title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: The SLS opening was followed by the winter season, typically a weaker business period for Las Vegas resorts. The SLS experienced various hardships during its first year. In October 2014, the SLS laid off less than two percent of its workers. A reduction in staffing was common for Las Vegas Strip casinos shortly after opening, as business is difficult to predict prior to that point. The number of layoffs was low for a Las Vegas resort. Rob Oseland, the president of SLS Las Vegas, announced later that month that he would depart the property to work on a new project. Such departures are also common following a resort opening. He was replaced by Scott Kreeger, a former executive for MGM Resorts and Station Casinos. The buffet did not perform as hoped, due to its location on the second floor. It was temporarily closed for the season in November 2014, with an expected reopening the next year.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In December 2014, during a hearing with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Nazarian admitted to drug use earlier in the year. The board had concerns about this and also questioned Nazarian's handling of an extortionist who received money from Nazarian to leave him alone. The board was concerned that Nazarian could be easily manipulated, but ultimately recommended him for a limited gaming license. Later that month, Nazarian and Stockbridge came to a mutual agreement that he step back from all daily operations at the SLS. Nazarian said he wanted to focus on other SBE brands, while SBE would continue to operate the non-gaming areas of the SLS.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Although Nazarian was no longer involved in operations, state law still required that he be licensed, as he owned more than five percent of the resort. A few days after Nazarian's departure, the Nevada Gaming Commission held a hearing in regard to his licensing. Although the commission intended to deny him, Nazarian apologized for his past actions and convinced the commission to grant him a one-year limited gaming license. Because of the prior concerns regarding Nazarian, there were several conditions relating to his license, including random drug testing and no involvement in casino operations.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Although the Griddle Cafe was popular among customers, its owner chose to close it in January 2015, to focus on new locations. The restaurant was renamed as Northside Cafe the following month. At the time, there were no plans to reopen the buffet, and the Foxtail club had seen poor revenue. In addition, Dean Martin's family had requested a $50,000 licensing fee for using his image on the resort's carpeting. The family stated that the image infringed on Martin's right of publicity, and legal action was threatened if the SLS did not either remove the carpet image or pay the fee. The SLS filed a lawsuit against Martin's family and sought a declaratory judgment that the carpeting was not infringement. In May 2015, the Teamsters union picketed for several days outside the SLS, alleging that the resort refused to let its valet parkers form a union.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: The SLS experienced revenue losses during the first half of 2015. Walk-in traffic was poor due to the resort's location, surrounded by unbuilt projects. The SLS was also half a mile away from its nearest rival resorts, further contributing to a lack of walk-in business. However, the monorail helped increase customer numbers. Kreeger estimated that a complete turnaround at the resort could take 18 to 24 months as adjustments were made. In response to the losses, there were plans to turn the Life nightclub into a live music venue with a third-party operator to manage it. The casino's loyalty club was revamped in a further effort to attract locals, and Kreeger wanted to double the resort's convention space. There was consideration given to turning the closed buffet into additional meeting space.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Two SLS restaurants were sold to restaurant operator One Group in July 2015, although SBE continued to manage them. The following month, Fred Segal closed its stores at the SLS, and the resort opened three of its own retailers as a replacement. Kreeger said that local customers were not interested in the high-priced clothing at the Fred Segal stores, and tourists from southern California already have such stores to shop at, leading to the closure of the SLS locations. The SLS continued to suffer financially.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In October 2015, it was announced that Nazarian would sell his 10-percent interest to Stockbridge, which would pay a licensing fee to SBE to continue using the SLS name. Stockbridge stated that the deal would be more cost-efficient and would give greater flexibility to open new restaurants at the resort. Nazarian also considered the deal beneficial. The acquisition was approved by the state in November 2015, and Stockbridge ended its affiliation with Hilton and its Curio collection.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: That month, Stockbridge announced a partnership with Starwood to take over the 289-room Lux tower and reopen it in 2016 under the name W Las Vegas. W Hotels was considered a luxury brand, and the new project was expected to increase revenue by attracting a more upscale demographic. In addition, the two SLS towers were be added to Tribute Portfolio, a chain of independent four-star hotels. Both companies financed the W Las Vegas project, while the other two towers remained part of the SLS Las Vegas. Starwood managed the W Las Vegas, while Stockbridge continued managing the SLS. It would mark the first W hotel in Las Vegas after several previous attempts to build one, including a failed project near the Las Vegas Strip.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: The Life nightclub reopened as a live music venue, The Foundry, in February 2016. The Foundry had capacity for 1,800 standing guests, or seating for 600. Musical acts were handled by Live Nation Entertainment. The Sayers Club had begun offering comedy acts, which were also offered at The Foundry in addition to its musical performances.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: W Las Vegas had been scheduled to open in September 2016, but this was delayed when Starwood was acquired by Marriott International that month. W Las Vegas ultimately opened on December 1, 2016, becoming the city's latest hotel-within-a-hotel after others such as Delano Las Vegas. It included its own entrance at the rear of the SLS. It also featured a W-branded spa, and a three-floor building with of event and meeting space. The three-story building was a new addition. A 13,500-pound neon "W" letter was added atop the SLS sign on the Las Vegas Strip.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Kreeger resigned as SLS Las Vegas president at the end of 2016, to work for another company. Several weeks later, Terry Downey was named as the new president and chief operating officer, while Robert Schaffhauser was named as chief financial officer. They had previously worked as executives for the Aliante hotel-casino in North Las Vegas. Downey and Schaffhauser subsequently hired 13 executives from the Aliante for new positions at the SLS.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In May 2017, it was announced that Reno businessman Alex Meruelo and his company, Meruelo Group, would purchase the SLS Las Vegas from Stockbridge. The sale was initially expected to be finalized later that year, although continued price negotiations between Meruelo and Stockbridge pushed back the completion of the purchase. Following the announcement of the sale, the SLS renamed its rewards program from "The Code" to "Club 52", referencing the resort's initial opening in 1952. The "SLS" name was not popular among gamblers, and there were rumors that the resort would revert to its "Sahara" name once Meruelo took over ownership. At the time, the casino measured , excluding an sports book. Downey and Schaffhauser stepped down from their positions in July 2017. Such departures were common during an ownership transition.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: At the end of 2017, a lawsuit was filed by 60 Chinese residents who had invested in the SLS through the EB-5 program. The suit was filed against Stockbridge, SBE, and Meruelo. The investors had yet to receive a green card through the program, and they alleged that the resort had never made a profit. They sought $255 million in damages and other costs, and stated that Meruelo's purchase would nullify their chances at getting a green card. Meruelo negotiated with the investors regarding their loan money, which was due back in 2018 and 2019. The dispute further delayed the sale to Meruelo.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In February 2018, the Culinary Workers Union was in a labor dispute with Meruelo regarding his employees at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. The union subsequently called for a state investigation into Meruelo's impending purchase of the SLS Las Vegas, citing concerns about his suitability to own and operate the resort. The union also cited objections from the EB-5 investors regarding the proposed sale. Meruelo Group completed its purchase of the SLS in April 2018. At the time, the SLS employed 1,800 people.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Alex Meruelo had plans for a $100 million renovation of the resort, and he was also expected to rebrand it in 2019. Observers speculated that the resort would revive the Sahara name, and renovation plans used a "working name" of "Grand Sahara Resort", mirroring the Grand Sierra Resort. Paul Hobson was hired as general manager and would oversee the renovations. Meruelo considered the Hispanic clientele in Las Vegas underserved, and stated that it would be among the target demographics for the resort under his ownership. Meruelo owned two television and three radio stations in California, which he would use to promote the SLS.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In August 2018, the W Las Vegas was renamed as the Grand Tower and brought back under in-house management, as part of Meruelo's plans for the resort. At the time, the SLS had a total of 1,616 rooms. Meruelo's $100 million renovation began in October 2018, and included upgrades to the hotel's rooms, hallways, and lobby. Meruelo had the casino floor brightened, as he considered it too dark. The Story tower was updated to remove its basic design in favor of a more conventional appearance, as most guests did not like the earlier design. Meruelo's construction firm handled the upgrades. The SLS became profitable near the end of 2018, and there was optimism that the resort would continue to improve in the coming years with the scheduled resort openings of The Drew and Resorts World, as well as an expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Meruelo held an enormous ceremony involving fireworks and a light show on June 27, 2019, to announce an upcoming name change to Sahara Las Vegas, as part of the ongoing renovation. The resort would continue to operate under the SLS name for several months until the Sahara name was fully implemented throughout the resort. The process to replace the SLS branding, including exterior signage, was expected to conclude in September or October 2019, at which point the resort would be marketed under the Sahara name.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: On the night of August 27, 2019, the Sam by Starck statue was removed during a ceremony and subsequently disposed, as part of the Sahara rebranding. The ceremony began with flames that were set off at the base of the statue, followed by a fireworks show. A crane subsequently tore the statue down. Palm trees are expected to take the place of the former statue. Because of the way that the statue was constructed, a company spokesman stated that it would be nearly impossible to disassemble the statue and restore it elsewhere for display. The pool area's duck statue was expected to be relocated to the pool at the Grand Sierra Resort.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: The resort became Sahara Las Vegas on August 29, 2019, and renovations were expected to continue into 2020. A renovation of the pool area was scheduled to begin in September 2019. The Sahara's new lounge was named Casbar Lounge, after the resort's original live-music venue. The Sayers Club was renamed Club 101. The new Sahara is modern in its design and does not feature a Moroccan theme as before, although it features references to the original Sahara. Hobson said, "You might see some camels in artwork around the property, but nothing in terms of a theme. There will be reference to the original Sahara era that reflects what we want for the modern era. There's some nostalgia, but we are defining it for today." A few months after its opening, the Sahara Las Vegas sought donations of old memorabilia from the original Sahara for display in the resort.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: A poker room opened in February 2020, as part of the renovation project. Poker had been absent from the casino for nearly a decade, and many Las Vegas casinos had shut their poker rooms in recent years due to a decline in popularity. The resort also planned to add a restaurant row, which would replace Club 101. Sahara executives intended to use the resort's restaurant space and pool decks to host meetings and conventions, recapturing a demographic that was largely ignored when the resort operated as SLS Las Vegas.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In September 2021, the resort opened its renovated pool area, known as Azilo Ultra Pool. The Moroccan-inspired pool area would also be available as event space. It includes two giant LED walls, measuring two stories in height. The pool area replaces the Foxtail club, and is part of the resort's $150 million renovation plans, which also include several restaurants such as Chickie's & Pete's.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Numerous performers have entertained at the resort over the years, including Buddy Hackett, Liberace, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, George Burns, and Sammy Davis Jr. Other performers included Bobby Darin, Red Skelton, Ann Blyth, Martha Raye, Donald O'Connor, Louis Prima, Kathryn Grayson, Mae West, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ann-Margret, George Carlin, Tina Turner, and drag queen Kenny Kerr.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In 1952, Sahara owner Milton Prell booked transgender woman Christine Jorgensen to sing at the Sahara, without hearing her first. Prell learned prior to her two-week gig that she could not sing well, and he canceled her performances by claiming that he did not know about her transgender status. Bill Miller, the resort's entertainment director at the time, sent a letter to Jorgensen reading, "I'm not going to pull a farce on my customers. I won't give them a man dressed in women's clothing. I bought a 'she.'" In 1953, after Jorgensen gave a performance in Pittsburgh that was positively reviewed, Prell signed her back up for a two-week gig at the Sahara, which proved to be a success.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In 1953, singer Marlene Dietrich was paid $90,000 to give performances for three weeks at the Sahara. A $200,000 contract was later announced that would have Dietrich perform in two separate engagements at the hotel, each spanning four weeks. The Sahara subsequently took credit for pioneering the concept of high-priced acts, citing Dietrich's initial performances there in 1953. In late 1954, Miller hired jazz musician Louis Prima to be their late night lounge act, one of the earliest ones on the Las Vegas Strip. Along with his then-wife Keely Smith and sax player Sam Butera, they created one of the most popular late-night attractions on the Strip.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In 1956, Abbott and Costello appeared together for the last time on the Sahara stage before their permanent breakup. Don Rickles was a regular performer at the Sahara and launched his Las Vegas career there in 1959. In 1961, Eleanor Powell came out of retirement after 14 years to star in a musical revue at the Sahara. Judy Garland performed at the resort in 1962, and Johnny Carson regularly appeared at the Sahara's Congo Room from 1962 to 1974. In 1965, Milton Berle starred in a comedy show at the Sahara known as "Never Too Late".


