5~ Uu Re}{~t{'(NI/ Gender, Politics, and Power

in Modern Mexico

t~;;(('?!l ../

JOCELYN OLCOTT,

MARY KAY VAUGHAN,

AND GABRIELA CANO

/-;11"('((!{'Ii!;:;; CARLOS MONSIVAIS

Duke UnlVL'rllrl' PI'CIS Ollrh:lll1 c>1.011dOIl 200(,

(iJ;a'l!WIt:Ilf 1Ycfltri",ffX'II'e' Amelio Robles's (Transgenderl Masculinity

in the Mexican Revol uti an

GABRJI:.LA CANO

O ne Gin almost sec it: a smile of satisraccion spreading across Amelto Robles's face as he looks at rhe studio ponrait in which he poses like

;I d;lndy: Jark suit, wh.itc shin, tie. wide-brimmed blKk hal, leather .,110<:s. ;1I1d d white handknchief peeking 0\11 of the breast pockeL ' Stand­ing with d cigarette in one hand ;rnd the other plat.:eJ pmminerltly over hiS

revolver as if to Jraw atlention to the weapon holStered in his bell. rhe formal clements of the phocogrJph-cornposition, even lighting, ,lm­hlencc and, ahove alL tht' contained .lIJd Serene pose of the S\lbjtXl ,){ the Cc·lltel 01: the scenery-largely conform to sludio portralt conventions ill winch those who wcrc phOtographed wore tlw r finest ou!!:;ts and posed With decorum. Thc photo was taken arOLlJld 191) in one o( many

phorographic studios tlUt Aourished in CIties ami towns :Jcross the nation Juring the first decades of d1C cwclltieth century, when teLhnological sinlpJif1c3.tion <lnd falhng COStS rmde it possible to satisfY the growing demand for porlr;lir~.2

SUlci 1.0 porrraj tS sOl1gh t [(J CSt abl ish the soci al jdent ity of Iml ivid Ll3. Is hCln~ phowgraphcd by following thc prevailing code of· etiquette. Pusi 11g

with a lit cigarette suggested a cosmopolitan atlitude. while the promI­nently t'xhibitcJ piSIOI. modern substitute for tht' saber and the Wt',lpOll

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~,

J. I'''rorall ol'/\I11c1,u Rohk"

ci rCJ r9l S. COUft<:°sy (If" Inscll urn

Nacioll,,1 lk ,0\ nrropologJO C I j'~"M'I!'I '"It·U. 1I,.olt, '.'k'ltfr

H'$cor;,•.Arelll VO ('"",I\0),1. ,.·V,h'1.cO.l.lllrt. tho' sar. Que lie I,..~""1(, f°f-' .rll1aA Pit ('1').1f, .. ~II.'.'.ut'l('n", dC"..,olNot1a.no U_f'"T1a ,01944· "'.".-.. ,

of choice for dueling at the turn of the century, symbolized rhe subjcct's viriJjty. The masculiniry o( thc pose. gesrure, and mode of dre~s ar~ per­fecdy credible. No One would guess lhat the Jandy in rhe porrrair had onCe been a young lady.

The radical and permanent rransgendering of a young rural WOman

from rhe srare of Guerrero Occurred during rhe Mexic:ul Revolution. A.melio Robles-previously. Amelia Robles-joined an uprising rakjng place across sourhern Mexico under the agrarian banner of Emiliano /:apata and forged a masculine identity wirhin the rough environs of\\':1.r. His link ro rhe Zapatista mOvement was not ideologic:11. but ell1tTged I nsread from a passion for the in rensity of war, so (uJI ofdallgt:rS and srrong (;rnolion~. Once the armed struggle had ended, Amelio Robles comillued

to live as a Illan, maintaining rhis masculinity for the resr of his life. in public Jlld ill private acriviry even rhrough old age and infirmity

The pisrol and cigarctte in the image were nor props from th(' pho­rographic Studio. bur Robles's pt'rS'onaJ belongings. His masculine ap­pearance expressed his seme of being :l, man: it was nor a momentary pose

for the camera :15 was. for (,;xample. the on(' adopred by Frida Kahlo, who dressed in a man's suit for rhe familv portrairs l:1ken by her rarher In 192.6. J

