”Pride should not be just one month out of a year. Pride is to be and live just as you are every single day of every year. Be you always. Be unapologetically you.”
Bamby Salcedo
Bamby Salcedo has been described as a phoenix, the mythical bird that rises from the ashes of its former life to become beautiful and powerful. A very accurate description when you look at who Bamby is and the work she has done to help the trans community and immigrants.
Bamby was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, her early life is incomprehensible to most people. Due to poverty and abuse she suffered at home, she joined a street gang when she was just eight years old. It was there she was introduced to drugs and a life of crime. When she was twelve she had a brief introduction to her authentic self when she dressed as a woman and went to a club with some friends. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something she could pursue at that time. It wasn’t for several more years and after immigrating to America that she was able to slowly start transitioning. She began prostituting herself on the streets of Los Angeles in order to survive. When she tested positive for HIV, she became depressed and developed a heavy addiction to drugs. She soon found herself in prison, arrested for selling crack to support her drug habit. In prison, she suffered discrimination and sexual assault because she is trans. After prison her drug addiction continued, coupled with poverty and homelessness. Eventually, she got help and treatment for her drug problem. She turned her life around and has remained sober for over twenty years.
Surviving the extreme hardships she faced in her youth wasn’t enough for Bamby, she wanted to help others facing similar difficulties. She has used the strength and skills she developed on the streets to fight the extreme prejudice faced by both the trans community and the Hispanic community. She has worked tirelessly to educate people by giving lectures, conducting rallies, staging protests, testifying before Congress, and participating in discussions with the White House.
While working for the non-profit organization, Bienestar Human Services, and later at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Bamby personally mentored many young trans women. She worked tirelessly to help get these women off the streets and into mainstream society, helping several of them get into college and obtain jobs. The impact she has had in their lives is immeasurable.
In 2009 she founded the TransLatin@ Coalition “as a way to create voice, visibility and community for its members across the United States.” The organization works to help its members find resources they need and to help create laws that will ensure the protection of their human and civil rights.
As part of the TransLatin@ Coalition, Bamby has also created Angels of Change. This is a program for trans and gender non-conforming youth to celebrate their beauty through a runway show and a yearly calendar featuring these youth. Angels of Change strives to help the participants not worry about anything other than just being their authentic selves.
“Being an HIV-positive, undocumented immigrant, victim of multiple sexual assaults, in recovery from narcotics addiction and even living through years as a sex worker are not easy issues to overcome. Bamby was also physically and sexually abused by prison officers and inmates while being held in a juvenile detention center. But Bamby, who turned her problems into opportunities, has ended up becoming one of the most respected LGBT activists in the U.S. People deserve a second chance and Bamby has taken advantage of it.”
Pedro Peira, producer of “LA QueenCiañera” a documentary about Bamby Salcedo.