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Several live albums were recorded at the Sahara, including "Live from Las Vegas" by Prima and Smith, "Live at the Sahara: Las Vegas, 1964" by Tony Bennett, "Live at The Sahara in Las Vegas" by Connie Francis, and "Live in Las Vegas Vol. 2" by Sonny & Cher. The resort was the site of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for many years, first from 1973 to 1981 and again from 1991 to 1994. Jerry Lewis himself also performed at the resort. The Sahara Space Center hosted events such as boxing matches, and the Jerry Lewis telethon. It also hosted the bands Kiss and Rush in 1975.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: In early 2000, The Amazing Johnathan hosted a magic act at the Sahara during a five-week period. Shortly thereafter, the hotel launched a Rat Pack tribute show known as "The Rat Pack is Back". Later in 2000, Steve Wyrick began hosting a magic show at the Sahara Theater. Resort owner Bill Bennett gave Wyrick full control over the design of the new theater, which had seating for 860 people. Charo, who made her headliner debut at the Sahara two decades earlier, started a concert show at the resort in 2002. The following year, the Sahara launched "World's Greatest Magic Show", a variety style show featuring eight to ten magicians, each performing their best trick.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: The Amazing Johnathan opened another magic show at the Sahara in 2005. He left two years later to focus on television production, and was replaced by comedian Roseanne Barr. The Scintas performed at the Sahara for a year, before departing in 2007. In 2008, the Sahara launched a dance show called "Raw Talent Live", focusing on the relationship between humans and technology. In 2009, The Comedy Stop relocated from the Tropicana resort to the Sahara, offering a rotating lineup of comedians. During the same year, the Sahara debuted an act by magician Rick Thomas, and a new Rat Pack tribute show by Sandy Hackett.


title: Sahara Las Vegas

text: Comedian Eddie Griffin has been a frequent performer at the resort since 2018. "Blanc de Blanc", a cabaret-style variety show, debuted at The Foundry in August 2019, and ended in November after a poor financial performance. Another show, "Magic Mike Live", opened in August 2021, after several delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


"(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" (shortened to "Fight for Your Right" on album releases) is a song by American hip hop group the Beastie Boys, released as the fourth single released from their debut album "Licensed to Ill" (1986). One of their best-known songs, it reached No. 7 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the week of March 7, 1987, and was later named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The song was also included on their compilation albums "" in 1999, "Solid Gold Hits" in 2005 and "Beastie Boys Music" in 2020.


title: (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)

text: The song, written by Adam Yauch and band friend Tom "Tommy Triphammer" Cushman (who appears in the video), was intended as an ironic parody of "party" and "attitude"-themed songs, such as "Smokin' in the Boys Room" and "I Wanna Rock". However, the irony was lost on most listeners. Mike D commented that, "The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different. There were tons of guys singing along to 'Fight for Your Right' who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them." Writing credits were given to Yauch, Ad-Rock and the Beastie Boys' producer, Rick Rubin.


text: The music video for "Fight for Your Right" begins as a mother and father tell their two sons to stay out of trouble while they are away. When they leave, the two boys decide to have a party, hoping "no bad people show up"; this prompts the arrival of Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA at the party. The trio start all kinds of trouble within the house, such as chasing and kissing girls, starting fires, bringing more troublesome people into the house, spiking the punch, smashing things, and starting a massive pie fight. As the pie fight reaches its peak, Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA run away, the party having become too out of hand even for them. As the video ends, the remaining partygoers shout along to the final chorus of "party!" before hitting the returning mother in the face with a pie.


text: Directed by Ric Menello and Adam Dubin, there are numerous cameos in this video, including an unknown-at-the-time Tabitha Soren, Cey Adams, Ricky Powell, members of the punk rock band Murphy's Law, as well as the Beastie Boys' producer, Rick Rubin, who was shown wearing an AC/DC and Slayer shirt, the latter of whom were also signed to Def Jam at the time.


text: Soren, whose hair was dyed blonde for the shoot, got her chance to be in the video because she was a friend of Rubin's and attended nearby New York University. "I worked hard at not getting any pie goo on me," she recalls, because the whipped cream used had been scoured from supermarket trash cans since there was no money in the budget for it. As a result, it was rancid and had a foul odor. "The smell in that room, when everyone was done throwing pies, was like rotten eggs. You wanted to throw up."


text: In 2011, Adam Yauch directed and wrote a surreal comedic short film entitled "Fight for Your Right Revisited" to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original video's release. The short film serves as a video for the single "Make Some Noise" from "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two". Most of the non-sequitur dialogue between characters were a result of improvisation by the cast.


text: "Revisited" acts as a sequel to the events that took place in the original music video and features Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA (played by Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, and Danny McBride, respectively) as they get into more drunken antics, before being challenged to a dance battle by the future Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA (John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, and Jack Black, respectively), coming out of a DeLorean. Eventually, both sets of Beasties get rousted by a trio of cops (played by the actual Beastie Boys) and taken to jail.


text: The short features numerous cameo appearances, some appearing onscreen for only a few seconds. They include Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon (as the parents seen in the original video), Adam Scott, Alicia Silverstone, Amy Poehler, Chloë Sevigny, David Cross, Jason Schwartzman, Kirsten Dunst, Laura Dern, Mary Steenburgen, Martin Starr, Maya Rudolph, Orlando Bloom, Rashida Jones, Rainn Wilson, Shannyn Sossamon, Steve Buscemi, Ted Danson, and Will Arnett.


text: Although "Fight for Your Right" is not performed, its outro can be heard at the beginning of the short.


text: Singer/songwriter Cara Quici sampled the song and added new lyrics for her 2013 song "Fight" personally approved by Rick Rubin and licensed by Sony ATV and Universal Music Group. The "Fight" video by Cara Quici features a cameo by Dennis Rodman.


text: In 1998, the song was covered by German hip hop act N.Y.C.C. as "Fight for Your Right (To Party)". It reached the top 20 in nine countries across Europe and in Australia and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number 14, it was the first song by a German hip hop group to reach the top 25.


text: On August 2, 2009, Coldplay performed an acoustic piano-based version of this song during their concert on the final night of the All Points West concert series as a tribute to the Beastie Boys, who were unable to perform on opening night following Adam Yauch's announcement that he had cancer. The band performed this version again on May 4, 2012, at their concert at the Hollywood Bowl as a tribute to Yauch, who had died earlier that day.


