P1055194

transfinity testament

I have witnessed, in person and in virtual spaces, 

the actual plight and sufferings of my fellow migrant workers in particular. 

But when it comes to the brutality of it all, 

my testimonies might fall short. 

Living this life, it is as if I am staring at a canvas, 

with my portrait divided on both sides 

and I could not identify the vanishing point. 


But this is me. 

I am here. 


And all that I stand for and hold on to will remain my own truth. 

This is a challenge that needs my urgent response. 

I have learned that there will be no restraint and no hiding. 

I aim not only tell stories but also 

to empower, to build and design spaces for inclusivity, 

particularly on trans visibility and equal rights for all. 

Not only does this form of activism ends with art 

but in return, it seeks to inspire and to embrace life in the diaspora 

as my leaving is also a promise of my return. 

This dedication might not to measure the depth of the sea, 

nor the wondrous landscapes and the breadth of the horizons, 

but traces its tiny tunnels, even the filthiest estuaries 

where I could freely tread until I reach the ocean and its wide promise. 

The future may be uncertain 

but I am trans/finite and I remain. 

Virginia Woolf said, “As a woman, I have no country. 

As a woman, my country is the whole world.” 


And this is my trans/story of finding home.

the other lady gaga

STEFANI J ALVAREZ, is a transdisciplinary and migrant artist.  Her collaborative projects and literary works were featured in the US, UK, Middle East, Europe, and in the Southeast Asia.


An alumna artist-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. Her performative and installation art project, The Other Lady Gaga (TOLG) explores her artistic framework through aural essays, visual poetry, and mixed media. In these works, she documents her autobiographical diasporic dagli, embodying a transgender space of geobodies, borderlands, and identities across (her)story.

At the annual Philippine National Book Awards, her collection Ang Autobiografia ng Ibang Lady Gaga (The Autobiography of the Other Lady Gaga; Visprint, 2015) won Best Book of Nonfiction Prose in Filipino and her coming-of-age novel Kagay-an, At Isang Pag-Ibig sa Panahon ng All-Out War (Kagay-an, Love In The Time of All-Out War; Psicom Publishing, 2018) was finalist in the Best Book of Short Fiction in Filipino category. Dubbed as the Philippines’ Diyosa ng Dagli (Goddess of Dagli). 

From 2008 until 2022, a migrant worker based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She was born in Metro Cagayan de Oro in the southern Philippines.