By Gabriel V. Cárdenas
HOUSTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Like teenage girls across the Americas, Kassandra Rivas dreamed of having a quinceañera party, the rite of passage for 15-year-old Latinas.
But Rivas, now a 51-year-old transgender woman, said the idea of her celebrating a quinceañera would have been completely alien in her native state of Coahuila on Mexico's northern border with Texas.
She and other transgender Latina immigrants were recently able to celebrate this year as quinceañeras - literally translated, as 15-year-olds - thanks to the Organización Latina de Trans en Texas, a group promoting rights for LGBTQ+ people including transgender women from Latin America.
Gathering at a Houston ballroom in May, six transgender women in their 40s and 50s from Latin America donned elegant quinceañera dresses and changed into high-heeled shoes.
"Something inside me held a longing to experience this moment as a girl, as a 15-year-old," Rivas said. "I imagined myself standing before the priest in church, wearing a dress like any other woman."
The quinceañera party is similar to a "Sweet 16" for Americans, a cultural coming-of-age event that in Latin America often is preceded by a Roman Catholic mass.
BEING TRANSGENDER BRINGS RISKS IN LATIN AMERICA
Social taboos would have made it virtually impossible for transgender youth to transition decades ago in Latin America or in U.S. immigrant communities.
In the United States, transgender people face higher mortality risks due to factors such as violence and suicide. More than half the 50 states including Texas have in recent years banned medical treatments such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy for minors amid concerns that youth who may later regret their decisions have been too easily allowed to transition.
Transgender rights advocates and reproductive rights experts dispute that view, citing research showing such policies increase health risks and violate established standards of care endorsed by major medical associations.
The risks are more acute in Latin America.
A recent report by the international transgender rights group TGEU found 68% of 281 murders of transgender people in the world from October 2024 to September 2025 were committed in Latin America. And 80% of the victims were under age 40, underscoring the importance of the life celebration for the retro quinceañeras.
"I never thought I'd get to my 50s," said Vickymar Castrellon, another celebrant in Houston.
Castrellon said that as a teenager she would sometimes wear her friends' quinceañera gowns and pretend to be the girl of honor.
"It's a dream I've always had," she said. "And I feel very happy because achieving it before I leave this world is something very beautiful for me."
(Reporting by Gabriel V. Cárdenas in Houston; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Donna Bryson and Deepa Babington)