text: After winning the , Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce chanted "You gotta fight for your right to party!" in his postgame interview. After the Chiefs' victory in Super Bowl LIV, Kelce again used the chant from the song at the victory parade in Kansas City. The song's main chorus has since become a cultural reference among Chiefs fans, and in the 2020 season became the song played at Chiefs home games to celebrate after each touchdown scored by the team.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. It has existed in rudimentary form since 1893, and as a complete stadium since 1926. Providence Park is currently the oldest facility to be configured as a soccer-specific stadium for use by a MLS team, and is one of the most historic grounds used by any United States professional soccer team.


title: Providence Park

text: Two professional soccer teams, the Portland Timbers of MLS and Portland Thorns FC of NWSL, use the facility as their home pitch. The stadium has been host to several major United States soccer events including national team matches, Soccer Bowl '77, the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups, the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2014 MLS All-Star Game, the 2015 NWSL Championship Game, and MLS Cup 2021. Providence Park has been the home of the Portland Timbers since 1975.


title: Providence Park

text: The Portland-based Multnomah Athletic Club was founded in 1891 and soon constructed the stadium for their amateur sports teams beginning in 1893. In 1926, the facility was expanded into a complete stadium, including the upper seating bowl and the wooden benches which can still be found in the park. In 1956, the stadium was renovated in earnest for the first time to reflect its growing usage in the community. In 1966 the City of Portland purchased the park and renamed it Civic Stadium.


title: Providence Park

text: It was renovated in 2001 to accommodate the Timbers and the Portland Beavers, while the naming rights of the stadium were purchased by Portland General Electric and it was renamed PGE Park. In 2011, the park underwent renovations again, this time so it could accommodate the Portland Timbers MLS franchise and a year later the stadium name rights were sold, this time to Jeld-Wen (Jeld-Wen Field). In 2014, the name was changed again to Providence Park after Providence Health & Services bought the naming rights.


title: Providence Park

text: A 2019 expansion raised the capacity to 25,218 and added a multi-level facade to the East End. The Portland Timbers have sold out every single game at Providence Park since moving to MLS in 2011, and the Thorns set a single-game National Women's Soccer League attendance record in August 2019 with a sell-out crowd of the same capacity. In 2019, both clubs ranked among the top ten in attendance among professional soccer teams (men's or women's) in the United States and Canada.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park is an outdoor soccer stadium which houses the MLS Portland Timbers and NWSL Portland Thorns. The stadium is owned by the City of Portland, and is managed by Peregrine Sports, LLC, the entity that owns the Timbers and Thorns.


title: Providence Park

text: The stadium sits on a rectangular block bounded by Southwest Morrison Street, Southwest 18th Avenue, the Multnomah Athletic Club building and Southwest Salmon Street, and Southwest 20th Avenue.


title: Providence Park

text: The Multnomah Athletic Club, an athletic club in downtown Portland which originally constructed the venue, stands next door; the windows of the north side of the club's building overlook the field.


title: Providence Park

text: The Interstate 405 freeway in Portland is also known locally as the Stadium Freeway and travels near the stadium. In addition, the Providence Park MAX Light Rail station is across the street. The property slopes significantly downhill from the south end to the north end, with the result that the playing surface sits well below street level. The elevation at street level is approximately above sea level.


title: Providence Park

text: Since 1893, the site had been home to Multnomah Field, which consisted of sports fields with various grandstands. Before the MAC developed the site as an athletic field, it was a large Chinese vegetable garden, supplying produce to much of Portland. In 1912, the distinctive Multnomah Athletic Club, which currently borders the south end of the stadium, was constructed. The overarching stadium was completed in 1926 for $502,000, and named "Multnomah Civic Stadium" after the club.


title: Providence Park

text: The site was used for college football (including seven Civil War games between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University), cricket matches and greyhound racing. Well into the 1960s, most significant football games hosted by Oregon and Oregon State were held at this site because of its capacity. Oregon played in 107 games at Multnomah/Civic Stadium between 1894 and 1970. The University of Washington played all its road games against Oregon and Oregon State at Multnomah Field/Multnomah Stadium until 1966 (OSU) and 1967 (Oregon). The site also hosted the Portland Rose Festival.


title: Providence Park

text: In 1956, the Portland Beavers moved to the stadium after their original field, Vaughn Street Park, was condemned. After two attempts for a new domed stadium in Delta Park were defeated by voters in 1964, the city looked to purchase what was already in existence. In 1966, the Multnomah Athletic Club sold the stadium for $2.1 million to the city of Portland, which renamed it "Civic Stadium". The city government rejected several proposed renovation plans, including construction of a 57,000-seat domed stadium, and adding a second deck supported by helium-filled balloons. Prior to the 2011 MLS season, the stadium was renamed "Jeld-Wen Field" from "PGE Park", in a partnership with Klamath Falls-based company Jeld-Wen. Jeld-Wen is a manufacturer of windows and doors, leading to the stadium's nickname, "The House of Pane." In 2014, the stadium was renamed "Providence Park" after a partnership with Providence Health & Services was announced.


title: Providence Park

text: Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, summarized the stadium's history: "Providence Park has been home to some of the most iconic moments in Oregon sports history. It also ranks with such classic venues as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park as a stadium that has stood the test of time and that is uniquely part and parcel of the city in which it resides. ... Portland is a city that prides itself on its uniqueness. While many major cities have chosen to replace historic sports stadiums with modern domes or complexes, Portland has chosen to retain much of the original architecture and charm of one of architect A.E. Doyle's most beloved creations."


title: Providence Park

text: The first major renovation to Providence Park after its full construction in 1926 came in 1956, when the Portland Beavers moved to what was then called "Multnomah Stadium", from the dilapidated cross-town Vaughn Street Park. For the first time, permanent East End seating was constructed, as well as a large ticketed section in the southeast corner of the stadium. The East End seats were all constructed above an outfield wall, and box seats were built in the stadium for the first time. Along with the expansion came the demolition of the greyhound racing track, which was constructed in 1933.


title: Providence Park

text: In November 1980, Portland voters passed a ballot measure that provided the city (who had owned the stadium since 1966) with a much-needed $9.5 million to improve the foundation, concourse and replace the roof. The money allowed the city to replace the aging roof, adding an extended roofline out of laminated Oregon timber. The new roof covered a much higher percentage of seats and included the construction of a new press box, which was finished by winter 1982.


title: Providence Park

text: In November 2000, the Portland City Council authorized bonds to finance a renovation of then-Civic Stadium. A $38.5 million renovation took place in 2001, upgrading the seating and concourse area, and adding new luxury suites and club seats. The renovation improved the structural soundness of the facility by adding over 750 tons of steel, and introduced a new sound system. The renovation also included some retro-features, such as a manually operated scoreboard. At that point, PGE bought the naming rights and it became "PGE Park".


title: Providence Park

text: The 2001 renovation also removed the remaining seats along 18th Avenue and added in the first electronic video board in the park, modernizing the park for soccer and minor-league baseball.


title: Providence Park

text: In July 2009, after attempts to both find a new home for an MLS franchise and identify a site for a new home for the Portland Beavers, the Portland City Council approved a $31 million renovation to make PGE Park ready for the 2011 Major League Soccer season, by reconfiguring the stadium primarily for soccer and football. The decision led to the departure of the Beavers.


title: Providence Park

text: A presentation to the Portland Design Commission indicated that 5,000 seats would be added, bringing capacity to about 22,000, but with only about 18,000 available for use on a regular basis.


title: Providence Park

text: The renovation met Major League Soccer standards, introduced a new playing surface, which shifted west and north, and added space on the east and south sides, with new seating areas and new amenities. The Lighthouse Impact 16 main video screen was designed by Anthony James Partners and features over of LED video. A Lighthouse B10 pitchside display runs the length of the East End and portions of the north and south ends and is over long. As the project was nearing completion, it was revealed to be $5 million over budget, making the total cost of the renovation $36 million. The agreement between the city and Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson meant that Paulson was responsible for any cost overruns larger than $1 million.


title: Providence Park

text: The newly renovated stadium made its début on April 14, 2011, when Major League Soccer's Timbers defeated the Chicago Fire, 4–2. The announced attendance at Timbers games in 2011 was 18,627, a sell-out.


title: Providence Park

text: A few thousand seats were added for two games late in the 2011 season. About 2,000 seats were opened up for the 2012 season, bringing capacity up to 20,438. Following the 2012 season in which the Timbers' average attendance was 20,438, during the 2012–13 off-season the Timbers widened the pitch for the 2013 season, adding on each side to achieve a width of . The team widened the pitch by another yard in 2014, for a total pitch size of .


title: Providence Park

text: In April 2017, the Portland Timbers unveiled a US$85 million renovation plan which would add roughly 4,000 new seats to the East End. Timbers' President of Business Mike Golub stated that "We felt it was imperative to see how we could transform the stadium and add capacity to both meet the demand that we have for tickets and also position the club to be viable and competitive for years to come", referencing the Timbers' current season ticket waitlist of approximately 13,000. The renovation was privately funded and brought the stadium to a capacity of 25,218, which was the 4th-highest of any soccer-specific venue in MLS.


title: Providence Park

text: The club partnered with Portland-based Allied Works Architecture to design the expansion, and began construction in late 2017, with the goal of having the renovated stadium ready in late May or early June of the 2019 MLS season.


