On disappearance

Any man who puts on make-up like Lukas Avendaño, who wears women’s clothes in Mexico can only be a faggot who should go underground and take refuge in the subcultures of Mexico City. But Lukas Avendaño went the other way – out to the countryside, to Tehuantepec in the south of the country, to a province that is poor, where no one would say the word “transgender.” Not because they don’t know what it is, but because a man who has feminine ambitions is good for what is called women’s work: caring, cooking, teaching, and even dancing. But make no mistake. There is no such thing as ”women’s” work – even in Mexico, which is so marked by machismo.

Choreographer Lukas Avendaño has been gripped by “disappearance;” it won’t let him go. Why did the once common concept of a “third gender” disappear? Why did his brother disappear? He supposedly disappeared “without a trace”, so no one can be held accountable for what is no longer there. The history of the indigenous peoples is also disappearing, their diversity, their trails. Lukas Avendaño is tracing their past, and not only as the choreographer of his current piece, “Lemniskata”, which is currently on tour. He is also an anthropologist by profession. Yes, there is such a thing: an anthropologist who has become a choreographer, or vice versa. His story is full of urgency. Writing it down has been both work and fun.