Gisberta Salce (1960–2006) was a Brazilian trans woman who was murdered in Porto, Portugal in 2006.
Salce grew up in Brazil, but left for France at the age of 18 to escape a wave of homicides against transgender people in São Paulo and ended up in Portugal two years later. In 2006 at the age of 45, she was physically and sexually assaulted over the course of several days by a group of boys ranging in age from 12 to 16. As a result of her murder and the subsequent investigation and trial, multiple controversies erupted over corruption and abuse at the Oficina de São José.
Life
Early life Angelina Muro Salce and Gisberto Salce, Gisberta's parents, had eight children. Gisberta was the youngest, and was named after her father, Gisberto. She was nicknamed "Júnior". She would later feminize her given name, from Gisberto to Gisberta.
According to her sister Jacine, 12 years her senior, she had “delicate, very white skin” and "really liked to dance". Jacine said that Salce regularly wore her sister's clothes and that she considered Gisberta to be her "toy doll." According to her sister, Salce "liked to play with the girls and we didn't care". While Salce was still a child, her mother expressed concern over her behavior. At some point, she was taken to a doctor and told that she was like that due to "excessive pampering". At the age of 14, after her father died, she told her mother that she “was going to be a woman”. Salce was known to wear girl's clothes when visiting friends; however, around her family, she opted for clothes that were more "gender neutral". At the age of 18, she decided to leave the country for France after news surfaced of homophobic discrimination and murders in Casa Verde, São Paulo.
She temporarily returned to Brazil for hormone replacement therapy, silicone breast implants and other feminizing procedures. She spent two years in France before moving to Portugal and settling in Porto.
In Portugal Salce started doing stage performances at a bar named Invictus in the galleries of Hotel Malaposta, where Salce would hang out, which occupied a space formerly used by Kilt, one of the first gay bars in the city. From there, she moved on to stages at other bars, including Bustos and Syndicato. Salce, in her shows, often impersonated Marilyn Monroe. During the day, Salce enjoyed having coffee with her friends and walking her two Yorkshire Terriers around the city. Nuno Câmara Lima, a nurse who worked on a Espaço Pessoa project that “supported people who performed sex work”, some of whom also struggled with drug addiction or sexually transmitted infections, spent time with Salce. He had first met Salce during her first few years in the city, saying she was a "...very active in the trendy nightclubs in Porto, like Swing. She was a very beautiful woman. If I saw her on the street, she would be a woman with good makeup, nice clothes, nice shoes."
While living in Porto, Salce was known to engage in sex work on Rua de Santa Catarina, as she earned little money from her stage performances. At some point in 1996, she contracted an HIV infection, which had an adverse impact on her health and was complicated by her drug use. She began to frequent the social welfare associations Migalha de Amor and Espaço Pessoa to eat, bathe and talk. Upon learning of her HIV-positive status, Salce refused treatment.
At one point, Salce was treated at Hospital Joaquim Urbano over a 22 day period. Afterwards, she spent a week in a therapeutic community for rehabilitation in Setúbal, but left before being released.
Homelessness After leaving the therapeutic community she began to consume “heavier” drugs. This led to the loss of her home and primary source of income.
“She started going to houses with lower and lower incomes, then she passed through several social districts, until she fell into that hole”, says Nuno Lima, referring to the tent that she set up in a building on Avenida Fernão de Magalhães. The disease (HIV) took away her livelihood: sex work.
Salce was “loved by all the nurses” and “showed pictures of her family, showed pictures of herself as a young girl, a girl”. In her 40s, she arrived at Espaço Pessoa, drank coffee, ate something, watched television, talked for a while, stayed for a few hours. "She would come at midnight and go to her corner."
They visited the space only after her death, in photographs, part of the material to report the events.
Salce was also supported by “Coração da Cidade”, the social department of “Migalha de Amor”. This association, founded by La Salete Correia dos Santos, offered dinner to about a thousand homeless people, and Salce was one of them.
Last months At the end of 2005, three teenagers, Fernando, Ivo and Flávio started to get together to spray paint "graffiti" in an abandoned building in Porto, the same one Salce was living in a tent inside. Fernando's mother was a sex worker and the child was often left with a babysitter. Their house was frequented "by people associated with the nightlife of Porto" and it was precisely there that Fernando's mother and her son began to have a connection with Salce. Although contact was lost for some time between them, it was Fernando who later, at the age of 14, identified Salce in the abandoned building where he, along with his friends, were painting murals.
The three boys talked to her and, from there, began to visit her regularly. During these visits, Salce "told them about the health problems she suffered from", verbalized her weakness, AIDS, a syndrome "the external physical signs of which the boys were well aware of". From there, the three boys began to bring Salce some food. In addition, they even “cooked meals for her on the spot”, as stated in the process.