CAl)flleLA CA~10

Kahlo', \Va, :1 playful, sOn1~'What lrrevnCl1t geS{llre, perhaps Followmg

international fJshioll aUI garron. K,lhlo did nOT :Htempt to be taken for J

111311, but Robles did anJ achieved (har g0:11 mosr effectively. i\lldin Rohles's mascuJini7.;nioll should aho be distingui.,bed from

srr:1tl'sic transv('stiti~Jl1-lhe .1Joption of male dress in order 10 pass as a

ll1:1n-tO which some warnell resorted during warcime to proteCt [hem­

selves from the sexual violtnCt' Th:H inrensilies during armed conflicrs, to

gain access ro milirary commands prohibired to women, or simply to fighl :s soldiers and not .1., so/daderas, that is, without the SOCill gender restric­

tion" rh'lf llslIally burden womtn in combat. During the nineteenth­ceJllury' 11ariol1alisr war, and afrt:rw:lfd in tht: Mexican Revolution, sol­cbdn",s were in charge of supplying the troops and caring tor the sick and wounded. At ti Illes, they aued :15 Illessengers Jnd partici pared in rhe ,muggl,ng of weapons and goods, bur only in exceprional cases did they

take Ufl arms. :\Irhough it is nor possible to derermine the frequency of tr,lnsveSlirism

111 the :v1'exican Revolution. there <Ire various reporrs ofwomen, like iV-brio.

de la l.liZ Barrera or Angel!Angela Jimenez, who adopred male idenrities during rhe war but Iarer returned to wearing women's clothing and per­

forming female roks in society 3S morhers and wives:l Not Amelio

Robles, His radical change in gender and sexual Identity was nOl simply due ro J pragmatic J~sire to enjoy the social advantage, ofmen, bur rather the product of a deeper, more vital desire ru l'adically transform rhe female idl:llfity 'Issigned co him ar birrh In order ro make himself masculine in l;vety ;lspect of! iFe.

Amelio Robles made the rransition from an imposed feminine identity to ,1 Jesi red masculinity: he felt like a man, acred like a man, and con­strucred a male appearance. Little is known about his sexuality, but re­porrs suggesr rhar he sustain('d romantic relarionships wirh feminine women and rhat he once courred J schoolmate as her beau; these were eroric relarionships inscribed wirhin :I heterosexual logic in v.'hich Amelio

Robles performed. rhe masculine role. 5 Amelio Robles coule! be described .1S :I bUlch lesbian or a tomboy, bur current terminology regarding gender .lIld sexual identity would mort' appropriarely locate him as a tfansgen­dered male, a subject who adopt; clle physical appearance, the behavior. and me gen<!(,;[ role culturally assigned to the opposir(,; sex. Lesbian sexual idemity. on rhe other hand. is defined as an erotic inclinaTion roward

Peollic of rhe same sex. which does not necessarily imply a desire co rransgender: change gender idelHity, physical appearance, or sexu:u (0

:lllatomy. The rerm lesbianism is not synonymous with m:1Sculinir,,;ltlon. of course, but neither does it exclude masculine idenrillcarion. Neverrhe­

U""or<,mfab/e ReI/litter o[OC5Ir,'

.,

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Ie:;,. identJ~'ing cJ(cgone.< ,1rc Aexible categories r:uher (kill hermetICally seait'd space<. During her tr~nsition stage. Amelia Robles C(luld VtTy wcll be charJcreri7.cd :lS .1 hu rch lesbian who larer beu.mc .\ tr;lllsgenclereJ male

person. Transg(.'Il(JereJ idcnrities vary in degree Jlld enJurJ nee..lnd Ameljo

Robles stood ar one elld or the specnum. where rhe individual reds a deep dissJ.tJsfacrion with her gender and sexuJ.1 anatomy and W3.nts co change her appearance ,llld body. Today, certain sexual chancteflstics un be:: (ransi-ormed rhrollgh surgicJl procedu res and h"l"nlOllc' therap)'. Such medicJ.! rrcmnent h:ts heen :lvaJlabk in institllljolls in the United Scates and Europe since the mid-twentieth century. when the term transsexual

was coined [Q reFer [(1 people who received trearments th'lf [r:1nsrorrned thei r sexual anaromy. TI'fIIISS('XlICt!, however. is inaclequale to describe

Robles given rh3.t his case involved neither :iurgery nor hormone clnng<:'.\. However. his Jissari.\fac(ioJ1 with his identity, physical appearance. and feminine anammy W'lS perhaps as strong JS thar experienced by rhose incli ned to subject ,hemsdve,\ to medicaJ iJltervenrion so that their bodies

mighr resemble to some degree their subjecrive configurations.(' In the early twentieth century, without surgical iruavelllion or hor­

mones, Amelio Robles constructed a masculine body image and social identity wi(h the c\l]rur31 resources available ro him jn an isolated fULll

areJ of Mexico. Hc dexterolJSly manipulated those CUIWL\1 resourc~s: posC' or genJer pnform:lJlce: a visual body culture inaugurated by stud io pho­tography; and a modern press rhat, 3vid for sells:niol1alist news items, took

