Cain, Where Is Your Sister Alexa?

Note: This story has been translated to English. It was originally published in Spanish under the title Caín; ¿dónde está tu hermana Alexa?

Editor’s note on context: On February 24, 2020, Alexa, a Trans woman, was brutally murdered in Puerto Rico. Her case has been of special interest for these reasons: (1) it was a hate crime and (2) the brutal nature of the murder. It all began on February 23, when a post on social media went viral, accusing Alexa of entering a public bathroom and harassing a woman and a child. This information was denied days later by the person who first published the accusation. A photo of Alexa was widely disseminated on social media along with accusations that she was a sexual deviant and a pedophile. These accusations monopolized public opinion in a matter of hours. Less than 24 hours after publication, her body was found. Murdered. This tragedy generated many reactions on the island. Conservative groups argued that it was not a hate crime because “all crimes are hate crimes.” Others expressed that, being a Trans woman, she deserved this punishment, because Trans people are sexual deviants. Others have drawn attention to the massive demand that has existed for the past year to declare a state of emergency for the femicides that have arisen on the island. The discussion about the murder of Alexa encompassed the disciplines of ethics, sociology, psychology, gender studies and—of course—theology and religion. Dr. Agustina Luvis Núñez, Professor of Theology, History and Ethics at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, reacted to the murder of Alexa from a religious point of view. Below, we attach her powerful column published in El Nuevo Dia (a major newspaper on the island) on 26 February 2020. —Rubén David

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We know that the story of Cain and Abel is a well-known story where important dimensions of our existence and our responsibility are interpreted.

We ask ourselves how it is possible that the reason why a brother kills another is that his offering did not please God, and revenge leads his anger against his own blood. There is no doubt that God is not arbitrary and unfair, and this makes the text difficult to interpret.

For the first time, anger towards God turns into a fratricidal act and therefore into violence and injustice. Looking at the story in more depth, we discover that the true cause of the violence to his brother is in the radical rejection of everything that is not his ego, his power.

The murderer’s answer still leaves us in greater perplexity: “Is it my obligation to take care of my brother?” His violence is fueled by his intolerance of difference, by his cold indifference to the existence of another being, by the lack of recognition of his total humanity, by the lack of love, by the denial of his responsibility and by the inability to see the dignity that the image of God has given to every human being.

Alexa’s murder, like Abel’s, has the same connotations of the first crime in history. Hearing the cry of pain and indignation it causes, we must come together, believers or not, in denouncing the suffering that human beings live with, solely because of the lack of recognition of their total humanity. The silence before this crime pairs us with Cain in the denial of our responsibility, and in the indifference to the existence of the other human being.

Any religious or theological discourse that does not clearly condemn this fact cannot answer, the simple question of the final day, which is the same as that of the origin of the story: Where is your brother, where is your sister? What you did for your brothers and sisters, you did it for me. And what you didn’t do for your brothers and sisters, you didn’t do for me either.

To not speak out and to not carry out concrete actions against this act of hostility is to justify and promote, from the subtle ones to the most heinous.

As we journey through Lent, a period that the Christian church recognizes from its beginnings as one of deep reflection, let us remember that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a clear message that God is in favor of the crucified of history, and against those who crucify. It was also on Calvary that Alexa lived and died.

Let us use this message and our actions to accompany and help the Alexas of existence to recover life, to feel joy, to heal from the damage we have caused, and to find a possibility of hope of resurrection.