Feminists Around the World: Amaranta Gomez Regalado

Today we're shining a light on the works of social anthropologist Amaranta Gomez Regalado.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Welcome to stuff I
never told your production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another activist around the world. And we
are still in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, so
we are continuing on with featuring Latina activists and advocates
and today we are talking about the works of Amarantha
Gomez Rogalado. So before we start, let's go ahead and
put this here. We are talking about mouchet, which I'm

(00:40):
going to give a little more definitions in a minute.
So they are technically thought of as a third gender
within the Zappotech, which is an indigenous group within the
Mexican communities. So didn't find and I probably would have
to do a little more deep dive as to specifically
whether or not trans is appropriate. I think for the

(01:02):
lack of terms within English and Spanish, they go with
transactivists for Ruggalado and a lot of mouchet identifying people.
Just note that is not the same thing, and I
think that's something that we need to make sure that
we talk about, especially when it comes to indigenous communities,
which have existed way before any of these terminologies wherever

(01:25):
created or heard of. So we want to put that
as a note here. So if you hear us talking
about trans, I don't know if that's just like an
interpretation from different types of documents or research papers. I
believe Ruggolato uses the term trans transsexual, trans community as well,
but if you look at the broader scope, you know

(01:47):
that's again debatable. I think, and we are a show
that continues to grow and continues to change with the
preferences and terminologies, that is a better identify. So you know,
maybe five years down the road and we come back
to this twenty twenty five episode will be like, I
can't believe you said that. This is what we're working

(02:08):
with today. Just to note that, as well as the
fact with them being mouche, I believe a majority of
references when we're talking about ragul Lotto they do say she.
I have not seen anywhere in which they identifies themselves
as she or they, But just to keep it safe
for myself, when I reference them, I'm going to say

(02:30):
they or them. And then if you hear me use
the term she, it is because it is written in
a quote. So with all of that big caveat, let's
jump into it. So Ragolatto is a social anthropologist who
actually graduated in twenty sixteen with their thesis on mouche.
So Muche is a term that was first noted to

(02:50):
be used in the sixteenth century, which is a ginger
neutral term within this Zeppotech culture, which is a part
of the Wahaca, Mexican area. The term is for a
person who was assigned as mel at birth but lives
in a more feminine gender role. So the culture is
so big that they even have almost like their own

(03:11):
identifying clothing. It's beautiful dresses and like it is very
Mexican culture, like we know, those kinds of brightly colored
dresses and a little bit of a petticoat as they
would call it underneath because the skirts a little flu fear.
But they do seem to identify in that, especially when
it comes to like celebrations with including mauches. There is

(03:32):
a pretty big population in the Zapotech culture that do
identify as moche. I'm I say big, I mean, like
they're noted. They are also known to be a third
gender within this culture. So it's not just binary that
and more, and of course we talk about the spectrum,
you know, it's so much more. But here there is
this as the third gender. It's also important to know

(03:54):
that before the Spanish colonization, they don't have records of much,
so the likelihood that the moush was known and existed
beforehand is high. Like we know there's always been trans people,
and that's kind of that same lane of like there's
probably always been mouche people, but they just don't note
it because colonization. Yeah. Also one more thing, there are

(04:18):
several different terms and words within the zeppotech culture that
are gender neutral, so that's something big. And the cultural
things like musche is a celebration of the culture in itself.
So I think we've talked about that when we talk
about two spirits within the American indigenous culture or the
North American cultures. Within the indigenous communities, they've always existed.

(04:42):
We've talked about that that's always been a thing, and
that in itself is a celebration of their own culture.
So that's kind of put it in context when we're
talking about the mouche culture. Sogolato first came out as
trans or muche at the age of thirteen, and they
have been a fierce advocate who has traveled all around

(05:02):
the world speaking out for the rights of their community.
In fact, they already made a name for themselves for
their work in gender identity and HIV care work in
two thousand and two, like they were already known for
this work. And what makes Rauguolotta's work so significant is
that they not only highlighted the cultural significance and impact
of their indigenous community, but they became the first mouchet

(05:25):
to get their professional degree and be legally recognized by
their university, the University of Averacruz. So here's a bit
from that university site. Had a whole interview with them,

(05:45):
and so they say this with future plans to return
to activism, a role she's been pursuing since she was eighteen.
Amranda commented that although she initially considered studying psychology, she
ultimately chose anthropology because she was always surrounded by many
like minded people. She was drawn to the circle by
the discussion topics, the way of reflecting, and the ability

(06:07):
to analyze thinking question. Therefore, in twenty eleven, she arrived
in the city of Halapa, ready to begin her professional
studies and put aside her work as a member of
various activism networks. Which also involved constant travel to countries
in Europe and Latin America. We mouches in Huakatan Wuhaka
are not well accepted. One of Amaranta's challenges when she

(06:27):
began her research two years ago was confronting the community
and culture where she comes from. In this epithech community
of the Isthmus of Tauantepec Juakatan Whaka mouches are people
born male with assume feminine roles in the societal, sexual
and personal spheres. This status places them in terms of transvestites,
transgender women, and transsexuals. So again, this is kind of

(06:50):
where we came from the beginning of this conversation of
a rasure and cultural identity. So would I have a
hard time going back with saying that they are trans
activists is not fully true because obviously the intersectionality of
this is that they are also disabled because they actually
lost their arm at a young age in a correct

(07:11):
But they are in this intersectional level of being an
indigenous mouche identifying as well as disabled individual who has
worked their lives and making sure that these identities are
seen and not ignored, and they talk about their challenges
in their work. This was something very specific to them

(07:31):
that they wanted to make sure that the world understood
who they were. Then it wasn't necessarily a pushback on
any other types of groups of identifiers. It's just that
they were something different that was culturally more significant for
them to not be labeled as one specific thing. So
Ragalatto was very adamant in this type of work, and

(07:53):
their work in activism has been an ongoing thing before
and after her studies. So in two thousand, Rigolotto ran
for a political office as the federal Deputy of Mexico
Postibligue Party, which brought a lot of attention because they
were then known as the first transgender candidate in Mexico.
And this was in two thousand and three, pretty significantly

(08:16):
twenty two years ago, and you know, times were not
good than either, just like no, So they have been
doing this work and that was kind of what they
were known for. And so with their work and their thesis,
they really were talking about something on a different level
specific to their indigenous background. And they have continued to

(08:38):
publicly speak for the trades and indigenous communities as well
as the Mouchet community. They've been leading the Transformadome project
and here's a bit from Archisfoundation dot Org about that.
They quote them saying, we've had to create a strategy
for community safety so we're not invisible, and so we
can seek support from public agencies, which is so important,
for example, for healthcare during the pandemic, says Amaranto Gomez

(09:01):
Argalado and Mushe activist and professor as well as a
leader of the Transformadome project and coordinator of the private
investigation team. Transformandome is laying the foundations within the Wahaka
state systems to begin the process of recognizing our rights
that has been strengthened with activism in the last few years.
The guiding thread to our resilience has been that we

(09:22):
have started to become visible. Gomez continues, visibility is a
kind of social armor that we MUCHE have built for ourselves. Yeah,
they have worked to transform this conversation on a larger scale,
and their visibility advocacy has even led to schools being
named after them. The Esquela Amaranta Gomez Vagulado, which is

(09:44):
a private school that is located in Santiago, Chile, and
the school is specifically for trans students from the ages
of six through seventeen. So they are doing a lot
of work. I've seen them being featured on so many
panels and conversations about visibility and writes an advocacy for
their community. So they are doing so much, and I

(10:05):
want to come back in conversation about the Indigenous community
and trans writes and what they did beforehand to have
such an impact in our community and how we should
follow their example.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, I think we should definitely come back and talk
about that in the meantime. Listeners, if you have any
resources on that or anybody we should look into, please
let us know. You can email us at Hello at
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(10:40):
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Speaker 2 (11:02):
YE