The idea that “trans people just showed up” is a lie that keeps getting pushed—not only by the right wing, but also by voices in the media. And author Caro De Robertis is pushing back.
“Trans and genderqueer people have always existed throughout time and in every culture,” De Robertis says. “We have always been here, even if our voices have often been systematically silenced. These stories have not been acknowledged as part of our collective cultural inheritance, but they are here.”
In 2022, MacArthur Fellow Jacqueline Woodson launched I See My Light Shining: The Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project, which records the oral stories of hundreds of elders of color from various regions who’ve “witnessed and shaped great change in American life.” Ten writers were chosen as Baldwin-Emerson Elders Fellows, including De Robertis, a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University and author of six books.
De Robertis, who lives in Oakland and uses they/them pronouns, interviewed 30 mostly Bay Area LGBTQ + people of color over the age of 50 for the project. Some of them appear in their new book, So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color, which they discuss May 15 at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
“The title of the book comes from my interview with longtime activist and artist Crystal Mason,” De Robertis says. “They said, ‘when you’re in the countryside and you look up at the night sky, you see a sky full of stars, and the more stars there are, the more possibilities there are.’ And that’s what I believe we are doing when we create new language and new words for our experiences.
“What Crystal is advocating for is ongoing, evolving realms of possibilities. I thought that was a really powerful vision, and I wanted the title to hold some of that spirit,” De Robertis explains. “The more stars in the sky, the more we can witness the different ways of being and the more room there can be for all of us to be safe and free.”
The book’s narrators are Black, Latinx, Asian and Native American, and hail from different cities, countries and religions. They’re artists, activists, drag performers, business owners, musicians and tango dancers. They include Ms. Billie Cooper, a transgender woman who ran for supervisor of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district in 2022; Andres Ozzuna, an Argentine-born transgender man who owns the Wooden Table Baking Company; Donna Personna, a 78-year-old drag performer and transgender woman who served as Grand Marshal of 2019’s San Francisco Pride Parade; and KB Boyce, a trangender man who played in the New York punk band Nasty Facts.
De Robertis writes about America’s “gender revolution,” organizing the first-person accounts into chapters that cover family, coming out, defining gender, art and the younger generation.
“I really wanted to create a narrative that wasn’t just about any particular person’s individual story, but a broader story, a symphony or tapestry of narratives, and really convey the prismatic richness of the stories of our communities,” De Robertis says. “So there’s an arc starting with emergence and moving into elderhood, looking back and then looking forward into the future.”
But these elders dig deeper into their personal—sometimes harrowing—lives. Bamby Salcedo, for example, a transgender woman originally from Mexico, recalls surviving gangs, addiction, sex work and incarceration before becoming an activist and founder of the L.A.-based TransLatin@ Coalition. She’s even spoken at the White House and starred in a 2016 HBO documentary, The Trans List, which also featured Caitlyn Jenner and actress Laverne Cox.
“Like in many communities, especially in marginalized communities, there’s a lot of pain and sorrow, and some fear,” De Robertis says of the new administration. “There’s also seeds of hope and possibility, and ongoing commitment to a better future, even if it seems against the odds. We have so many tools in our communities. We know how to advocate for each other, protect each other’s safety and advocate for social change. And we have those tools because they were hard won by previous generations. As horrifying and terrifying as these times are, it’s incredibly important to remember that and remember that we are still here.”
Caro De Robertis will be in conversation with author Jaime Cortez (Gordo) at 7pm on May 15 at Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. RSVP at bookshopsantacruz.com.