an inreresr in the srot')' ohhe Zap:Hista revollJrion'lry JnJ Icgitin1l7;cd him, Amelio Robles.1 masculinization wa" <:stabJished mainly through a gender performance,' The poses, gestLIres. and ;]ttirudes involvcd in this daily performance wert' (om plememl'd hy a carefully sele;:eted wardrobe j'eatur­ing (he pants, ,Ihins, jackets. and luts common in rlltal environmC'ncl, He

cho:;t' shins with large chest pockets rhat concealed his small breasrs. S(lIdio ph orography was cenrraJ to tht' establishmenr Jnd accept~llce of this masculine appearance. Photographic portraits transi-ormed visual body culture and made: it possible for common p,;ople to fix their desireJ physical images in lasting prints, something thar ulltilthen had bcen done only through [he portraitS afforded ro a few. Manuf:lcrured with [he

camera as intermediary, the clemed body and social identiry could be forever preserved in a photographic portrait and ,hown as often as one liked. Each rime rhe portrait wa.s viewed by oncself or someone else, tbe body image and the identiry created by the photograph was conflrmed."

This legitimizing efFect wa$ acccnru3tccl 111 the event. however unlikely. th:lt:l studio portrair was reproduced in the pre",. as with the phorograph

GABRIELA CANO

1tlf j'l

/

1. Amell" Rohk, (ril;htl wIlh Cu,J"lupe Ihm<l" In 1[:",11". Gllc:rrcro, 1976

[lho(o by ,\~arcdn Con7.;'lJ,"j' P.11 L~IO:':

[h,n illusnatcd a news item on Robles published ir1 f/ Univl'rsdl. dle Mexicu Ciry newspaper with rhe highest national circulation in tllC l;)20S.') Although it would reve;ll th(' secret of his sex.ual idellrity-an ill­

kept secree, widely known in the local cOIlllnuniry-d,e newspaper mulri­

plied by the tho\lsands the visual credellri:lls his inJJge conveyed: an elegant iTIJrl who. ,dbei[ not particularly distinguished, dlsr1ayed an unin­

hilllteJ demcanQr and boundless self-con GdeilCt. The photo's publication ,llllounteJ (0 a rr0clamarion of Robles's virility in the (Own plna, ct virililY

exempiifit,J in hi., E\ce, pose, and wardrobe, Jnd accentuated by tbe ex­

hihition ufa nrearm. Amelio Robles's maseuli nity was "a cultural declaLlIion of the body and

a political an" rh:lI troubled the social assigllJtion of gender and hetero­~exual norms, \() His rransgenderLng queslioned the naturalncss attribllled to [he reminine :llld the m:1.sculinc, :lt1d subvencd the ingtJi ned notion of gender identity as an im mediate :lnd II IL.lVoidable cOl1seq uence of anat­omy that neatly clenned men and wOlllen illto soci,ll groups with inltllutc\­

hie qualities, Transgelldering processes inrerrogatc (and sornelimcs reify) [he hxed categories of man and woman, Such catcgories arc often consid­

ered tl'ansp,:m:n( ',lnd unchanging realities. which dOC~ll't takc into :1L­

{)nrOllwd.rtb!e RClllllie.' Of[)fSi~c

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~'()1I1l( their phsricit'y, ,\ pla.'ricity thar hecomes evidem ill lisht of gender tr,ln~itiolls such as AnlClio Roble,\. one of the few ptOC~\Ses of IlS kind to haw been documcnted in the history of' L,Hin America. I I

Hi,coriograrhy dedic~l[ed to the armed stage of the Mexican Revolu­tion has focused mainly on the ideological, political, and military a.sptcts of the Struggle; daily life in the trenches, the details of day-to-d~lY exis­tence ofarmies, has been studied very little, Amelio Robles's maslldiniza­cion did not take place overnight. but rarher was a gradual prOcess that began during the forced displacement and social disorder of wanime. In combat, manners and reserves were abandoned, creating cert<lin spaces of to!er;lnce that allowed Robles [0 begin to reconstruct himself as a man and l'njoy relative acceptance among comrades-in-arms, who admired his coutage and capacity as a guerrrJlero. On the batrlelield, {he: constant du<.:at ofdeath amid rhe destrucrion ofw:n d.lso forrined a gender ideology embedded in narionalist narrative, identifying masculinity with traits of courage and personal daring as well as patriotic auituJ~s and nationalist, revolutionary ideologies. As time passed, the stereotype of the courageous revolu (ionaty became an iconic image in both popular culture and the nationalist discourse of the post-revolutionary state. l2

