Adela Vázquez

Adela Vázquez (November 13, 1958 – October 11, 2024) was a Cuban-American transgender activist and performer. Hailing from Cuba during a time of political uprising, Vázquez was one of 125,000 people who sought asylum and migrated in the Mariel Boat lifts in 1980.

Early life In 1958, Fidel Castro organized the July 26th Movement to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. Vázquez was born in 1958, and during her birth, homes were burned and cities were destroyed because of the revolution. Vázquez was born out of wedlock and was adopted by her grandfather and grandmother, with whom she lived.

Raised in Camagüey, Cuba, Vázquez spent her childhood walking around downtown and the Casino Campreste. She encountered a large Cuban LGBTQ community, eventually being baptized as "La Chica Streisandisima" at the swan fountain in Casino Campreste.

Her early involvement with the LGBTQ community in Camagüey and emigration to the United States was the influence for Jaime Cortez's graphic novel Sexile.

In Cuba, Vázquez was inducted into the military but was ineligible for service because of her homosexuality. After being denied, Vázquez committed herself to education and worked toward her teaching degree at Destacamento Pedagogico Manuel Ascunce Domenech.

Migration On April 4 of 1980, Castro's government announced that any Cuban wanting to leave to the United States was free to go. Castro did this in response to five Cubans who stole a bus and crashed into the Embassy of Peru in Havana, seeking asylum.

Vázquez was one of the people who sought asylum as part of the Mariel Boatlift and emigrated to Florida. Leaving behind family and belongings, Vázquez departed from the port of El Mosquito, a beach she recalled as unsafe and overcrowded. Her experiences on the Mariel boat for eight hours were less positive until she docked at the island of Key West, Monroe County, Florida. Post her crowning, Vázquez began to organize around transgender rights and issues. She quickly took notice of the large health disparities in the trans community and the need to mobilize. Vázquez was invited by trans activist Tamara Ching to speak to the issues the trans Latina community faced at the Human Rights Commission at San Francisco's City Hall. She is credited with being the first Trans Latina employed to address issues of HIV in San Francisco.

Vázquez was centrally involved with Proyecto ContraSIDA Por Vida, an HIV prevention organization. Vázquez volunteered for Proyecto beginning in 1992 and later on became the first trans Latina employee, as their outreach coordinator.

Vázquez later on went to serve as a Latino AIDS Education and Prevention Program Coordinator at the Instituto Familiar de la Raza, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to improving the wellness of Latino people in San Francisco.

Influence and impact Diagnosing Difference (Film) - In 2009, Vázquez starred in a film titled Diagnosing Difference.The documentary film highlights the stories of thirteen transgender and genderqueer people and the impact of Gender Identity Disorder (G.I.D). In the film, Director Annalise Ophelian aims to humanize the conversation around gender variance by featuring people who don't identify with the gender they were born with, rather than psychologist and psychiatrists leading the conversation. In the film, Vázquez discusses the complexities of gender dysphoria along with the pressure of needing to pass. that illustrates the life of Vázquez. Cortez uses comics to illustrates various moments of Vázquez's life: her birth, Cuban school life, sexual explorations, Mariel Boat migration, and many others. Sexilio came out of collaboration with Gay Men's Health Crisis. Gay Men's Health Crisis has been an advocate and leading contributor to HIV/AIDS prevention. Sexilio was nominated as the National Association of Public Libraries' Queer Book of the Year.

¡Cuéntamelo!: Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants 2013, (Oral History) edited by Julián Delgado Lopera. Vázquez's oral history was recorded by Delgado Lopera, along with six other Latino immigrants in this bilingual collection. An image of Adela graces the cover.

Jose Sarria History Maker Award (2024). Adela was honored in 2024 by the Ken Jones Heritage of Pride Awards with the Jose Sarria History Maker Award by the San Francisco Pride.