‘To Accompany is Political’ recounts the journey of No Tan Distintes [Not So Different, NTD], a social, political and transfeminist organisation in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working with women and queer people who are or have been homeless. Flor takes us on NTD’s journey through understanding the impact of structural and miniaturised violences on a person’s being, the (counter)institutional responses, their formation of transfeminist accompaniments and how this all comes together to enable us to face seemingly intractable problems alongside one another. This leads us to where NTD are now, 15 years later; a collective that fights while accompanying and continues insisting, together.
Following this journey leaves us with the importance of accompaniment as a political act; creating emotional bonds – committing yourself to one another as compañeres, with implications not just for social organisations working on homelessness, but for the public sector, universities, charities, community spaces and our personal daily practice.
Florencia Montes Paez is a militante from No Tan Distintes [Not So Different, NTD]. She managed Frida, the first centre in Argentina to host women and queer people experiencing homelessness and their children, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Alongside this, she organised the first street homelessness census in Buenos Aires and drafted Argentina’s first national law on homelessness.
Translated by Daniela Camozzi, Beth Knowles Casas and Raquel Arreola Casas. Dani is the author of seven poetry collections, multiple translations from Emily Dickinson to Bram Stoker and a founding member of No Tan Distintes. Dani leads NTD’s workshops on poetry and creative writing, and is part of its publishing arm, abduciendo ediciones. Beth Knowles Casas and Raquel Arreola Casas make up Formas Press, they are militante translators, printers and editors, using their multilingualism para la lucha. They bring together their lineages who crossed waters and borders, to accompany radical literature to do the same.
The Mordisco [pamphlet] version of ‘To Accompany is Political’ is available in our online shop as well as several local independent bookshops in the UK. You can also download the pamphlet in English, Castellano, Galician and Italian for free or if you want to contribute to our work you can donate via the button below.
The full version of ‘Acompañar es Politico’ is available in Spanish through Virus in Spain and abduciendo ediciones in Latin America.