Amaranta Gómez Regalado
| Amaranta Gómez Regalado | |
|---|---|
 WorldPride 2017 - Madrid Summit - 170626 183317.jpg Regaldo at the 2017 WorldPride | |
| Born | |
| 💼 Occupation | |
Amaranta Gómez Regalado (born in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca in 1977)[1] is a Mexican Muxe. Gómez Regalado is a HIV/AIDS and Gender activist, a columnist and promoter of Indigenous cultural identity, as well as a member of the State Committee Against Homophobia.[2]
Early life[edit]
Amaranta Gómez Regalado was interviewed on the television show "Historias Debidas: Latinoaméria," (Owed Histories: Latinoamérica) which is directed by news journalist Ana Caporcado.[3] The show consists of interviews conducted by director Ana Caporcado with both well-known and less known Latin American people; all of them having stories to do with "solidarity, cultural resistance, social commitment, and/or diversity."[3] Throughout the interview Gómez Regalado goes into detail about her early life.[1]
Gómez Regalado expresses that she came from a mostly loving home, particularly in comparison to other Muxe friends, including talk about an aunt Dahlia, whom upon hearing about her Muxe identity, excitedly brought her clothing from her daughters.[1] One of the struggles that Gómez Regalado faced with family acceptance was that of her mother's, who was the person that needed the most convincing when it came to Gómez Regalado's identity.[1] Later in life, Gómez Regalado would both be told and come to realize that this was because her mother feared the vulnerable position that Gómez Regalado's identity would put her in, and wanted to protect her.[1]
Gómez Regalado expresses that her relationship with her father was a good and loving one, while her relationship with her mother was more strained, but she gives them both a great importance to her life and what she has learned; she says "Of the most sensible people I’ve met I would say was my father, and of the strongest and toughest women was my mother… he always protected me and loved me and took care to make sure that nothing would happen to me. In the case of my mother she was a strong, hard, not authoritarian, she could negotiate things."[1]
Gómez Regalado recalls an interaction with her father that further shows the positive role he took in her life: her father sat her down and she quotes that he said "I only ask of you one thing, I accept everything that you are. The only thing I will not allow is that I don't want people to come to tell me that you've been found thrown on the ground, under a table of a cantina. That I won't accept. Everything else, do it, you have all the freedom." Gómez Regalado defines this moment as a turning point of "no looking back."[1]
Gómez Regalado, (given the name Jorge at birth), encountered the name "Amaranta" in her teens from the character of the same name in a copy of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel 100 Years of Solitude that her father had given to her after she had expressed that she would live her life as a Muxe.[4]
Education[edit]
During the interview with Caporcado, Gómez Regalado explains that she assumed herself as wanting to live as a Muxe at the age of 12, after finishing elementary school. Gómez Regalado wanted to go on to study secondary school, but due to her Muxe identity, she struggled with rejection.[1]
In 2011 Amaranta Gómez Regalado enrolled at the University of Veracruz for a Bachelors in Anthropology in hopes to understand her Muxe Zapotec culture and behavior better.[5] focus of Gómez Regalado's thesis was on Muxe Zapotec culture: she expresses "In Juchitán we have been told that we are a Muxe paradise, however we are more than that. In my case, since I was little I was loved greatly by my father, but that is not the case for a lot of us. Others lived through physical abuse and emotional as well. This thesis tells and narrates all this that happens in the scope of love from family, to friends, to partners. Muxe’s talk very little of this and I have decided to share it."[5]
Along with her Bachelors in Anthropology Gómez Regalado also studied Language and Theater at the University of Veracruz, and graduated in early 2016.[5]
Muxhe/Muxe[edit]
The Muxhe identity is part of the Zapotec Indigenous culture in Oaxaca, México, most prominent in the city of Juchítan.[6] A Muxe is an assigned male at birth who dresses and lives in ways to be associated with the female gender. Muxe’s (also can be spelled as Muxhe) are often referred to as a "third gender"; Juchítan appears to have the three elements then of women, men, and muxe.[7] While Juchítan is a more accepting place that celebrates their Muxe’s and is even referred to as a "queer paradise" by some, it still has it's prejudices towards the LGBTQIA community; for example, lesbians, trans-men, and none feminine homosexual men are not celebrated, accepted, or recognized anywhere near the way Muxe’s are.[7]
While Muxe’s are celebrated and accepted for the most part in Juchítan, them having a partner is not something that is accepted.[6] A Muxe’s duty is portrayed as the person who is in charge of the house work, taking care of the family, particularly their parents.[4] Once their parents have passed away the Muxe is supposed to continue her life of chores and being romantically alone.[6] Muxe’s being themselves is accepted, but a Muxe in love will often suffer many more prejudices from the community and the people who surround them.[4]
