In Buenos Aires, wearing "clothes of the opposite sex" in public was criminalized until 1998. Subsequently, travestis and trans women --especially sex workers-- were exposed to high levels of police violence, which in turn limited their ability to be in public spaces. In this presentation, we focus on travestis' and trans women's experiences of violence, but also their strategies for survival and resistance, in public spaces within the Buenos Aires metropolitan area during the '80s and '90s. Trans women and travestis deployed everyday strategies which included mutual solidarity, certain mobility practices, and negotiations with the police; and during the 1980s, they also began to organize politically against anti-crossdressing legislation. Our research is framed by several recent projects focused on trans* memories which have begun to highlight the social and political agency of trans* individuals before, and in the beginnings of, the first formal trans organizations in Argentina.