Transbeing: Flourishing, Migration and Community for Transgender Latinx/Latines in Los Angeles (L.A.,) California

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the lived experiences of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) Latinx migrants in Los Angeles, theorizing “transbeing” as an ontological and ethical mode of existence defined by shared vulnerability, continuous transformation and interdependence. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2016–2024) across the Los Angeles area—using participatory research, pláticas, digital storytelling, and auto-ethnography—, the study traces how trans Latinx negotiate intersecting challenges of migration, family and community rejection, structural violence, and medical precarity. The analysis illuminates how survival and flourishing are cultivated in transorganic communities—networks of care, mutual aid, and solidarity that transcend identity categories and formal institutions. The study foregrounds everyday acts of solidarity and endurance, arguing that migrant and trans life reconfigures kinship, care, and citizenship beyond normative boundaries. My research expands critical understandings in Queer and Trans Migration Studies, medical anthropology, and transfeminist theory, articulating a model of community and care rooted in affective and material interdependence and solidarity. By examining the everyday lives of transgender Latinx, the dissertation demonstrates that flourishing is not an abstract state but a dynamic and embodied process of self-affirmation, transformation and world-making.