Most Muxe’s like Gómez Regalado dress in traditional Mexican women's clothing with examples such as loose fitting Huipils and Rebozos, and their hair is in an up do with trenzas (braids) and with flowers in their hair or a flower crown on top of their head.[8] Muxe’s who leave Oaxaca and go to places like Mexico City are often more likely to wear Westernized clothing.[6] There is a concern for the Muxe’s who move to the city or away from Juchítan to places that live a more Westernized style of living particularly due to the unsafe surgeries and transformations to fit into the socialized western version the media puts as to what women should look like.[6] Gómez Regalado has commented on this by explaining that after her fellow Muxe’s go to Mexico City "It's clear that Western aesthetics have won them over. There is one guy, for example, who works injecting oils in the sides of the legs to increase their volume. And we don't know what kind of chemicals they are using. Some of us have seen that these parts of the body become stiff, and become a problem to the body's joints, which they obstruct… You put it in, it's obstructing your joints, it blocks your veins and there was no way of saving you."[6]
Another concern for Muxe’s who leave Juchítan and particularly end up in Mexico City is the concern of them going into sex work, bringing up again the facts that while Juchítan may have it's sense of community and acceptance it has it's problematic side, as well as the less accepting rest of the country.[8] For people who are either Muxe, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, etc it can be very hard to get a job as there is still a lot of discrimination and violence towards them, so a job that they may fall onto when moving to the city is that of sex work.[8] In the Vice documentary "Mexico's Third Gender" a Muxe named Kenia, who was crowned Queen Muxe at the "Vela de las Auténticas Intrépidas Buscadoras de Peligro" (Party of the Authentic Intrepid Searchers of Danger) in 2011, speaks of about working as an escort once she moved to Mexico City saying "The possibilities you have when thinking about a job, being a transsexual, the first option you have is sex work. Not because it is, as many say, an easy way out, or easy money. It is faster money."[6]
Muxe’s are not always feminine, what is meant by this is that some Muxe’s do live out their whole life as a female and dress in "women" attire, but there are some who are more fluid with their gender and identity, sometimes dressing as their Muxe self and other time going back to their more masculine looks.[8]
Gómez Regalado has expressed that she wants to avoid putting Muxe’s under the same identity because, while similar to people who are transgender, Muxe’s have characteristics which are their own. She has said that while transgender people and Muxe’s work together, along with other people who fall under the LGBTQIA umbrella, they all have their own unique characteristics.[9]
Social and Political Activism[edit]
Amaranta Gómez Regalado was a candidate as a federal deputy for the short lived "México Posible" (Mexico Possible) party in 2003 and was the first "trans candidate of Mexico"[2]
Gómez Regalado is an active HIV/AIDS activist as well as for support and rights of the LGBTQIA community.[10]
She is an active participant of the big annual party called "Vela de las Auténticas Intrépidas Buscadoras de Peligro" (Party of the Authentic Intrepid Searchers of Danger) which takes place in Juchitán during the month of November. Muxe’s generally work work as costume and dress designers, especially for these great events.[8]
Accident[edit]
On October 31st of 2002 Amaranta Gómez Regalado was in a car accident which resulted in the amputation of her left arm.[2] Gómez Regalado had to go through physiotherapy to bring the remainder of her arm down and regain movement in it.[1] Though thankful for the chance, she declined the option of having a prosthetic arm that she was given because she did not wish to have one. Her huipil sleeves go perfectly onto her amputated arm, since she does not wear long sleeves.[1]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Amaranta Gómez Regalado – Programas – Canal Encuentro". www.encuentro.gov.ar.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Página/12 :: las12". www.pagina12.com.ar.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Historias debidas. Latinoamérica – Programas – Canal Encuentro". www.encuentro.gov.ar.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "::: Artemisa Noticias – Periodismo de género para mujeres y varones:::". www.artemisanoticias.com.ar.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Manzo/Corresponsal, Diana. "Se graduó en la Universidad Veracruzana la primera Muxhe Gunaa zapoteca". Pagina3 – Noticias desde Oaxaca con perspectiva de género y responsabilidad social (in español).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 "Mexico's Third Gender". 18 July 2013.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Project MUSE – RepresentaXión" de un muxe: la identidad performática de Lukas Avendaño". muse.jhu.edu.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "SURCOS en américa latina". 20 May 2012.
- ↑ "1/2 Muxhe´s: Identidad, género, sexualidad y cultura". 7 April 2015.
- ↑ "Amaranta Gómez Regalado – World Outgames 2009". 21 July 2009.
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