VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 3: ”Navigating the Margins: Agatha Brooks’ Journey as a Black Trans Woman in the Caribbean”

VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS Podcast Episode 3: "Navigating the Margins: Agatha Brooks' Journey as a Black Trans Woman in the Caribbean"

 

In this compelling third episode of VAMOS HABLAR INGLÉS, host LA REINA TAÍNA sits down with Agatha Jamine Brooks, a Black Trans woman, poet, and activist, for an intimate discussion on the intersectional challenges she faces in her daily life. As an undocumented immigrant in the Dominican Republic, Agatha's experiences illuminate the complexities of race, gender, and survival within the harsh socio-political landscapes of the Caribbean. This episode dives deep into her narrative, focusing on her time as a former sex worker and the layered dynamics of navigating societal rejection and marginalization while affirming her identity as a Black Trans woman.

 

The conversation also touches on themes central to Afro-Jotería Studies, a field founded by LA REINA TAÍNA to center the lived experiences of Queer and Trans Afro-Latinx, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Indigenous people. Through the lens of Afro-Jotería (an academic study combining Afro-Indigenous and decolonial frameworks), we explore how colonial history, the globalizing forces of blanqueamiento (whitening), and anti-Blackness continue to shape gendered and racial identities in the Caribbean.

 

Afro-Jotería Studies critiques the Western binary systems that fail to account for the complexities of gender and race in the Caribbean, challenging traditional norms of beauty, identity, and power. Agatha’s narrative adds depth to these discussions by offering insights into how blanqueamiento—the whitening processes promoted in the Dominican Republic—affects Black Trans women’s livelihoods, from being commodified in the sex industry to being disrespected and fetishized within both mainstream and underground spaces. These intersecting oppressions are compounded by Agatha's unique experiences with non-monogamy, survival, and personal liberation, where her artistic voice emerges as a form of resistance against the strict, often violent, expectations imposed on marginalized bodies.

 

This episode also reinforces the call for decolonial thought and action through the practices of Afro-Jotería, advocating for reclaiming narratives and resisting colonial binaries that reduce identity to something monolithic. Agatha’s words empower listeners to question the limits of gender norms and social expectations, urging us to redefine beauty, existence, and resistance through an Afro-Jotería framework.

 

✨ Agatha’s motto: "Live and let live. Use your past as fuel to propel forward."