allowed her to imagine herself as part of society again. With support, she left prostitution, returned to school, and reclaimed an education that had once rejected her. Education becomes one of the most powerful symbols in the book. Alexandra writes with particular emotion about reentering classrooms, first as a student, later as a teacher. Her academic path was far from easy. Even while earning a degree in pedagogy and a postgraduate specialization in psychopedagogy, she faced bureaucratic humiliation, being forced to present documents that still carried her deadname, causing discomfort and rejection during job interviews. These moments expose how institutional barriers can persist even after personal transformation and achievement.

 

The long awaited gender affirmation surgery is described not as an end, but as a profound milestone in a much larger journey. Alexandra recounts the moment after surgery with clarity and relief, yet she is careful to emphasize that becoming herself was never dependent solely on medical procedures. Identity, in her story, is a continuous act of courage, reinforced through recognition, dignity, and social belonging. What gives “Fez Parte do Meu Show” exceptional depth is how Alexandra connects her personal narrative to collective responsibility. As a public school teacher in Mogi das Cruzes, working with more than 800 children, she understands the power of representation and presence. She does not center her classroom on debates about gender, but on combating bullying, fostering empathy, and ensuring that no child feels as excluded as she once did. Her message is simple and radical at the same time, school is for everyone.

 

Beyond the classroom, Alexandra’s activism is inseparable from her story. As a member and leader within local LGBTQIA+ organizations, she channels her lived experience into advocacy against violence, exclusion, and silence. The book repeatedly reminds the reader that many trans lives do not reach the point of stability Alexandra achieved. Names of murdered trans women appear not as statistics, but as ghosts that haunt her commitment to continue fighting. “Fez Parte do Meu Show” ultimately reads like a performance in which every act demands survival, and every scene exposes truth. Alexandra uses the metaphor of a show not to suggest spectacle, but endurance. Her life unfolded under constant observation, judgment, and expectation, yet she refused to disappear backstage. Instead, she remained on stage, rewriting the script that society handed her.

 

The transformation at the heart of the book is not about becoming acceptable, but about becoming whole. Alexandra’s voice invites the reader to question rigid ideas of gender, morality, and success. More importantly, it asks for empathy, not pity, and understanding, not tolerance. Her story stands as a testament to resilience, to the power of education, and to the necessity of listening to lives that have too often been silenced. By the final pages, it becomes clear that Alexandra’s journey is not framed as a triumph over adversity alone, but as a declaration of existence. She survived not only for herself, but to open paths for others. “Fez Parte do Meu Show” leaves the reader with a quiet yet insistent truth, even when the world collapses, moving forward remains an act of resistance, and being oneself, fully and unapologetically, is the bravest performance of all.

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