Editing Sonia Rescalvo Zafra

{{Infobox person|name=Sonia Rescalvo Zafra|birth_date=1956|birth_place=Cuenca, [[Spain]]|death_date=6 October 1991 (aged 35-36)|death_place=Parc de la Ciutadella, [[Barcelona]], Spain|death_cause=Murder by neo-nazis|known=Galvanizing trans movement in [[Catalonia]]|image=Sonia+Rescalvo+Zafra.jpg}}

'''Sonia Rescalvo Zafra''' (1946 - 6 October 1991) was a [[Kingdom of Spain|Spanish]] trans woman who was killed by [[Neo-Nazism|neo-nazis]] in [[Barcelona]]. Her murder led to the first prosecution of a [[hate crime]] against a transgender person in Spain, and her death became a symbol that galvanized the [[LGBT+]] movement in the country.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=Cristina Tomàs White|newspaper=Catalan News|title=Sonia Rescalvo Zafra: the brutal murder that galvanized the trans rights movement|date=2021-10-06|url=https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/sonia-rescalvo-zafra-the-brutal-murder-that-galvanized-the-trans-rights-movement|archive-url=https://archive.ph/wip/jFj6x}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=Meritxell Guixà|newspaper=Info Barcelona|title=Remembering Sonia Rescalvo Zafra|date=2021-09-30|url=https://www.barcelona.cat/infobarcelona/en/tema/lgtbi/remembering-sonia-rescalvo-zafra_1107060.html|archive-url=https://archive.ph/wip/wtZjd}}</ref>

== Life and death ==
Sonia was born in Cuenca in 1956. At the age of 16, she moved to the city of Barcelona where she initially worked at the Paral·lel and the Teatre Arnau. Sonia eventually became homeless with the crisis of variety shows, and lived and worked in the Parc de la Ciutadella.<ref name=":0" />

In the early hours of October 6, 1991, Sonia and her friend Doris were sleeping in the bandstand when they were brutally attacked by a group of young Boixos Nois skinheads. On their way out, the six 16- to 17-year-olds beat up a homeless man who lost an eye. While Doris and the man survived, Sonia lost her life.<ref name=":0" />

The murderers were sentenced to a total of 300 years in prison in 1994, but their sentences were later reduced by Spain's Supreme Court and none of them are currently in prison.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==
Sonia's death was the first known case in Spain of a person being murdered for being transgender. The case was treated as a hate crime by the newly established Mossos d’Esquadra police force, even though there were no specific laws regarding hate crimes at the time in Spain.<ref name=":0" />

Beatriz Espejo, who founded the now-defunct Col·lectiu de Transexuals de Catalunya (CTC), said that Sonia’s death and the harassment of [[Sex work|sex workers]] around the 1992 Olympics were what inspired her to mobilize and form the CTC.<ref name=":0" />

In 1993, a plaque was placed on the bandstand in which Sonia was murdered. It read, in Catalan, "Sonia was murdered here at the hands of fascism on October 6, 1991. We do not forget." In 2013, the bandstand was officially renamed the "Transsexual Sonia bandstand" at the initiative of the Plataforma LGTBIcat,<ref name=":1" /> making Barcelona the first city in Europe to have a public space named after a trans person.<ref name=":0" /> In October 2021, on the day of her death, Barcelona renamed the square in the Ciutadella Park the ''Plaça Sonia Rescalvo Zafra''.<ref name=":0" />

<gallery mode="nolines" widths="250" heights="250">
File:Bandstand at parca de la ciutadella.jpg|Bandstand at Ciutadella Park
File:Plaque commemorating Sonia Zafra from 2013 to 2021.jpg|Plaque at the bandstand commemorating Sonia Rescalvo Zafra from 2013 to 2021.
File:Authorities and trans rights activists revealing the new Plaa Sonia Rescalvo Zafra sign in Barcelona on October 6 2021 by Blanca Blay.jpg|Authorities and trans rights activists revealing the new Plaça Sonia Rescalvo Zafra sign in Barcelona on October 6, 2021
</gallery>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:1956 births]]
[[Category:1991 deaths]]
[[Category:LGBT+ people]]
[[Category:People in Spain]]
[[Category:Victims of hate crimes]]