There was a day when Andrea decided never to turn back again.
This is how she tells it herself: “I said: I will never be Javier again”. Andrea Zarina Carrillo Torres was born in Nandayure, Guanacaste, and now works as a lawyer within Costa Rica’s Judiciary.
Before her transition, she worked at the Victim and Witness Protection Office under her former identity. Her family’s support was key to sustaining a process filled with doubts about how those around her would receive her.
She became the first openly trans woman to graduate with a law degree from the University of Costa Rica, and also the first trans graduate of the Liberia Campus.
Now she is aiming higher: she wants to become a judge and, later, a magistrate. According to her, similar precedents exist only in the United States and India, so achieving it would make her the first in all of Latin America.
“One of my dreams is to be the first trans judge”, she said in the interview. And she posed the question that sums up everything at stake: “Can you imagine a trans magistrate?”
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