Estamos Aqui (We Are Here): Mobilizing Creative-Relational Inquiry for an Arts-Based Project With Venezuelan Gay and Bisexual Migrant Sex Workers in Medellin, Colombia

Deficit-based public narratives about migrants can be profoundly violent, (re)producing intersectional stigma and exacerbating harm for gay and bisexual migrant sex workers. Migration in Latin America has doubled since 1990, with millions of Venezuelan migrants resettling in neighboring countries like Colombia, where rising xenophobia is fueled by negative portrayals in media, research, and public discourse. Guided by the theoretical movement of Latin American Social Medicine and Collective Health (LASM-CH) and Creative-Relational Inquiry (CRI) methodology, the research project Estamos Aquí (We Are Here) collaborated with gay and bisexual Venezuelan migrant sex workers in Medellín, Colombia, to co-create visual narratives that center their capabilities, agency, and vibrancy. Co-developed with the HIV organization Más Que Tres Letras (MQ3L), the project included six arts-based workshops led by a Colombian gay artist, with input from MQ3L leaders and participants. Each workshop focused on a theme (e.g., migration, sex work) and a corresponding artistic medium (e.g., fanzines, upcycled clothing, sublimation printing). Between November 2024 and January 2025, we conducted six four-hour workshops in which participants could take part more than once. In total, thirteen unique individuals participated, with an average of six participants per workshop. This paper centers on the methods of data co-creation rather than analysis, resulting in four components: (1) grounding horizontal learning and establishing workshop commitments; (2) disrupting linear growth through iterative co-learning and unlearning; (3) leveraging creativity to foster mutual presence; and (4) creating opportunities to support solidarity within and beyond the research. These themes reflect the transformative, iterative possibilities of arts-based CRI, which centers embodied, relational, and collective knowledge. By treating collective struggle and socio-political context as data, the project advances critical arts-based methodologies, rooted in relational ethics and political commitment, centering made vulnerable communities to generate more nuanced, justice-driven inquiry in research.