title: Providence Park

text: The expanded Providence Park opened for the first time on June 1, 2019, as the Timbers hosted LAFC, selling out the capacity of 25,218. Included in the $85 million renovation were the addition of three decks of new seats, two new video boards and a modern edge-to-edge roof, as well as updated LED lighting throughout the park. The lowest tier of the new addition is a premium seating section named Tanner Ridge, a reference to Tanner Creek under the stadium, and includes separate food and beverage options from the rest of the stadium.


title: Providence Park

text: The renovated stand on the East End was the largest single seat expansion in Providence Park history. The vertically stacked stand resembles the Boca Juniors' stadium La Bombonera and was inspired by Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The new stands also resemble an original, unrealized design from 1926 for the stadium that shows 2-story stands. White seats in the added upper decks spell out "SC USA", a reference to Portland's NASL-era nickname of "Soccer City USA." This added to existing seats in the east stand that spell out "PORTLAND".


title: Providence Park

text: In 2019, Timbers and Thorns ownership were in discussions with Portland mayor Ted Wheeler about replacing the artificial turf at Providence Park with real grass. A real grass field could make Providence Park more attractive for hosting international soccer matches. As of 2021, Providence Park is the only soccer-specific stadium in MLS that doesn't use real grass.


title: Providence Park

text: The stadium is currently home to the Portland Timbers of MLS, which the stadium has hosted in all of the club's iterations since 1975, and the Portland Thorns FC of NWSL since 2013. Starting in 2022, the facility is also the home turf for the Oregon Onyx of the Western Ultimate League and the Portland Nitro of the American Ultimate Disc League.


title: Providence Park

text: The Portland Timbers hosted their first match at the stadium on May 2, 1975, against the Seattle Sounders. It was the first professional soccer match ever hosted at Providence Park. The club would get their first win just 5 days later on May 7, 1975, with Peter Withe scoring the first ever home Timbers goal in a 1–0 victory over Toronto Metros-Croatia. The Timbers were immediately successful at the stadium, only losing once during 1975 and setting the Timbers home attendance record of 33,503 in the NASL semifinals against the St. Louis Stars on August 17, 1975.


title: Providence Park

text: The team played at Providence Park (then called Civic Stadium) until 1982 before folding. However, they helped develop the soccer culture in Portland and the passionate fans at the park that still remain today.


title: Providence Park

text: The Portland Timbers were reborn in 1985, continuing to play at Civic Stadium. The club used the stadium during their time in the Western Soccer Alliance and the American Professional Soccer League until 1990.


title: Providence Park

text: A new Portland Timbers franchise was founded in 2001 and began to use the park again for its home games. The naming rights were sold to PGE and the stadium became known as PG&E Park. A $38.5 million renovation was completed to allow for a more comfortable soccer experience. Around this time, the Timbers established themselves as one of the best-drawing teams in the A-League, averaging attendance above 5,000 in each of their four years of existence. As they moved to the USL, the club became more successful, going unbeaten at home in the 2007 regular season. In 2008, the club averaged 8,567 home fans, the second-highest in the USL First Division. In 2009, Portland was selected to become a Major League Soccer franchise, and in the same year the Timbers went unbeaten for a USL-record 24 matches in a row.


title: Providence Park

text: In 2011, the stadium was renovated to provide Portland with a premier location to watch the Timbers play in Major League Soccer as well as fit the standards required by the league. The $36 million renovation modernized the stadium, added a high-tech video board and added new seating and amenities. The park was renamed Jeld-Wen Field after Klamath Falls-based windows and doors company Jeld-Wen purchased the naming rights.


title: Providence Park

text: The stadium officially opened for Major League Soccer play on April 14, 2011, when the Timbers defeated the Chicago Fire, 4–2, before a sellout crowd of 18,627. This was the first time top-level American soccer had been played in the city of Portland since August 22, 1982.


title: Providence Park

text: Jeld-Wen Field was the site of the first Timbers playoff home game in their MLS history, defeating arch-rival Seattle 3–2 on November 2, 2013. This allowed the Timbers to win 5–3 on aggregate and clinch the two-game series, advancing to the Conference Finals. In 2014, the stadium was renamed Providence Park after Providence Health & Services bought the naming rights. Home victories over the Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Dallas in the 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs provided a launch pad to the Timbers winning the 2015 MLS Cup. In 2018, Portland hosted two rounds of playoffs at Providence Park, rewarding the home support with crucial results as the Timbers defeated Seattle and Sporting Kansas City to advance to the MLS Cup Final. The Timbers defeated Minnesota United FC and Real Salt Lake in the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs, which helped the Timbers advance to and host the 2021 MLS Cup Final, the first time Providence hosted the MLS championship game.


title: Providence Park

text: After the completion of the 2019 renovation, capacity at the park increased to 25,218. The Timbers played their first game at the park on July 1, 2019, against LAFC, selling out the expanded sections.


title: Providence Park

text: The Timbers have sold out every home game to date since their transition to MLS in 2011. Providence Park has been consistently cited as one of the best American soccer stadiums and as one of the best places to see Major League Soccer. MLS writer Charles Boehm described Timbers games at Providence Park "one of North American soccer's greatest spectacles" in 2019.


title: Providence Park

text: The Thorns played their first season in the National Women's Soccer League in 2013, playing in Providence Park. The team's first home match on April 21 provided the club its first victory, a 2–1 win over Seattle Reign FC. In addition to setting a new league record for attendance, the opening day crowd of 16,479 was bigger than any single-game attendance from Women's Professional Soccer, the last women's national league before the NWSL.


title: Providence Park

text: Portland won the NWSL Championship in 2013 and 2017, using home victories in the playoffs to propel them to the titles. Providence Park also hosted the 2015 NWSL Championship Game, where FC Kansas City defeated Seattle Reign FC, 1–0, to win the championship. It also hosted the 2021 NWSL Championship, where Portland also won the championship against NJ/NY Gotham FC 6–5 on penalties, with both teams scoring 1–1 in regulation.


title: Providence Park

text: The Thorns have had the highest average attendance in the league in each of their first seven seasons, and set a league attendance record of 25,218 at an August 11, 2019 match against the North Carolina Courage.


title: Providence Park

text: In 1933, pari-mutuel betting was legalized in Oregon, and by May 23 of that year the Multnomah Kennel Club hosted its first greyhound race on the stadium's new track. The Kennel Club maintained its headquarters at the stadium until 1956, when the track was removed.


title: Providence Park

text: The Portland Beavers minor league baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) had played some games at Multnomah Field during 1905 when their Vaughn Street Park was temporarily reconfigured to host a track and field event. They moved into Multnomah Stadium in 1956 after over a half century at Vaughn Street, a wooden ballpark which was soon demolished. The sod from the field at Vaughn Street was transferred to the new venue; Civic Stadium installed artificial turf in 1969.


title: Providence Park

text: From 1973 to 1977 the independent Portland Mavericks of the Northwest League played their home games at the stadium. Actor Kurt Russell was an infielder for the Mavericks. The Beavers returned to Portland in 1978 until 1993 when they were moved out of the city again. The Class A Portland Rockies were established in 1995 and played at the park until 2000 when they were moved and renamed the Tri-City Dust Devils. In 2001, the Albuquerque Dukes were moved to Portland and renamed the "Beavers" marking the third time the franchise would occupy the park for their home games.


title: Providence Park

text: As a baseball venue, the stadium had an unorthodox south-southeast alignment, with home plate in the northwest corner (20th and Morrison) of the property.


title: Providence Park

text: After it was announced that Major League Soccer was moving a franchise to Providence Park (then known as PGE Park) the Beavers had to start looking for a new stadium. However, the plan never came to fruition and team owner Merritt Paulson put the Beavers up for sale. The club's major-league parent, the San Diego Padres, purchased the team, which moved to Tucson, Arizona as the Tucson Padres. The team played its final game at the stadium on September 6, 2010.


title: Providence Park

text: The stadium hosted the USFL's Portland Breakers, as well as the Portland Storm and Portland Thunder of the WFL.


title: Providence Park

text: Soccer has been hosted at Providence Park since the original Portland Timbers were founded in the original North American Soccer League in 1975. Various iterations of the team have called the stadium home, including the 1980s version in the Western Soccer Alliance and the 2000s version in the USL First Division before the MLS club was formed.


title: Providence Park

text: From 2008 to 2017, Providence Park was used as home for the Timbers U23s of the USL2, a development platform for the club. Following the 2017 season, the Portland U23s moved to Salem, OR.


title: Providence Park

text: During the last few months of the 2020 MLS season, Providence Park hosted home matches for Vancouver Whitecaps FC after COVID-19 cross-border restrictions imposed by the Canadian government prevented the team from playing matches in Canada.


title: Providence Park

text: On August 28, 1977, the stadium was site of the North American Soccer League Soccer Bowl '77 between the New York Cosmos and the Seattle Sounders, the last official game of the legendary Pelé. The Cosmos won the championship.


title: Providence Park

text: On September 7, 1997, the stadium hosted a World Cup soccer qualifying match between the United States men's national team and Costa Rica. A raucous capacity crowd of 27,396 saw the U.S. squad win, 1–0, on a goal by Tab Ramos in the 79th minute. A loud and knowledgeable stadium fully cheering on the USMNT in Portland created an atmosphere that "took years for any other American city to match".


