i was just thinking how cozy the pictures looked, and then i read the title. i can’t think of anything else apart from what’s going on in my country. (tw lesbophobia, violence, selfharm)
a few days ago, a man called Justo Fernando Barrientos threw a molotov over four lesbians in their sleep, who were sharing a bed. they were living together in a family hotel (something like a motel) in Barracas, Buenos Aires City. he’d been publicly threatening and insulting them for being lesbian. they and a bunch of other people lived at that hotel, all of them struggling financially, and he was upset because they were “four lesbians living together.” he couldn’t fathom the possibility of women not living with other men, or what was even worse, staying together. for Pamela, Roxana, Andrea and Lucía, that was their way of staying alive, making community.
this man not only threw the bomb at them, he pushed some of them into the room in flames so they couldn’t escape. then he tried to off himself by cutting his neck with a small saw, but he wasn’t accurate, and he was detained.
3 of the lesbians died over the course of a few days, painfully agonizing with most of their bodies burned. the only survivor to this attack, Sofía, is left with no resources apart from what the rest of the community gathered for her.
the pic below is from a street installation that occurred in a protest a few days after the attack, in La Plata, where the people were invited to lie down, alone, with friends or whoever they wanted.
I lied there for a few minutes, and my eyes filled with tears. up to that point i kept talking with my peers about this event like another bad news, given the political situation in Argentina keeps getting worse, and it’s one terrible news after the other. but at that spot, looking at the sky, while listening to someone saying some things with a microphone, that moment of pause and contemplation broke me.
no one should be attacked in such a cruel way. no one should live in those awful conditions. revenge for Pamela, Roxana and Andrea. justice and aid for Sofía.
