Event: Indigenous and Queer Resistance and Recognition in Latin America

Tuesday, June 9, 2026
12:00–1:00 p.m.
Learning Crossroads Room 407 (CRXC 407)
University of Ottawa
100 Louis-Pasteur Private, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5

Join us at the University of Ottawa to hear directly from Indigenous and queer activists from Latin America about the struggles and strategies communities are using to confront anti-2SLGBTQI+ violence and carve out space for representation, recognition, justice and collective memory.

Across Colombia, Guatemala and Peru, armed conflicts disproportionately targeted Indigenous, Afro-descendant and campesina communities. During these periods, queer people also faced systematic persecution based on their sexual orientation and gender identities. These intersecting experiences of violence have often been erased, minimized or excluded from official histories and transitional justice processes.

This conversation will explore how activists, survivors and civil society organizations are reclaiming these histories, resisting ongoing violence, and building more inclusive approaches to justice and collective memory across Latin America.

Meet our counterparts: 

• Fernando Us Alvarez

Fernando (she/he) is a Maya K’iche’ Indigenous person, survivor of Guatemala’s civil war and sexual dissident. Fernando coordinates the newly formed Indigenous Secretariat at Asociación Lambda in Guatemala, which works to advance Indigenous visibility and representation within the 2SLGBTQ+ movement across the country. She is also a member of Dignity Network Canada’s Global Advisory Board.

• Mónica Chub Caal

Mónica (she/her) is an Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ activist in Guatemala. She is co-founder and member of the coordinating team of J’alal’y Aj Q’eqchi’, a plural resistance space that advocates for the rights of diverse Indigenous peoples in their territories and supports women survivors of violence, people living with HIV, and criminalized human rights defenders.

• Alex PV

Alex is a Maya Mam filmmaker known for his commitment to historical memory and human and territorial rights. His film IXIM (Love Has No Gender) is part of the official 2026 selection of the imagiNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.

• Ángela Parra

Ángela Parra is a lawyer and human rights practitioner at Colombia Diversa. Her work focuses on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ communities in peacebuilding and transitional justice processes, including legal representation, advocacy and research related to conflict-affected communities. Colombia Diversa is widely recognized for advancing the inclusion, recognition and protection of LGBTQI+ rights in Colombia through strategic litigation and research on the gendered dimensions of violence in the armed conflict.

• María Ysabel Cedano

María Ysabel Cedano is a lawyer at DEMUS – Estudio para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer, a feminist organization in Peru that has worked since 1987 to defend and advance women’s rights. María Ysabel contributes to the legal and media strategies DEMUS uses to expose and challenge policies and practices that violate women’s rights. She also plays an active role in Peru’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movements and in progressive national politics.

To learn more about our work supporting queer resistance in Latin America:

• Advancing Indigenous LGBTQI+ recognition and solidarity from Guatemala to Canada
• Behind the scenes of LGBTQI+ Advocacy: A mental health conversation with Valentina Parra
• Bringing holistic care to survivors of violence in rural Guatemala