Soraya Santiago was interviewed in the 2014 film "Mala Mala," which documented a pivotal moment in the transliberation movement in Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy of Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini.

Arts & Culture

Soraya Santiago, Puerto Rico LGBTQ icon, dies at 73

By Dánica Coto, Associated Press

September 23, 2020 @ 3:01 PM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Soraya Santiago, the first openly trans person to run for office in Puerto Rico and a longtime icon for the U.S. territory’s LGBTQ community, died Tuesday. She was 73.

Santiago died of cancer at her home in the north coastal city of Carolina, activist Pedro Julio Serrano told The Associated Press.

Many mourned the news, including the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital and activists on the U.S. mainland.

“Soraya was a pioneer, our teacher, our beacon of light,” trans activist Ivana Fred said in a statement. “She opened the door for all us trans people and left us a legacy of unwavering spirit that is unmatched.”

Santiago had often visited New York’s Stonewall Inn and was in the city — though not the bar — when police raided it in 1969, unleashing a rebellion that led to the LGBTQ rights movement. She credited that with helping turn her into an activist.

She traveled again to New York in the 1970s for gender-affirming medical care and upon returning to Puerto Rico, became the island’s first trans person to successfully change their name and sex on their birth certificate.

Santiago, a hair stylist who owned a beauty shop, was the first openly trans person to run for office in Puerto Rico, according to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York, trying unsuccessfully for a city council seat in 2008. She was also the first LGBTQ candidate to do so as a member of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, the center said.

Santiago said in a 2019 interview with the online collaborative publishing platform United Explanations that much work remains to be done.

“Those were doors I opened, and I hope to keep opening more doors so that the community can keep establishing itself where it should be and not where people want it to be,” she was quoted as saying.

Santiago studied political science at Puerto Rico’s largest public university and was featured in several documentaries, including the 2014 Puerto Rican film “Mala, Mala,” which follows nine transgender people. Santiago also published a book, “Made by Hand: Gender Dysmorphia.”