El/La Para TransLatinas: A San Francisco Organization Built Around Trans Latina Solidarity

El/La Para TransLatinas is a San Francisco nonprofit focused on serving transgender Latinas through a broad range of support, including legal assistance, financial guidance, education and health-related services. The organization’s work is rooted in the idea that trans Latinas should be able to protect themselves, care for themselves and pursue their own development while building strength through community.

The organization began in San Francisco in 2006, following the closure of Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida. Marcia Ochoa, Alexandra Rodriguez de Ruiz and Isa Noyola are credited with founding El/La Para TransLatinas. Its early work centered on HIV prevention within the LGBT community, a starting point that connected health education with the wider safety and well-being needs of transgender Latinas.

Over time, the group’s stated focus expanded beyond prevention. Its mission describes a community-based approach to confronting violence, abuse and illness through mutual support. That framework places trans Latinas at the center of the organization’s work rather than treating them only as recipients of a single service. The listed programs and services reflect that wider scope: legal and fiscal support sit alongside education and health assistance, creating an organization intended to address several parts of daily life.

El/La Para TransLatinas has also faced financial instability. In 2009, the organization was described as severely underfunded after losing government support when San Francisco redirected money previously allocated to El/La toward Instituto Familiar de la Raza Inc. The funding dispute is part of the organization’s history and illustrates the dependence of community-serving nonprofits on public resources.

Leadership has continued to be part of the organization’s significance. The source identifies Nicole Santamaría as executive director as of June 2026 and describes Santamaría as the first trans person to hold that position. That detail connects the organization’s leadership to its central constituency and its longer history of building services for transgender Latinas.

For San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, El/La Para TransLatinas represents a local institution whose work links health, safety, education and material support. Its history begins with HIV prevention but develops into a broader model of community care for trans Latinas, shaped by local organizing, founder-led advocacy and an emphasis on collective protection.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://prezi.com/kuqwc9b5clto/translatina-safety-2014/ - https://missionlocal.org/2015/08/funeral-service-for-sf-transgender-activist-jovana-luna-annouced - https://web.archive.org/web/20170519201216/http://ellaparatranslatinas.yolasite.com/mission.php - https://web.archive.org/web/20170223021904/http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-pride-announces-grand-marshal-candidates/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20170301095523/http://www.sfpride.org/grand-marshals/ - https://sfpride.org/press-release/2021/05/07/grand-marshals-2021/ Image rights Photograph description: Janetta Johnson of the TGI Justice Project, accompanied by trans activist Tita Aida and members of El/La Para TransLatinas, speaks on stage at the San Francisco Trans March 2016. Creator: Pax Ahimsa Gethen. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATrans_women_at_San_Francisco_Trans_March_2016_(cropped).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.