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park has hosted the United States men's national team on 4 different occasions. Outside of tournament play in the 1998 World Cup qualifying and the 2013 Gold Cup, the stadium has hosted two friendlies: on April 4, 1985, against Canada (a 1–1 draw), and on May 28, 1998, against Kuwait (a 2–0 win).


title: Providence Park

text: The stadium was the site of four group matches in the 1999 Women's World Cup. The stadium also hosted two group matches, two quarterfinals, and both semifinals in the 2003 Women's World Cup.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park hosted the 2014 MLS All-Star Game. Following the conclusion of the game, an incident between Caleb Porter, the manager of the Portland Timbers and the MLS All-Stars, and Pep Guardiola, the manager of Bayern Munich, drew headlines. Guardiola refused to shake hands with Porter following the match and the two exchanged words, with Guardiola walking off the pitch angrily.


title: Providence Park

text: On December 11, 2021, Providence Park hosted the 2021 MLS Cup after the Timbers won the Western Conference Final over Real Salt Lake and are the highest seed remaining. The stadium saw a total attendance of 25,218 spectators.


title: Providence Park

text: Known as Multnomah Stadium at the time, the venue was formally dedicated on Oct. 9, 1926, as the University of Washington's football team beat the University of Oregon, 23–9, with more than 24,000 fans in attendance.


title: Providence Park

text: The Providence Park all-time college football attendance record was set on October 18, 1930 as 35,266 fans watched the Oregon Ducks defeat their rival the Washington Huskies by a score of 7–0.


title: Providence Park

text: On 7 different occasions the Oregon–Oregon State football rivalry game was held at Providence Park, with the last time being in 1952, where the Beavers beat the Ducks 22-19.


title: Providence Park

text: Both Oregon and Oregon State regularly played games, especially against nearby Washington, at Providence Park up until the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, the stadium could hold or draw more fans than the schools' home fields, so it was a logical space for high-stakes games. The Ducks last played in Providence on September 12, 1970, defeating the University of California 31-24. The Beavers played in Portland all the way up until 1986, with their last game until 2022 being a 49-0 blowout loss to #15 UCLA on November 1, 1986.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park, then known as Civic Stadium, was home to many generations of high-octane offense from the Portland State Vikings, including from 1975 to 1980 when Mouse Davis, the "godfather" of the run and shoot offense and Portland State Football Hall of Famer, was the head coach of PSU. While coaching at Civic, he led the PSU football program to a 42–24 record over six seasons while averaging 38 points and nearly 500 yards of offense per game. PSU led the nation in scoring three times. The unique passing game made stars out of Davis' two main quarterbacks, June Jones and Neil Lomax. In 1975, Jones threw for a Division II record 3,518 yards. Davis' next quarterback, Lomax, set NCAA records of 13,220 yards and 106 touchdowns in 42 games. Under Davis' direction, Portland State set 20 NCAA Division II offensive records in addition to the Vikings being named the NCAA's all-time point producers in 1980, scoring 541 points in 11 games for 49.2 points per game, along with 434.9 yards passing and 504.3 yards of total offense per game.


title: Providence Park

text: During a November 9, 1980 game, Lomax threw for seven first-quarter touchdowns against Delaware State, which the Vikings won 105–0.


title: Providence Park

text: On October 27, 2007, the stadium hosted the highest-scoring game in modern NCAA football history, when the Weber State University Wildcats defeated the PSU Vikings, 73–68, a combined point total of 141 points. This point total eclipsed the previous NCAA record of 136 points, set in a 1968 Division III game, and the previous Division I record of 133 points, set in 2004. While this record lasted only two weeks, and has been surpassed four times in all, it remained the highest-scoring game involving NCAA Division I teams until 2018, when Texas A&M defeated LSU in a 74–72 seven-overtime game. Coincidentally, Mouse Davis was the offensive coordinator for Portland State at the time, returning to Providence Park under the head coaching of Jerry Glanville.


title: Providence Park

text: Oregon State played FCS Montana State in Providence Park on September 17, 2022, due to OSU's Reser Stadium being under construction. It was the first game in the stadium hosted by an FBS team since the Beavers last did it in 1986. The Beavers won the game 68–28.


title: Providence Park

text: Given that the stadium's primary purposes originally were track and field, football, and dog racing, it had somewhat odd dimensions for baseball. Due to the curving northern stands, foul territory along the third base line was much larger than that along the first.


title: Providence Park

text: During the 1970s, the Jantzen swim wear company had a 3D model of the Jantzen girl attached to the left field wall in its baseball configuration. The Jantzen girl was in play because it was below the top of the wall and it was hit a couple of times over the years. The Jantzen girl was removed from the outfield wall during renovations and is now on display in the concourse under the west stands.


title: Providence Park

text: On May 27, 1991, the stadium received national attention when Vancouver Canadians outfielder Rodney McCray, while attempting to catch a fly ball, crashed through a wooden advertisement behind the warning track in right-center field; a real-life version of an incident in the fictional book and film, "The Natural". While McCray failed to make the out, he only suffered scrapes and bruises and remained in the game. Highlight reels of that play ran for weeks on cable channels such as CNN and ESPN. On August 12, 2006, the Beavers commemorated the event with a Rodney McCray Bobblehead Night, passing out bobbleheads of McCray to fans and renaming right-center field "McCray Alley".


title: Providence Park

text: In the mid-1990s the stadium was planned to be the home of the yet-to-be named Portland team, a charter franchise of the United League (UL) which was planned to be a third league of Major League Baseball (MLB).


title: Providence Park

text: On July 15, 2009, the stadium hosted the Triple-A All-Star Game, with the International League stars defeating the Pacific Coast league, 6–5. The game was attended by 16,637 fans, the largest crowd for a Triple-A All-Star game since 1991, and the third largest at the time. Portland's Chad Huffman won the Home Run Derby.


title: Providence Park

text: While on a four-day tour of the Pacific Northwest, September 2, 1957, Elvis Presley performed in one of the first three outdoor stadium rock concerts in music history. Presley had held the second ever in Vancouver, BC, Canada just a few days earlier, on September 1, 1957, at Empire Stadium, his first being at the Cotton Bowl, in Dallas, TX, on 11 October 1956. The concert created mass hysteria and an estimated 14,600 people attended the concert.


title: Providence Park

text: In a November 8, 2013 interview with the Portland Business Journal, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson expressed his desire to host summer concerts at the stadium.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park's outside walls are covered with naturally-grown ivy. The entrance billboard used to announce dates and future games is a deliberate retro replica of the old scoreboard that used to be in the same location.


title: Providence Park

text: Multiple art installations and sculptures line the outside plazas of Providence Park. Those include "Facing the Crowd", a series of two bronze sculptures, and "You Are Here", an artistic rendition of a 12-foot wide log ring with historical artifacts of Portland's past embedded inside.


title: Providence Park

text: In 2010, Providence Park was a filming location of Season 2 of the television series "Leverage". The episode depicts a fictional Massachusetts (where the series was set) minor league team also known as the Beavers.


title: Providence Park

text: The IFC show "Portlandia" references Providence Park multiple times throughout the series and the lead characters Peter (Fred Armisen) and Nance (Carrie Brownstein) attend a Timbers match in a 2012 episode, bringing along a home-made sign to root for the club.


title: Providence Park

text: Providence Park was added to the stadium rotation in the FIFA video game series for the first time in September 2020, beginning with FIFA 21. Providence became the sixth Major League Soccer stadium added to the game, and the addition allowed for the access of all three Cascadia clubs' home stadiums for the first time.


title: Providence Park

text: Since approximately 1985, the field has been home to a feral cat colony, which may have been at the park before the current stadium opened in 1926. There are an estimated 12–19 cats in the colony, referred to as "living rat traps". After a construction worker killed a feral cat in 2000, the park enlisted the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon to assist the animals during construction efforts and to run a trap-neuter-return program. The cats are discussed in Chuck Palahniuk's travelogue of Portland, "Fugitives and Refugees".


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: The term travesti () is used in Latin America—to designate people who were assigned male at birth, but develop a gender identity according to different expressions of femininity. Other terms have been invented and are used in South America in an attempt to further distinguish it from cross-dressing, drag, or pathologizing connotations. In Spain, the term was used in a similar way during the Franco era, but it was replaced with the advent of the medical model of transsexuality in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in order to rule out negative stereotypes. The arrival of these concepts occurred later in Latin America than in Europe, so the concept of travesti lasted over time with various connotations.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Travesti identities are heterogeneous and multiple, so it is difficult to reduce them to universal explanations. They have been studied by various disciplines, especially anthropology, which has extensively documented the phenomenon in both classical and more recent ethnographies. Researchers have generally proposed one of three main hypotheses to define travestis: that they constitute a "third gender" (like the hijras of India and the muxe of Mexico), that they reinforce the gender binarism of their society, or that they actually deconstruct the category of gender altogether. Although it is a concept widely used in Latin America, the definition of travesti is controversial, and it is still regarded as a transphobic slur depending on the context. Very similar groups exist across the region, with names such as , , , , , , and , among others.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Travestis not only dress contrary to their assigned sex, but also adopt female names and pronouns and often undergo cosmetic practices, hormone replacement therapy, filler injections and cosmetic surgeries to obtain female body features, although generally without modifying their genitality nor considering themselves as women. The travesti population has historically been socially vulnerable and criminalized, subjected to social exclusion and structural violence, with discrimination, harassment, arbitrary detentions, torture and murder being commonplace throughout Latin America. As a result, most travestis resort to prostitution as their only source of income, which in turn, plays an important role in their identity. The word "travesti", originally pejorative in nature, was reappropriated by Peruvian, Brazilian and Argentine activists, as it has a regional specificity that combines a generalized condition of social vulnerability, an association with sex work, the exclusion of basic rights and its recognition as a non-binary and political identity. Notable travesti rights activists include Argentinians Lohana Berkins, Claudia Pía Baudracco, Diana Sacayán, Marlene Wayar and Susy Shock, and Yren Rotela from Paraguay.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Although the use of the term is still common in Spanish, some contemporary authors reject it to avoid confusion with the practice of cross-dressing, as well as the use of the suffix "-ism", which comes from the medical sciences and is considered pathologizing. In response to this, the use of the terms ( (Portuguese) or ) (Spanish) has become widespread in Brazilian academic literature since the 2000s, and has been adopted by some Spanish-speaking authors, while others have opted for the words (roughly "travestity"), or (roughly "transvestivity"). In the same way, the words and (roughly "transvestiteness" or "transvestment") are used as an alternative to "transvestism", but to designate (i.e. drag performers). The Hispanicism "travestism" () is sometimes seen in articles in English about the topic, especially by South American authors.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: The use of the term precedes that of "transgender" in the region and its differentiation from the notions of "transsexual" and "trans woman" is complex and can vary depending on the context, ranging from considering it a regional equivalent to a unique identity. The original use of the word refers to the act of cross-dressing, and became extended in the 1960s to refer to individuals who dressed as women as a performance or in their day-to-day lives. However, travestis not only choose to dress contrary to their assigned sex, but also adopt female names and pronouns and often undergo cosmetic practices, hormone replacement therapy, filler injections and cosmetic surgeries to obtain female body features, although generally without modifying their genitals nor considering themselves as women. As such, they may be described as a transfeminine gender identity, and have been considered a regional equivalent to the notion of "pre-op transsexual".


