Lorena Capelli (195? – 1976) performer

Lorena Capelli was born in Rio de Janeiro, and was an early transitioner. Her father initially beat her, but, being in the Brazilian diplomatic corps, obtained for her a passport in her female name and other official documents so that she could travel and live as female even before completion surgery. 

She was one of the first trans Brazilians to arrive in Spain and was one of the few who came to Europe already dressed as female given her father’s pulling of strings. Her ‘feminine’ appearance was noted. This depite the Ley de Peligrosidad y Rehabilitación Social which had been in effect since 1970, and which was used to control and persecute anyone who was different.

She then went to Paris and performed at the Le Carrousel, and then in Germany and Italy. She returned to Spain after genital surgery and other surgical enhancements. She and Yeda Brown – also post-operative – arrived around the same time, and both became celebrities. These were the final years of the Francoist dictatorship – the Caudillo Francisco Franco died in November 1975, and Spain started a transition to being a constritutional monarchy. 

Lorena was a star at the Teatro Victoria in Barcelona and then Micheleta Night Club in Madrid where she was announced in the press: 

“for the first time in Madrid a fabulous supervedette extraordinarily sexy, sexy, sexy; before she did military service, now she is intriguingly sexy, sexy, sexy. gorgeous! Lorena Capelli". 

In September 1976 Lorena was interviewed in Papillón magazine:

 “Yes, I always have a man, one man or another, because it is impossible for a woman to live without ‘love’, but I don't feel the strong flame of the rapport between two people. I have returned to striptease and to restarting my life. I am a woman who is living her beginnings again, although far from my native Brazil”. 

 

However she was dissatisfied with her vaginal depth, and went to a gynecologist at a clinic in Barcelona – this at a time when all transgender surgery was illegal in Spain. The gynecologist made her sign a paper accepting full responsibility, including her death. Apparently the operation led to complications that led to peritonitis, and she died. Her body was returned to Rio five days later. 

The magazine Lib investigated and published a report «La turbia muerte de Lorena Capelli (The murky death of Lorena Capelli)». It concluded that she would not be the first and not the only victim of the legal and medical situation experienced by transsexual people.

Early in 1977 a sensational film was made entitled El transexual (‘el’ being the male form of ‘the’). Cis actress Ágata Lys played Lona the trans lead, and trans actress Eva Robin’s had a small part. It is said to be based on Lorena, but only in that Lona dies on the operating table -  the story is otherwise different.  Lona pursues the operation in that she cannot tell her lover that she is trans, unlike Lorena who is publicly trans.  A reporter who had been interviewing her then investigates why she has disappeared. Many flashbacks to Lona's cabaret act. IMDB.

There had been a second Spanish film about a transsexual that year, Cambio de sexo with cis actress Victoria Abril as José Maria/Maria José, and the trans actress then known as Bibi Andersen (Bibiana Fernández) in her first film role. This film came out first, and attracted the larger audience.  A17-year-old realizes that she is trans.  She discovers a night club and learns to be a dancer, and is mentored by Bibi.  IMDB. 

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Describing a young trans woman as ‘feminine’ was likely a type of throwing shade, implying that it was known that she was trans.

The practice of casting a cis person as the main trans protagonist in a film, while casting trans persons in minor roles is unfortunately the common way of doing films about trans persons. Recent examples include The Danish Girl, 2015 and Transparent, 2014-19.

None of the sources say where Lorena had her first transgender operation. Both Dr Borou in Casablanca and Dr Seghers in Brussels were active in the 1970s, and are obvious candidates. Olmeda, only, says that this operation was in 1971 – which would imply before her first visit to Spain.

• “Confesiones de un transexual: Lorena Capelli, nacida Humberto”. Lib, 1,1, 21-28 octobre 1976.
• “La turbia muerte de Lorena Capelli”. Lib, 1,4, 16-22 nov. 1976.
• “El caso Lorana Capelli, al cine”. Miércoles. 1 diciembre 1976: 23. Online.
• Vincente Aranda (dir) Cambio de sexo, with Victoria Abril as José Maria/Maria José and Bibi Andersen as Bibi. Spain 108 mins 1977.
• José Jara (dir). El Transexual, with Ágata Lys as Lona, and Eva Robin's as Sandra. Spain 78 mins 1977.
• Maria Cecilia Patricio. « No truque: fluxos migratorios de travestis brasileiras a Espanha sob uma perspectiva transnacional”. Carta International, Marco de 2009, 4,1: 34. Online.
• Fernando Olmeda. “Nacida como Humberto, fallecida como Lorena” in El látigo y la pluma, Polifemo7, 2013.
• Óscar Guasch, Jordi Mas and José María Valcuende (ed). “La construcción médico-social de la transexualidad en España (1970-2014)”. Gazeta de Antropología, 30 (3), 2014: 4. Online.
• Julieta Vartabedian. Brazilian Travesti Migrations: Gender, Sexualities and Embodiment Experiences. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018: 195.
• Valeria Vegas. Vestidas de Azul: Análisis social y cinematográfico de la mujer transexual en los años de la Transición española. Dos Bigotes, 2019.
• Valeria Vegas. “Lorena Capelli” in Libérate: La cultura LGTBQ que abrió camino en España. Dos Bigotes, 2020.
• Andrea Momoitio. “Lorena Capelli no tuvo nada de ordinaria”. Público, no date. Online.