Colonel Robles embodied the ideal of the macho revolutionary soldier: courageous and daring, capable of responding to aggression immediately and violently, and skilled in haJ\dling arms and horses. Hi,\ romantic relationships with women conformed w convclltional models and re­produced the gender polarity o( feminine anJ masculine roles, In a Polar­oid sn:tpshot, Amelio Robles, dressed in worn clOthing and wirh a red kerchief around his neck. appears beside Guadalup<:: Barron, one or'the women with whom he maintained a relationship and whose feminine presence accentuates Roblds viri/iry, as does his own posture, which is as selF-assured as it was in more youthful portraits. Both Amelio and Gua­Jalupe <::Xhibi( the rigid hody language lypical of photographic studio conventions, in stark Conttast co the spontaneous gestures that portable cameras, increasingly accessible during the second half of the twentieth cemury, Jttempted to capture. The couple dominates the image, bately p<::rrnitting a glimpse of the hat worn by a third person-probably Soreni­ann Delgado Vazque'L, also a Zaparista colonel-who peeks out from behind Amelio and Guadalupe.

Interest in Amelio Robles's story goes beyond itS particulars: his figure can be seen ,IS a site of debate, a dispute Jround the definition and meaning orgender, of masculinity and femininity, framed in rhe discourse of post-revolUtionary Mexican nationalism. There exi~tt:d three different and, at times, concrasring perceptions of Amelio Robles: (J) that of his

GABRJlLA ("ANn

army cuml'ades, who admired his precise emubtJoll of ;.l masculinity uncll'l'."[()od a~ ,1 JISp(J1y of strength and VIOlence; (2) the sens;HionJlist gn<.: rh.'ll, hnJing solace in the exhIbition of his eccentricity, also legit­imi/cd hi, transgrt'ssion: and (3) the normalizing and homophobic IJcr­spec rive that <::rased transgendering by :J.pplying csseJltlalisr ~ender c;lrego­ries, '1';) understand perceptions or Amelio Robles, one must begin with rhe SOCIal identilY and elK masCtlline body image that Amelio Robles constructed for himself through pose, gesture, and wudrobe, as well as his skillfld lundling of studio photogtaphy and media 3nent;on,

Amt'!ro Robles's masclllin<: body Image was supported by identifying I '

documents that accredited his membership in various social and political ocg,lniL<ltions, including credentj;lls thal recognized him as :In affiliate of ,he Socialist Party of Gunreto (Partido Socialista dl' Guerrero, 1931), 3.

dekg:ttt: nf' the Central League of Agrarian Communities in Xochip;Jla, l,unrao (Liga Centr:J.1 de Comunidades Agrarias, 1945), an affiliate of the Nationdl Confederarjon of Veterans of the Revolution (Confederdcion Nacional de Veteranos de la Revolucion. 1948), and as J member of tbe Ranchas' Association of Zumpango del Rio (Asoc;:lci6n c'lnadera de Zump,lI1go del Rio, 1956 and 1958). The credelHi31s' identifying phow­graphs confirm Robles's masculinity, whose name al1d sigll~ltllte Jlways figure as male.''>

Pnhaps the greatest evidence of the eftectiveness of his masculine ap­pearance is the medical cerriflc:lte required for admission to the Con­federation of Veterans of the Revolution. lssued in /948 by Doetor Pedro Gondlez Pena at his Mexico City dinic, the certificate attested (0 Robles's good health. age, and the scars 6'om six bullet wounds on different parts of' his body. including one in the thigh and another in the armpit--all WilhoUl alluding to his sexual anatomy.llt The medical investigation re­quired by the Conft:detation of Veterans of thr.: Revolution was not J

thorough examination but rather a prerequisite intended to certify any war wounds. considered irrefurable proof of valor on rhe field of battle. :"en so. there was no reason for [he e1octor to doubt Robles's masculinity; his reserved attitude, gestllre, wardrobe and body l\1ovcments- "the gait of an old soldier"-werl' those of a neJ1rly sixry-year-old man from the countryside who must havc modestly revealed certain body poUts [0 show the doctor dl(, bu!lt:( wounds he carried so proudly. On Mher uCGlsions, Robles did not hesitate to show a scar on hi, leg to lend realism as he narrated his wartime exploits.'~

The Mi nisrry of National Defense (Secretaria de DeFensa NacionaI, ot SDN) legitimated Amelio Robles's masculine identity by decorating him in 1974 a.~ a Wlerr/rlo of the revolut.ion. not as a vClerana, :11l honor bestowed

Unconcrnlablt: Rcalities ofD<'sirc

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