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: After a long period of criminalization, "sexual deviations" became an object of study in the medical and sexual sciences, which established the different forms of deviation. In a first period, between 1870 and 1920, a large amount of research was produced about people who cross-dressed or wished to adopt the role assigned to the opposite sex. In 1910, the renowned German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term transvestite ( in Spanish and Portuguese), introduced in his text "Transvestites: The Erotic Drive To Cross Dress" (). Hirschfeld used the term to describe "people who feel a compulsion to wear clothes of the opposite sex" and rejected the idea that they were a variant of homosexuality, which at that time was a very widespread conception within sexology. Between 1920 and 1950, the terms transvestism and eonism were incorporated into the scientific literature, although generally these reports only supplemented those of previous years. During the 1950s the term transsexual—first used by American sexologist David Oliver Cauldwell—gained relevance at the same time that sexual identity clinics and sex change surgery emerged. In this way, since the late 1960s and during the 1970s, transvestism was put aside as a topic of medical interest. The term transgender was popularized by American activist Virginia Prince in the late 1960s to designate those who transgressed gender norms but did not identify with the or transsexual categories, and by the 1980s its widespread use in core countries was established. However, the "trans" and "transgender" categories cannot be easily translated outside core countries, due to the complexity of practices they encompass. The use of the term precedes theirs in Latin America, and their differentiation is complex and can vary depending on the context. Scholar Cole Rizki pointed out that "trans and identifications are constantly shifting and should not be understood as mutually exclusive. The tensions between trans and as identificatory categories are often untranslatable, leading us to ask what sorts of limitations and possibilities are embedded within the terms' distinctions and critical affinities."


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Despite being an emic concept widely used throughout the region, the definition of is a source of controversy, as it refers to heterogeneous and multiple identities, hence being paradoxical to reduce them to universal explanations. Groups very similar to travestis exist across Latin America, with names such as , , , , ,


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: , among others. Writing for the "Latin American Research Review" in 2020, Joseph M. Pierce claimed that in Hispanic American countries, "as a general category, (transgender) or the more popular "trans" [...] refers to people who make identitarian, corporeal, and social efforts to live as members of the gender that differs from the normative sex that they were assigned at birth." Comparing it to the term , he noted that:


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, [] refers most frequently to people assigned male sex at birth and who feminize their bodies, dress, and behavior; prefer feminine pronouns and forms of address; and often make significant bodily transformations by injecting silicone or taking hormonal treatments but do not necessarily seek sex-reassignment surgery. [...] ... the specific Latin American conceptual and identity marker involves gender variance but not always gendered difference. While "transgender", "trans", and "transsexual" are terms that refer to changing gender and sex through legal, corporeal, or social mechanisms, a may have been assigned "male" at birth but does not necessarily consider herself a woman (though some do). [...] For many travestis the term "transgender" depoliticizes a violent history of social and economic marginalization. The term , in contrast, retains this class difference and popular resonance, and is thus a political, rather than a psychological, or even corporeal identification.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: According to Brazilian activist Amara Moira, the terms "trans woman" and are synonymous, with many people using the former to avoid the negative connotations associated with the latter. The imposition of the transgender and transvestite categories by Anglo-American academics over identities has been considered by some to be colonizing and westernizing in nature, and has been met with resistance by the community. Originally used colloquially as a pejorative term, the category has been reappropriated by Brazilian, Peruvian and especially Argentine activists since the 1990s, as it has a regional specificity that combines a generalized condition of social vulnerability, an association with sex work, the exclusion of basic rights and its recognition as a non-binary and political identity. As they are excluded from the educational and labor system, stigmatized and reified as objects of theoretical criticism or media consumption, one of the main struggles of activism since its emergence in the 1990s was the creation of their own political subjectivities. Argentine activist Lohana Berkins pointed out in 2006:


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: We hold the identity not only by resorting to linguistic regionalism, but also by circumstances and characteristics that make travestism a different phenomenon from North American and European transgenderism. In the first place, we travestis live different circumstances compared to those experienced by many transgenders from other countries, who (...) have the objective of rearranging themselves in the binary logic as women or men. A large part of Latin American travestis claim the option of occupying a position outside of binarism and it is our objective to destabilize the male and female categories. Second, the word transgenderism originated from theoretical works developed within the framework of the North American academy. In contrast, (...) the term in Latin America comes from medicine and has been appropriated, reworked and embodied by travestis to call themselves. This is the term in which we recognize ourselves and that we choose to construct ourselves as subjects of rights. (...) The term "travesti" has been and continues to be used as a synonym for AIDS, thief, scandalous, infected, marginal. We decided to give new meanings to the word and link it with struggle, resistance, dignity and happiness.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Despite its reappropriation by some as a political identity, in some places (especially Spain) is still regarded as a transphobic slur, often used to invalidate people who prefer the terms transsexual or transgender. For example, in 2020 a Spanish journalist caused controversy and had to make a public apology after using the term to refer to late media personality La Veneno.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: An important historical source in the history of the travesti community during the 20th century are the firsthand accounts of Malva Solís, who emigrated from Chile as a teenager and lived in Argentina until her death in 2015 at the age of 93, being regarded as the longest-lived travesti from the country. After collecting testimonies from travestis over the age of seventy, Josefina Fernández found in 2004 that most of them regarded the first period of Juan Perón's government—who ruled Argentina between 1946 and 1955—as "the one that most clearly began the persecution of gay men and travestis, whether or not they practiced street prostitution." In those years, travestis (identified at that time as "mariconas") began to be regularly imprisoned at the Devoto prison, as "sex offenders." The prison was a recurring meeting point for travestis and continued to be so until the 21st-century. Despite its repressive aspects, the prison space gave them the possibility of generating solidarity strategies and forging links that would later spread outside. They even developed their own argot known as "carrilche", which was nourished by prison jargon. As anthropologist María Soledad Cutuli explains: "Today this code is known as the "teje". It consists of taking up elements of prison jargon or "[police] lunfardo", deforming some syllables of certain words, and also using invented terms such as "cirilqui" to refer to the police, or even the polysemic "teje" (Spanish for "weaving"), which can mean, depending on the context, 'lie, story, argument, affair.' To say that someone is a "tejedora" implies a subtle way of qualifying her as a liar; to ask 'what are they "tejiendo"?' refers to assuming that a meeting or conversation may have ulterior motives".


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: The Carnival was historically regarded as the popular festivity of travestis, as it was the only time of the year in which they could express themselves freely in the public space without suffering police persecution. As a travesti from Buenos Aires recalled in 2019: "They were 6 days of freedom and 350 in prison. I'm not exaggerating. So it was for us. This is how it was before and after the dictatorship, even worse after the dictatorship. Those days it was something magical: because from being discriminated against we would turn into diva-like. If there were no travestis in a carnival parade, it seemed like something was missing." The Buenos Aires Carnival's "murgas" first incorporated "messy" cross-dressing acts in the 1940s and 1950s to entertain audiences, a modality that later gave way to the "transformista" figure (i.e. drag queens)—defined as "the luxuriously dressed "maricón""—becoming an attraction for the public. According to Malva Solís, two travestis from La Boca's carnival parade named Cualo and Pepa "La Carbonera" pioneered of the figure of the ""murga"s vedette", an innovation that began around 1961. This little-documented phenomenon known as the "travesti carnival movement" marked a milestone in the parades of the 1960s and 1970s, and had the participation of make-up artists, costume designers and choreographers from Buenos Aires' revue theatrical scene, all of them "maricones". A 1968 "Primera Plana" article on the Carnival of Buenos Aires reported: "Those who resist disappearing are travestis, who began by exaggerating their feminine charms and have ended up in a dangerous refinement. Wigs and modern cosmetics turned them into suggestive stars, whose sexual identity was no longer so simple to grasp." In 2011, Solís reflected on the importance of Carnival celebrations for travestis: "I think to myself, that the leitmotif of the travestis who integrated the "murgas" was to bring out from the bottom of their soul their repressed self of the rest of the year. Everyone saw them and applauded them, but could not understand that behind that bright facade there was a desire, the desire to be recognized and accepted in order to live in freedom."


