The Mujerados Club

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by Elvira (FE-G-1)

This club thrived in Buenos Aires until a few years ago, when a change in the political regime of the country brought about its closure, together with those of a num- ber of other unusual clubs in a misplaced idea of effecting a general clean-up .' Whether it has gone out of existence, or merely been driven underground, I do not know, but, knowing how impossible it is to com- pel those with TV tendencies to give up their preferred mode of living, I rather fancy it must be the latter. Should any of your readers living in Argentina, or who have visited the country in recent years, have any current news on this point, I hope they will write in with the latest information.

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The word mujerado" is Spanish for effeminised male", which may indicate the origin of the Club, though, during the years I knew of the Mujerados, it was a high-class rendezvous for male and female impersonators, both pro- fessional and amateur. Further and this facet of the Latin-American's outlook took a lot of getting used to- there was equal acceptance of the straight trans- vestist and of those, shall I say, "with more special ised tastes." Indeed, during my years in South America, I found several of the things which I had always thought to be beyond the pale and considered as unacceptable perversions, to be openly condoned, so that now I am able to accept another's mode of life without frowning upon it, even though it is generally condemned by the present- day Western civilisation. But I am digressing.

The Mujerados occupied three of the upper floors of a palatial block situated on the exclusive Avenida Alvear. It was an establishment that was kept strictly private, being open only to its members and to any friends who might be accompanying them. The high joining fee was quite beyond my pocket, so that I visited the Club only when with one or other of its members with whom I had become acquainted. The membership consisted of well-to-do ladies who had a predilection for dressing as men, affluent males who loved to transform themselves

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