Q COSTARICA
In Coyol de Alajuela lives the Tico version of Caitlyn Jenner. For those who don’t know, Caitlyn Marie Jenner is an American television personality, retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete and the stepfather of the famous Kardashian. Caitlyn was born William Bruce Jenner, a man who was married, had children and at an advanced age announced to be trans, that actually felt like a woman.
In Costa Rica, Wendy Vannesa Sánchez, who was also a man before society for many years, had children and who at age 50 got tired of living life as a man, and decided to live as the woman he felt he always was.
But what is the life of a lesbian trans with children like? She recently opened the doors of her life to La Teja.
“Since I was little I always felt like a woman. I was always attracted to everything feminine, at age 4 I put on my mom’s blúmer (panty) and she beat me, so I kept doing it secretly. My grandmother did support me, I told her and she told me that she wanted to be a man, she was the one who did the work with a hammer and saw in the house, I came out like her,” said Wendy.
“Sometimes one lives for others and does not live at ease. I did not feel good as a man. I was a woman disguised as a man. I already lived 50 years like that and now I have been 8 years as a 100% woman,” Wendy Vanessa, trans lesbian.
Wendy was married for 24 years. Why?
“Because I am a lesbian trans. I always liked women. In first grade and at school I had a girlfriend, men scare me. When I met my wife, the first thing I did was tell her I like to wear women’s clothes. At that time I did not know the term trans, at first I thought it was transvestite, but they only dress (as women) for a moment. The transsexual is a woman 24/7. I have my hormonal treatment and every day I want to have surgery, get a vaginoplasty (sex reassignment surgery), because I feel uncomfortable with my body.
“When I got married and had three children, I always played the role of mom, we were both moms. I was the one who went to the insurance, to the school meetings and the one who cooked. In intimacy I behaved like a woman and that they (women) like that because men do not care if their partner is pleasured,” said the Aalajuelense, who worked for several years as a sales clerk.
Wendy said that during her 24 years of marriage, during the time she lived with her partner, she wore pants, for appearance, but wore female underwear.
He said that thanks to estrogen and spironolactone, he was able to get milk out of his breasts, and so he could breastfeed one of his children.
“When that happened I felt so much a mom. It is such a great feeling, it makes me angry when I hear a woman say that she does not want to breastfeed, she does not know what they are missing, it is a blessing,” he said.
Wendy says that when her children were young they all got along very well, but as the grew the changed, mainly with two of them.
He believes it has a lot to do with the Christian religion they profess and classifies them as transphobic. They call him “mi tata” (my father) or Wendy, but in mockery.
“In any event, I have to put up with it, but I would like them to give me some love, like when they were little. I would have liked to give them better things, but I couldn’t,” he confessed.
La Teja spoke to one of Wendy’s children, the eldest, on the basis of anonymity.
“People can make their decisions, as long as they don’t affect others, that they respect. One must have respect regardless of gender or sexual identity. I have learned to deal with it. I noticed it when I was 11, in my innocence I didn’t know what it was, I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t want the others to know that it was my dad.
“Now I do my thing and he with his decisions. My brothers are more clashing with this matter, I am more developed and I have sought more from God,” said this young man, who acknowledged that he still cannot be out with Wendy in public.
After 16 years of relationship, Wendy realized that her partner was cheating on her.
It was on August 12, 2011, when his children were older (the youngest was 16 years old), that he decided to free himself from that bond and live as he wanted, as a woman, wearing makeup, dresses and long hair.
At that time, he worked at the MOPT (Ministry of Transport), on a road asphalting, and a psychologist recommended that he live his life no matter what they say.
In 2014 he divorced, a year later he lost his job.
He already appears in the Civil Registry as Wendy Vanessa and was involved in several courses of crafts, lingerie and drawing, to learn a trade that would allow her to get ahead.
However, he had to leave it behind because he couldn’t afford the materials. He asks that if someone (readers) have an overlock sewing machine, he could use it a lot. He also said that if someone can offer work on anything, he would like it very much because his economic situation is tough.
Although everything went uphill, Wendy is sure to have made the right decision.
“I don’t feel like killing myself, the rejection of my children does cause me pain, but living as a woman is very beautiful, I like it. I continue in the battle,” he concluded.
In La Teja interview, we never learn what Wendy’s birth name is.
