Like teenagers across America, Cassandra Rivas dreamed of a quinceañera party, a ritual held for the 15th birthday of Latina girls.
Rivas, now a 51-year-old transgender woman, said the idea of celebrating quinceañera would have been completely foreign to her in her home state of Coahuila on Mexico's northern border with Texas.
She and other transgender Latina immigrant women were recently able to celebrate this year as quinceañeras thanks to the Transgender Latina Transgender Women's Organization of Texas, a group that promotes the rights of LGBT+ people.
Gathering in May at a Houston ballroom, six transgender women in their 40s and 50s from Latin America donned elegant quinceañera dresses and high-heeled shoes.
"Something inside me longed to experience this moment as a little girl, as a 15-year-old," Rivas told Reuters.
"I imagined myself standing before the priest in church, wearing a dress like any other woman."
A quinceañera party is similar to a "sweet 16" party for Americans when they celebrate their 16th birthday.
In Latin America, this jubilee is usually preceded by a Roman Catholic mass.
Until a few decades ago, social taboos in Latin America or in immigrant communities in the US would have made transitioning impossible for young transgender people.
In the United States, transgender people face a higher risk of mortality due to factors such as violence and suicide.
More than half of the 50 states in the US, including Texas, have banned the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapies for minors in recent years due to concerns that young people may later regret their decisions.
Transgender rights activists and some reproductive rights experts dispute that position, citing research showing that such policies increase health risks and violate established standards of care supported by major medical associations.
The risks are more acute in Latin America.
A recent report by the international transgender rights group TGEU found that 68 percent of the 281 murders worldwide from October 2024 to September 2025 were committed in Latin America.
Eighty percent of the victims were under 40, highlighting the importance of celebrating life for retro quinceañeras.
"I never thought I would live to be 50," said Vickimar Castrellón, another of the Houston celebrants.
Castrellón said that as a teenager, she sometimes wore her friends' quinceañera dresses and pretended to be a girl.
"It's a dream I've always had.
"And I feel very lucky because achieving that dream before I leave this world is something very beautiful for me."
BBC is in Serbian from now on and on YouTube, follow us HERE.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram i Viber. If you have a topic suggestion for us, please contact bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
- Transgender players cannot play in women's football, the English Football Association has ruled
- Trump and human rights: 'We will stop destructive ideologies'
- Fraudulent trans person subjected to conversion therapy in Siberia
Bonus video:
