#lukasavendano — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

The third gender of southern #Mexico

In #Oaxaca’s #IstmoDeTehuantepec region, the traditional #Indigenous division of three genders is seen as a natural way of being.

by Ola Synowiec
26 November 2018

" 'Which form should I use when I talk to you: feminine or masculine?' I asked #LukasAvendaño, who I had seen in trousers earlier in the day but now was wearing a traditional black skirt with colourful embroidered flowers called an enagua. We were speaking in Spanish, with its gendered nouns and pronouns. 'I prefer you’d just call me sweetheart,' Avendaño giggled.

"Here, in the Istmo de Tehuantepec region in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca, there are three genders: #female, #male and #muxes. This third classification has been acknowledged and celebrated since #PreHispanic times, and it’s hard to imagine life without muxes here. But in this region where most people speak the indigenous #Zapotec language, my question doesn’t make much sense.
'In Zapotec, as in English, there are no grammatical genders. There is only one form for all people. Muxes have never been forced to wonder: are they more man or woman?' Avendaño explained.
'We’re the third sex,' added Felina, who, unlike Avendaño, decided to change his given male name, Ángel, and goes only by this moniker. 'There’s men and women and there’s something in between, and that’s who I am.' "

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Zkwm0

#CulturalTraditions #ThreeGenders #Gender #GBLTQ #Genders