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Contrary to the 1950s, the 1970s are considered an era of "artistic travesti 'uncover'" (Spanish: ""destape""), which began with the arrival of a Brazilian travesti who performed in a well-known theater in Buenos Aires. Her show paved the way door to later performances by local travestis. According to Solís, the use of the term "travesti" began to be used in the 1960s, initially as a way to refer to the cross-dressing and transsexual performers who came from abroad to do shows. In 1963, French entertainer Coccinelle visited Buenos Aires to perform at the Teatro Maipo and made a big impact among local "mariconas". Solís told researcher María Soledad Cutuli in 2013: "Beginning with Coccinelle (...) there is a whole opening, something new that is coming. A lot of 'siliconized' [performers] came, plastic surgeries; social openness, (...) new opportunities for "mariconas", 'the travesti artist' is inaugurated. (...) From then on a new way of life opened. (...) The culture of the "puto" artist, all of them were already walking around with cotton stuffing to make their breasts, and they were already going out to sing, to dance..." The stage became the only place where travestis could publicly dress as women, as it was forbidden to do so on the streets. Around 1964, travesti artists—at that time named "lenci", in reference to a type of cloth, because they "were like little rag dolls"—met at an apartment on Avenida Callao, where they rehearsed musical acts and prepared to go out to nightclubs or theaters shows. Since the use of silicone had not yet become widespread, they resorted to the use of female hormones to "be able to show their breasts on stage as aesthetically as possible". According to writer Daniela Vizgarra: "If you didn't have an Anovlar 21 in your makeup bag, apparently you were nonexistent." Travestis emulated a contoured figure—which emphasized breasts and buttocks—through paddings called "truquis", "piu-piú" or "colchón" (), first using cotton fabrics and later foam rubber. While padding had been in use since at least the 1950s, the arrival of lycra in the 1960s allowed them to "build more realistic physical contours." The feminine beauty ideal put forward by American television also included small and pointed noses but, as surgeries were too expensive, most travestis settled for temporary arrangements, resorting to the use of glue and objects that could emulate a prosthesis. María Belén Correa argues that the emergence of travesti stage performers such Vanessa Show, Evelyn, Brigitte Gambini and Ana Lupe Chaparro in the 1960s and 1970s constituted "another way of activism". According to Evelyn—one of the first people to popularize "transformismo" in the theater scene—the "first travestis to appear in Buenos Aires" were a group called Les Girls in 1972, followed by Vanessa Show and Ana Lupez. She also mentioned the travestis of the "following era", which included Graciela Scott, Claudia Prado and herself, who debuted in 1977.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: The arrival of industrial silicone in Buenos Aires radically transformed travesti bodies and subjectivities. It was brought from France to Brazil, and from there to neighboring countries. In the 1980s, famous actress and vedette Moria Casán became a role model for local travestis, not only for her voluptuous body, but also for her public image of sexual ease. This contoured body type ideal began to shift in the 1990s, when "more stylized and androgynous female forms" were popularized. With the appearance of silicone, a new "hierarchy between the bodies" of travestis arose, differentiating between those that had or did not have silicone, but also regarding the amount used and the quality of the final results. As researcher Ana Grabiela Álvarez explains: "The arrival of industrial silicone brings them closer to a generic female construction and fixes both bodily transformations and a particular prostitution niche". In the 1980s, the Pan-American Highway—which connects the City of Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires Province's different districts—established itself as the most important area in which travestis worked as prostitutes, and thus became one of the definitive aspects of the travesti identity for Argentine society and media culture. In 1986, Canal 9 journalist José de Zer reported and at the same time denounced, with testimonial resources, the murder of travestis working on the Pan-American Highway. Due to the television report, both the journalist and the channel were sued and faced trial, so travestis had to organize themselves during the following years so as to make their ignored identity appear in the mass media. Travestis broke into Argentine public opinion in the 1990s, and their first appearances on television coincided with the organized appearance of the travestis on the public scene and in the streets of Buenos Aires. In 1991, Keny de Michelli became the first travesti to appear on free-to-air television, appearing in various programs in order to visibilize the community. These appearances were quickly trivialized and presented as a peculiar hyper-feminine expression of masculinity. After gaining popularity as a vedette in 1995, Cris Miró caused a media sensation for her gender identity and expression. As the first travesti to become a national celebrity, she is regarded as a symbol of the social milieu of the 1990s and paved the way for other Argentine travestis and trans women to gain popularity as vedettes, most notably Flor de la V. Parallel to Miró's rise to notoriety, the political organization of Argentine travestis was emerging, with activists making their first appearances in local media. The vedette's celebrity was initially criticized by a portion of these activists, who resented the unequal treatment they received and her attempt to embody an idealized vision of the perfect woman.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: During the early-to-mid 2000s, the musical and literary career of Susy Shock, a renowned travesti activist, was built and gained visibility through LGBT cultural spaces such as Casa Mutual Giribone in Buenos Aires and the Asentamiento 8 de Mayo in José León Suárez, Buenos Aires Province.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In November 2007, the first issue of "El Teje", the first periodical written by travestis in Latin America, was published in a joint initiative between activists and the Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center. In travesti jargon, "teje" is a polysemic word that comes from prostitution life, as explained by "El Teje"s director Marlene Wayar: "It is the complicit word between us, which we don't want the other to find out about: bring me the "teje", because of the cocaine; or look at the "teje", it is when [the client] has a wallet with money. And that is the name of the magazine.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In the late 2010s, the travesti community of Buenos Aires and its surroundings has gained recognition for its creative and artistic contributions, inserting itself in the "queer countercultural scene", a circuit of theaters, bars and cultural centers such as Casa Brandon, Tierra Violeta, MU Trinchera Boutique and, more recently, Feliza and Maricafé. As researcher Patricia Fogelman pointed out in 2020: "In this set of spaces, travestis are seen more and more frequently performing theater, stand-up monologues, reciting poetry, doing performances, accompanying musical bands, etc. On the other hand, within the same extended community there is a clear interest in incorporating [travestis] and highlighting them as central characters in novels, plays and songs. Thus, we could say that around the figure of traveestis there is a recognition and a forceful attempt to put them in places of visibility, especially, by lesbian authors of novels and music for alternative young people."


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: "Las malas", the debut novel by travesti writer and actress Camila Sosa Villada—first published in 2019 in Argentina and the following year in Spain—has been a widespread critical and commercial success. It focuses on the lives of a group of travestis from Córdoba, Argentina and their work as prostitutes at Sarmiento Park. However, Sosa Villada has denied that the book was conceived as an act of activism or visibility, claiming that focusing discussions about travestis around marginality and sex work silences their current cultural contributions to society. The ongoing editorial success of "Las malas" has sparked local interest in local transgender literature, and has been framed within a so-called "new Latin American boom", with several non-male authors from the region capturing the attention of the international market.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina in March 2020, travestis were one of the groups most affected by the lockdown, since most of them resort to prostitution and live from day to day, leaving them without income and, in many cases, under threat of eviction from the hotels where they were already paying elevated prices. The situation was so delicate that different NGOs came out to face the emergency, such as 100% Diversidad y Derechos and La Rosa Naranja.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In 2021, Flor de la V—one of the most visible transgender people in the country— announced that she no longer identified as a trans woman but as a travesti, writing: "I discovered a more correct way to get in touch with how I feel: neither woman, nor heterosexual, nor homosexual, nor bisexual. I am a dissident of the gender system, my political construction in this society is that of a pure-bred travesti. That what I am and what I want and choose to be."


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Anthropologist Don Kulick noted that: "Travestis appear to exist throughout Latin America, but in no other country are they as numerous and well known as in Brazil, where they occupy a strikingly visible place in both social space and the cultural imaginary)." For this reason, they are frequently invoked by social commentators as symbols of Brazil itself.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: One of the most prominent travestis in the Brazilian cultural imaginary of the late 20th century was Roberta Close, who became a household name in the mid-1980s and was "widely acclaimed to be the most beautiful woman in Brazil," posing in "Playboy" and regularly appearing in television and several other publications.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Photographer Madalena Schwartz made a series of portraits of the travesti scene of São Paulo in the 1970s.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In recent years, hiring trans women has become popular in the advertising industry, although at the same time differentiating them from transvestites.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In the 1980s, during Alfredo Stroessner's military dictatorship, twenty travestis were arrested as part of the Palmieri Case (Spanish: "Caso Palmieri"), among them the well-known Carla and Liz Paola. A 14-year-old teenager, Mario Luis Palmieri, had been found murdered and the hypothesis handled by the police was that of a homosexual crime of passion, unleashing one of the most famous persecutions of LGBT identities in the history of Paraguay.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Paraguayan travestis use a secret language called "jeito"—originated in the field of prostitution—which they use to protect themselves from clients, the police or any person strange to the places where they work and that threatens the security of the group. Some of its words are "rua" (street), "odara" (the travesti head of a prostitution area), "alibán" (police) and "fregués" (clients).


