Interview with Sofía Diéguez

 

Sofía Diéguez is an Argentine transgender actress, singer, performer, playwright and cultural worker. She was born on December 8, 1986, in Buenos Aires and grew up in Lanús. She began studying acting at the age of thirteen and later trained in theatre, musical theatre, ballet and singing, including studies at the Teatro Colón. Her acting training also included work with Alicia Zanca, Ana María Campoy, Pepe Cibrián and Julieta Vallina. At sixteen, she was cast in Pepe Cibrián's El fantasma de Canterville, appearing in the production during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. She subsequently continued her theatrical training and toured Latin America with children's theatre productions. At the age of twenty-five, Sofía began her gender transition and temporarily stepped away from acting and performance. She later returned to the profession with a role in Un gallo para Esculapio.

 

Her subsequent television work included El Marginal, where she played La Luli, and Telefe's Pequeña Victoria, where she played Violeta. Her theatre career includes Crianzas, el musical, based on the work of Susy Shock, for which she received the 2021 ATINA Award for Female Performer. She later wrote and starred in Magenta, una sirena más allá del mar, a children's musical inspired by the figure of the mermaid and addressing identity and freedom. Her later theatrical work has included Estar System, in which she also participated in the creative and dramaturgical process, and Teoría de la Sirena, a musical biodrama and autobiographical work combining theatre, music and elements of her own life. In 2023, she made her feature-film debut in Natural Arpajou's Unicornio. In 2025, she appeared in El suelo que sostiene a Hande, a Buenos Aires theatre production inspired by the life of Turkish transgender activist Hande Kader. Alongside her acting career, Sofía is a singer and songwriter who performs under the artistic identity La Sirena. In 2022, she released her first single, La Sirena, followed by an EP featuring La Sirena, Medusa, Sola and La Poderosa. She writes her own lyrics and melodies and has also participated in musical performances and live cultural productions. Outside the stage and screen, Sofía has worked as a tutor at the Mocha Celis educational project. Her career encompasses theatre, television, cinema, musical performance, songwriting, dramaturgy and autobiographical work, alongside public work on transgender visibility, representation and trans childhoods.

Interview with Luly Arias

Luly Arias is an actress, activist, educator and nurse from San José, Catamarca, Argentina. She began her gender transition during adolescence and, at 16, was expelled from her family home. She later studied Pedagogy and Social Education, graduating in 2009 before moving to Buenos Aires, where she continued her education in nursing. Her professional and artistic trajectory developed alongside her activism. She became involved in Cooperativa Arte Trans, a pioneering theatre collective created to provide transgender and travesti people with opportunities in the arts, and appeared in productions including Made in Lanús. She was also one of the protagonists of Guillermo Bergandi's documentary Reina de Corazones and later joined the cast of Telefe's prime-time series Pequeña Victoria in 2019. Education has remained central to Arias's work. She taught at the Bachillerato Popular Travesti Trans Mocha Celis, where she worked with trans and travesti students, and later worked within the diversity area of the Buenos Aires Province Ministry of Health, including training healthcare professionals in inclusive care.
 

Luly has also participated in projects such as Unides por la Música, bringing together trans, travesti and non-binary artists from Argentina and Uruguay, and has written extensively about trans representation, employment, housing, healthcare, cultural inclusion and historical memory. Her work combines artistic practice with activism, with particular attention to the opportunities available to transgender people outside the stereotypes traditionally imposed on them. From a small town in Catamarca to theatre, television, public health and activism in Buenos Aires, Luly Arias's trajectory has crossed many of the institutions from which transgender people have historically been excluded, while she has continued working to make those spaces more accessible to others. 

Interview with Sofia Saunier

When I approach Sofía Saunier’s story, I don’t see just a biography, I see a journey woven with courage, sensitivity, and beauty. Born in Montevideo in 1974, she first found her stage in Buenos Aires during the 1990s underground scene, where drag, dance, and performance carved out cracks of freedom in a society that often preferred to look away. There, Sofía not only learned how to inhabit the stage, but also how to turn her body and voice into a declaration of existence. Two decades later, upon returning to Uruguay, she began to unfold a multi-layered artistic language: photography, audiovisual work, painting, drawing, and writing. It was not dispersion but a single thread: the urgency of telling trans and queer lives with truth, tenderness, and dignity. That urgency took form in Transur, a project that since 2013 has gathered more than seventy interviews, becoming an invaluable archive of stories that might otherwise have been silenced. Through Transur, Sofía opened a window onto diversity, showing that our lives are much more than what sensationalist television used to portray. Her free spirit also led her to create another project, Transmotoqueras, where together with her companions she rode through the roads of Uruguay, filming each kilometer as an act of visibility and freedom. Taking the road is no small gesture: it means claiming public space, confronting prejudice, and reminding society that trans women also build full and open lives.

Interview with Victoria Caram

Monika: Today I have invited an amazing woman. Victoria Maxima Caram is an Argentinian hairstylist, makeup artist, model, media personality, adult entertainment producer, and former stage performer living in the Netherlands. She is the Executive Director of Miss Trans Star International, a well-known transgender beauty pageant that is held every year in Barcelona, Spain. Hello Victoria!

Victoria: Hello Monika, I feel honored to be here today. I’ve seen so many talented and famous women in your interviews that I still don’t believe I am here.

Monika: You seem to be a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Victoria: Well I wouldn’t say talents, I am a well-prepared woman, but above everything, I have been persevering with an almighty faith.

Monika: Victoria is a nice name. How did you choose it?

Victoria: In Roman mythology, Victoria was the name of the goddess of victory.

Monika: Before we have a closer look at your amazing professional career, I would like to ask you about your years in Argentina. Did you have a happy childhood there?

Victoria: Not at all, I was a kid with ADHD, so there were moments that even I did not want to be with me, hahaha. I come from the north of Argentina, Tucuman, from a very wealthy family; I went to the best elite schools. My mother is a doctor and my father is a businessman.

Interview with Victoria Divine

Victoria Divine is an Argentinian film director, producer, and performer whose life and work have been shaped by an unending desire to evolve. She grew up in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, where she first explored her gender identity and discovered a fascination with the trans women who would become her earliest role models. Her creative journey has taken her from Argentina’s vibrant nightlife scene, where she thrived as a drag queen, model, TV presenter, and DJ, to the international film world, where she now focuses on telling powerful stories about remarkable individuals. Victoria’s documentaries capture the lives of women who inspire her, women whose voices have often been overlooked or dismissed, and she approaches each story with a deep belief in equality, visibility, and the transformative force of femininity. Her work is grounded in activism and guided by a conviction that cinema can disrupt old narratives and challenge the privileges that shape our societies.

 

She carries with her a bold artistic voice shaped by years of performance, observation, and emotional honesty. Her curiosity about human nature is matched by a strong sense of social responsibility, which is visible in every project she embraces. Many people find her presence unforgettable because she blends artistic vision with a sincere commitment to justice and representation. Having lived in both Argentina and the United Kingdom, Victoria has gained a unique understanding of how culture shapes the experiences of transgender people and she speaks openly about the contrasts she has witnessed. Whether she discusses her academic research on transgender representation in Argentine cinema or the personal journey that led her to embrace her own femininity, she brings a sense of depth, clarity, and courage to every conversation. It is my pleasure to welcome this extraordinary artist to the interview.