Gabriella N. Báez: In Puerto Rico, A Trans Collective Is Reimagining Family Values
Gabriella N. Báez
In the months after Puerto Rico was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017, transdisciplinary artist and activist María José founded House of Grace, a collective of chosen family who work to take care of themselves, and to uplift each other’s power, beauty, and artistic talents amid a worsening culture of discrimination against queer and trans people. In the midst of natural disasters and a global pandemic, photographer Gabriella N. Báez and writer Alejandra Rosa profile how the dancers, performers and writers who make up the House have laid down collective roots, built trust and chosen one another.
Produced with support from the Henry Luce Foundation for a Magnum Foundation initiative to document the global health crisis through a variety of perspectives.
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“For me, [the act of] taking care is saying: I am not abandoning you...Do you know how many trans people are abandoned by their parents? I made a decision: I am not abandoning these people…I am not perfect. But I keep going forward day by day, trying the best I can to fulfill my responsibilities in a way that directs us all towards justice.”