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: The arrival of the medical model of transsexuality was earlier in Europe than in Latin America, and therefore its impact was different in each region. In Spain, travesti identities are generally included under the category "transsexual" in academic research, since it is perceived as more "politically correct". As a result of the powerful medical institutionalization around transsexuality, calling oneself "travesti" in Spain is considered a discrediting act, due to its close link with prostitution, especially after the migrations of Latin American travestis. Nevertheless, in the 1970s the term "travesti" was widely used to refer to any people who were assigned male at birth but dressed and lived as women, either temporarily or permanently. In fact, the few Spanish self-described "transsexuals" who had sex reassignment surgery were not widely accepted by their peers and were seen as "castrated people". During the Franco era, travestis were persecuted through the creation of a strong legislative and police apparatus.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, transsexuals—who no longer called themselves "travestis"—began to organize themselves by creating their own political collectives, demanding the institutionalization of transsexuality in the health system, as well as the end of stereotypes that linked them to HIV/AIDS, prostitution and marginalization—an image embodied in the concept of travesti. Therefore, the travesti specificity in Spain is usually subsumed under the most consensual medical category of "transsexual" or in more politicized terms such as "trans" or "transgender", as this gives greater social legitimacy. Since the vast majority of travestis come from poor social environments with very low education, their differences with transsexual activists are also given by the demands of these more intellectualized groups. Nevertheless, some modern-day people living in Spain choose to label themselves as travestis as a genderfluid gender identity.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Travestis have been studied by disciplines like social psychology, but especially social anthropology, which has extensively documented the phenomenon in both classical and more recent ethnographies. Scholarship produced on South American travestis has largely been produced by non-trans academics from both the Global North and Global South, something that has been vocally critiqued by activists. Being the country with the largest population of travestis (where they are even invoked as cultural icons), Brazil is the country with the longest experience in the study of these identities, and the works written in and about Brazil outnumber those of any other Latin American country. While academic interest in Brazilian travesti prostitutes began to spread in the 1990s and early 2000s—through international researches like Don Kulick, Peter Fry and Richard Parker, as well as local authors such as Marcos Renato Benedetti and Helio Silva—travesti identities became a central theme in the country's gender studies during the mid-to-late-2000s, attributed to the growing influence of queer theory, post-structuralism and LGBT activism in academic literature. Anthropological research about the travesti population in the Spanish language is much scarcer than in English and Portuguese, especially among Latin American authors. Some scholars relate this to the late arrival of the medical model of transsexuality, which has also led to the use of "inappropriate" terms to designate identities that do not adhere to gender norms. Relevant Spanish-language studies about travestis come from researchers from Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: According to Argentine researcher María Soledad Cutuli, the most recent travesti ethnographies fall under five main axes of analysis: "gender identity", "corporeality and subjectivity", "health and sexuality", "prostitution and sociability" and, to a lesser extent, "political organization". Faced with the phenomenon, researchers have generally proposed one of three hypotheses: that travestis constitute a third gender, that travestis reinforce one of the only two genders available in their society (masculine or feminine), or the perspective of authors who argue that travestis challenge the notion of binarism, but "far from being their proposal that of supernumerary or multiple genders, what they do seek is the deconstruction of the category of gender itself." Since the 1990 publication of "Gender Trouble", several ideas put forward by American philosopher Judith Butler—like the claim that the concept of a biological sex is itself a gendered notion—have been of great impact for the academic analysis of travestis and gender studies in general.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: A very wide range of anthropological studies has investigated travestis based on a hypothesis that states that they should be interpreted as an expression of a third gender or sex, in the same manner of the berdaches of North America, the hijras of India, the muxes of Mexico, the kathoey of Thailand, the māhū of Tahiti, the fa'afafine of Samoa and the xanith of Oman, among other identities. One of the first anthropologists to propose the category of third gender were Kay Martin and Barbara Voorhies in 1978, who based their research on the review of classical ethnographies about berdaches. The idea of a third gender was later put forward in the mid-1990s by authors such as Gilbert Herdt, Will Roscoe, Hilda Habychain and Anne Bolin; and extended to other non-Western peoples. In 1998, Kulick argued that: "Travestis may well be considered to be a 'third,' in some of the senses in which Marjorie Garber uses that term, but they are not a third that is situated outside or beyond a gendered binary." Writing for "The Guardian" in 2019, Victor Madrigal-Borloz listed the travesti people from Brazil and Argentina as one of the many worldwide identities that are neither male or female, alongside the "yimpininni" of the Tiwi people in Australia, as well as fa'afafine in Samoa, two spirit in Canada and the United States and hijra in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: With her 1989 book "Travestism and the Politics of Gender", Annie Woodhouse established herself among the researchers within a perspective that considers travestism as a reinforcement of gender identities, in this case the female identity. Woodhouse argued that travestis see gender as something that is rigidly demarcated between masculinity and femininity and, in this sense, reproduce traditional gender roles that objectify women. In her 1993 and 1995 researches on travestism, Argentine anthropologist Victoria Barreda criticized the third gender category, arguing that travestis construct an identity that necessarily takes gender stereotypes as a reference point. Another researcher who follows this trend is Richard Ekins, who described trasvestites as "feminized men". Among the research based on participant observation, French anthropologist Annick Prieur has been considered a pioneer for her 1998 ethnography on the travesti community from the suburbs of Mexico City, in which she argued that they reproduce their society's gender binarism. Brazilian researchers Neuza Maria de Oliveira and Hélio Silva—considered the founders of the ethnography about the daily life of Brazilian travestis—also aligned themselves in this view, as did the latter's follower Marcelo José Oliveira. Despite these authors' intention of increasing academic visibility to travestis, they have been widely criticized by their successors for using male pronouns when referring to them.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Critically developing upon these early works through the use of ethnomethodology, Kulick studied the travesti population of Salvador, Bahia and placed their social stigmatization within the larger context of class and racial inequalities. Kulick's conclusions are far removed from later postmodern positions, as he argued that the travesti identity is configured from conservative social structures. The author proposed an alternative position, suggesting that travestis base their identity not on anatomical sex differences, but rather on sexual orientation, identifying themselves as a subtype of gay men. He used the term "not-men" to refer to travestis, claiming he chose it: "partly for want of a culturally elaborated label and partly to foreground my conviction that the gender system that makes it possible for travestis to emerge and make sense is one that is massively oriented towards, if not determined by, male subjectivity, male desire, and male pleasure, as those are culturally elaborated in Brazil." He further explained:


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: It is important to understand that the claim I am making here is that travestis share a gender with women, not that they "are" women (or that women are travesti—even if that latter proposition might be a fruitful one to explore further). The distinction is crucial. Individual travestis will not always or necessarily share individual women's roles, goals, or social status. (...) However, inasmuch as travestis share the same gender with women, they are understood to share (and they feel themselves to share) with women a whole spectrum of tastes, perceptions, behaviors, styles, feelings, and desires.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Kulick's research had a much broader international impact than that of his predecessors, due to its insertion in North American academia and for being published in English. The aforementioned authors have in common the idea that travesti identity does not subvert gender roles nor heteronormativity.


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Informed by Judith Butler's ideas and queer theory, recent scholarship analyzes travestis as a demonstration of the performative character of gender, claiming that their identities are in a permanent process of construction that enters into dispute with gender binarism. As noted by Spanish anthropologist María Fernanda Guerrero Zavala in 2015: "At the academic level, the approaches to identities and bodies from the "queer" point of view, which are gaining strength, are proposed as a way out of the static conception of identities and propose angles of theoretical interpretation based on life experiences."


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: In a 2012 research on Brazilian travesti immigrants in Barcelona, Spanish anthropologist Julieta Vartabedian Cabral suggested that travestis "make" their gender, highlighting the feminization of their bodies and sexual relationships as evidence. Fellow researcher María Fernanda Guerrero Zavala noted that: "Faced with other theorizations that call for the disembodiment of identities and queer and transgender activism, Vartabedian structures a "body" based on the most carnal experiences of transvestites".


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: Marluce Pereira da Silva, Josefina Fernández, Juliana Frota da Justa Coelho and Andrés García Becerra


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: A fundamental part of the existing bibliography was produced by travestis themselves, as is the case of activist Lohana Berkins, whose articles, conferences, interviews and compilations are the pillar for the study of this community in Argentina. In recent years, there have been discussions regarding the so-called "travesti theory", a critical theory that proposes the construction of their own paradigm, epistemology and ontology, through which the established discourses can be disarticulated in order to produce new knowledge production modes on the travesti population, from a regional and decolonizing perspective. Peruvian scholar Malú Machuca Rose described travesti as "the refusal to be trans, the refusal to be woman, the refusal to be intelligible. (...) Travesti is classed and raced: it means you do not present femininely all of the time because you cannot afford to." According to Rizki, the "travesti theory" constitutes a "Latin/x American body of work and a body politics with an extensive transregional history", citing South American writers such as Berkins, Giuseppe Campuzano, Claudia Rodríguez and Marlene Wayar as exponents. He defined travesti as "a politics of refusal", as it "disavows coherence and is an always already racialized and classed geopolitical identification that gestures toward the inseparability of indigeneity, blackness, material precarity, sex work, HIV status, and uneven relationships to diverse state formations." According to scholar Dora Silva Santana, travesti is "a negation of an imposed dominant expectation of womanhood that centers on people who are cisgender, heteronormative, able-bodied, elitist, and white." Marlene Wayar's 2018 book "Travesti / Una teoría lo suficientemente buena" has been considered an important contribution to the field. Wayar explained:


title: Travesti (gender identity)

text: What we are proposing is that travesti is that gaze, that position in the world and we analyze it from Latin America because that is the world we are in. We believe that all the previous and contemporary theories are very good, but we now have to make them pass through our body and territory to know if they give us good or bad results, (...) it has to be a theory that is not brought down from any illuminated territory but is rather built with dialogue.