Disclosure of Gisberta Salce's existence Fernando, Ivo and Flávio spoke of "a man who 'had breasts' and 'really looked like a woman'" to colleagues at Escola Augusto César Pires de Lima and Oficina de São José, an institution under the tutelage of the Catholic Church that hosted 11 of the 14 boys who would torture and kill Gisberta, that was eventually closed after several scandals related to sexual abuse and embezzlement, in addition to the suicide of a principal in the most critical phase of the trial. The three youngsters who first met Gisberta were then joined by eleven, who were eager to see Salce.
First aggressions That building became a meeting point to attack the Brazilian immigrant. Not every one of the boys attacked her, nor did they all do so on the same day. But, as of February 15, 2006, the 14 youths had divided into groups and were in the building to attack Gisberta Salce.
In one of the first episodes, the boys noticed that Salce was inside the tent and one of them ordered her to get up and shouted: "Didn't I tell you that I didn't want you here?" Salce left the tent, while replying that she had nowhere to go. Flávio wielded a stone that he had picked up and threw it in the direction of the transgender woman, hitting her in the frontal region and in anterior part of the left parietal region of her skull.
Salce fell to the ground, bleeding. When she managed to get up a few minutes later, one of the boys, named David, jumped on her, which caused her to fall again. There, all the elements of the group, with the exception of Vítor Santos, threw themselves on Salce and together attacked her by kicking her and hitting her with sticks. Salce started to scream from the pain and the group ran away in fear of being caught by the security guards in the parking lot that was close to the building.
The initial group of three boys, who had before cooked rice for Gisberta in that same building, met the next day, on February 16, to now attack her there. When they arrived at her tent, they realized that Salce's illness had worsened due to the attacks of the previous day, preventing her even from standing up. Salce was lying on a mattress, shivering, spoke in an almost inaudible tone and had dried blood on her head. The three minors asked Salce if she wanted help, and she replied that she "just wanted a cigarette and to be left alone".
The three left and went to their classes, but were soon replaced by six from the group. José António told José Alexandre to undress “Gi” but he refused because Salce “smelled bad and had AIDS”. So the former teamed up with Jorge Ismael and together they busied themselves by throwing stones at the woman and hitting her on the knees and legs with sticks. Salce shouted and the group once again fled for a few moments.
They then returned to Salce, ordered her to get up again, and when she again told them that she couldn't, they assaulted her once more with sticks and kicks, according to the case file. Lying on the floor and unable to defend herself due to her physical weakness and the number of aggressors, Salce just curled up and covered herself with the blanket, shouting "don't do this, hooligans!" Not satisfied after this physical assault, the youngsters also destroyed Gisberta's tent before leaving.
Last days
February 18, 2006 By 2:30pm, Gisberta Salce was outside her tent, lying on her side under a blanket, only her head uncovered. David, one of the six who had again agreed to go to the building to attack Salce, ordered Salce to get up. She replied that she couldn't do it “because she was in a very bad state”. He kicked her once more. "During the assaults, the victim cried convulsively, due to the pain she felt." Even so, “the boys continued to attack her in the same way”. David even grabbed a wooden beam about 1.5 meters long and 20 centimeters in diameter and dropped it on Gisberta's body, striking her at stomach level. This blow "caused great suffering", concluded the investigators of the case.
February 19, 2006 Part of the group was about to continue their routine of violence when they came across Salce lying on the floor, dressed in a nightgown and naked from the waist down, completely still. They called her name, but Salce was unable to speak and just let out a very low moan. She was then touched on the legs with a stick but didn't move.
February 21, 2006 A day passed and, on February 21, another part of the group returned. Salce was outside the tent, lying on some rocks, "with her legs curled up". On her legs were “scratches and eccymoses”. Salce was still naked from the waist down.
They thought Salce was dead due to the lack of an answer to their questions, the pale shade of her face and some "signs that she was not breathing, despite having placed the flame of a lighter next to her mouth". That day, they warned other members of the group that Salce had died.
The next day's meeting was now to "dispose of the body" - because they were scared they would be held responsible, and because "some of them thought that the victim was entitled to 'a funeral'". The possibility of burial was ruled out, as the boys lacked the tools to make a hole, and setting Gisberta on fire was also impossible as they feared that the smoke might attract the attention of someone, namely the car park security guards.
After some discussion, they chose to throw her into an existing well in the building, as it contained enough water to hide the victim. Then they agreed to collect all the sticks that had been used for the attacks and dispose of them in the same way.
Final day: February 22, 2006 It was 8:30 when Ivo put on a woollen glove on his right hand, gave the other to José Alexandre, and Fernando wrapped his hands in a plastic bag. They rolled Salce up in blankets and transported her to the well, about 100 meters away.
The water line was about 10 meters from the surface. The three pushed her inside and Salce was submerged in the water. It was this act that caused her death: Gisberta Salce Júnior, a trans woman, Brazilian immigrant, sex worker and homeless person, who lived with HIV, was still alive at this time, and died by drowning, a fact confirmed by her autopsy report.