The Hidden Face of the Moon: Unveiling the Minutiae of a Black Woman’s Experience on the Streets

Abstract

The homeless population is mostly male. When it comes to the female presence, especially when considering the markers of race, gender and class, the invisibility and delegitimization are even more insidious. The aim of this article is to identify the singularities of a black woman living on the streets and to understand them based on the relationships she establishes with the territory. The method used was the case study of a homeless black woman, constructed through body map storytelling. Thematic analysis of the empirical content was used in the light of decolonial criticism. Luna, the protagonist of the story, reveals in her narratives, the multiple dimensions of the presence of the female body on the street, the process of taking care of oneself and the other, considering the intrinsic relationships with the territory, with the use of drugs and with the male figure. Thus, unveiling society’s views in relation to the place of invisibility of these women and creating strategies to face the colonial, racist and patriarchal logic of valuing knowledge is what Luna makes explicit with her trajectory of struggle, survival, and resilience on the streets.