Mariela Muñoz (24 December 19435 May 2017) was an Argentine

transgender rights activist The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate transgender inequality, discrimination and List of unlawfully killed transgender people, violence against transgender people regardi ...

and politician. She raised twenty-three children over the course of her life. In 1997, she became the first

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

to be officially recognized by the

government of Argentina The government of Argentina, within the framework of a federal system, is a presidential system, presidential Representative democracy, representative democratic republic. The president of Argentina is both head of state and head of government. ...

. She unsuccessfully sought the mayoralty of

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

and was active in the

Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party (, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Following the 2023 presidential election, it has been the largest party in the opposition against President Javier Milei. Fo ...

and Renewal Party.

Early life

Muñoz was born on 24 December 1943, in San Isidro de Lules. Much of her childhood was spent in

. Her father, formerly a

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

farmer, became a

construction worker A construction worker is a person employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definitions By some definitions, construction workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers ...

to support her and her three brothers. She was already very

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

as a child, and suffered harassment and corrective rape as a result. Her mother was against her femininity, and her father initially took her to

prostitutes Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...

and

psychiatrists A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

as an attempt to change her mind, but he eventually became supportive of her and considered mortgaging their home to pay for her

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their gender identity. The phrase is most often associat ...

. When Muñoz became independent, she moved to the suburbs of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and began caring for

adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...

, single mothers, and

children A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

. During her lifetime she raised 23 children and 30 grandchildren. In 1993, she told that she raised each child until they were married. To support her family, she worked as a tarot reader. In 1981, Muñoz traveled to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

for a

vaginoplasty Vaginoplasty is any surgical procedure that results in the construction or reconstruction of the vagina. It is a type of genitoplasty. Pelvic organ prolapse is often treated with one or more surgeries to repair the vagina. Sometimes a vaginoplas ...

, which was done by doctor

Guillermo Mac Millan Guillermo Mac Millan (born 1940/1941) is a retired Chilean urologist who worked at Van Buren Hospital in Valparaíso. He carried out sex reassignment surgery on hundreds of patients over the course of his career. Life Mac Millan studied ...

. In December 1993, a

family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

judge in Quilmes decided to revoke Muñoz's custody over three children she had adopted and raised, accusing her of having kidnapped them. The judge also issued a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

of one year in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. This court case contributed to public awareness of transgender people and their rights in Argentina.

Government recognition

In May 1997, 41 years after first asking to be called Mariela and 16 years after undergoing sex reassignment surgery, Muñoz successfully acquired a new ID which identified her as female and used the name "Mariela Muñoz", making her the first

transsexual A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (incl ...

woman to be recognized as such by the Argentine government. The judge who ordered the

Civil Registry Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events ( births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in diffe ...

to make the change did so after being presented with several reports by experts in psychology, and after Muñoz argued that she had been psychologically female since childhood, before her sex reassignment surgery in the 1980s. While Muñoz's case set the

precedent Precedent is a judicial decision that serves as an authority for courts when deciding subsequent identical or similar cases. Fundamental to common law legal systems, precedent operates under the principle of ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by thin ...

for future requests by several other people, Argentina would not pass the Gender Identity Law, which granted all transgender people the right to have their gender reflected on their identification, until fifteen years later.

Later life

Muñoz unsuccessfully campaigned to be mayor of Quilmes in 1997. She then ran for provincial deputy with the

in 2003 and the Renewal Party in 2009, wanting to bring attention to the issue of diversity. She was not elected. In 2013, after Muñoz had a stroke, a judge in Buenos Aires granted her a ''

recurso de amparo In most legal systems of the Spanish-speaking world, the writ of ("writ of protection"; also called , "appeal for protection", or , "judgement for protection") is a remedy for the protection of constitutional rights, found in certain jurisdict ...

'' so that the government would provide her with money in recognition of the discrimination she had faced. She was 70 years old at the time and did not have enough money to meet her

basic needs The basic needs approach is one of the major approaches to the measurement of absolute poverty in developing countries globally. It works to define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of Co ...

. By the last year of Muñoz's life, she had suffered three strokes and relied on her adopted children to care for her. She died on 5 May 2017, in

Greater Buenos Aires Greater Buenos Aires (, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of B ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Mariela 1943 births 2017 deaths Argentine transgender politicians Transgender women politicians Transgender rights activists People associated with tarot People from Tucumán Province People from Quilmes