Indigenous Trans People Find Refuge On Colombia Coffee Farms

In the coffee farms along western Colombia, indigenous transgender people are finding places to work and a safe haven to express themselves. A new article in National Geographic details the work of photographer Lena Mucha as she follows these workers in the fields, the dormitories, and the city.

As the article notes, many trans people don’t find acceptance in their communities and are “often punished or forced to leave their villages, even if they have families and children.”

“I know in Colombia being transgender is quite heavy,” Mucha says. “It’s a very conservative country. LGBTQ [awareness] is something that’s coming slowly and in the bigger cities, like Bogota. When it comes to villages and indigenous communities, they see it as a disease that comes from the white man. There’s no understanding of why this can happen and that it’s normal.”

This has led many to find refuge working on coffee farms, where after the work is finished, they are able to “dress as they’d like during their free time without punishment or harassment.”

Mucha’s work captures candid moments of these women’s lives on and off the farm. The photos are beautiful and moving and have a way of expressing the complicated emotions that must be involved in finding a place to truly be yourself, but having to leave everything you know behind to get there.

The full collection of Lena Mucha’s photos can be found here.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

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