Amelio Robles Ávila (3 November 1889 – 9 December 1984) was a colonel during the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
. Assigned female at birth, Robles lived openly as a man from age 24 until his death at age 95.
Early life
Robles was born Amelia Robles Ávila on 3 November 1889 in
Xochipala,
Guerrero
Guerrero, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero, is one of the 32 states that compose the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guerrero, 85 municipalities. The stat ...
, to Casimiro Robles and Josefa Ávila.
[Edith Pérez Abarca, ''Amelia Robles: revolucionaria zapatista del sur'' (2007), page 25.][Horacio Legrás, ''Culture and Revolution: Violence, Memory, and the Making of Modern Mexico'' (2017, ), page 91.][Laura Espejel López (2000), p. 305.] Robles had two older siblings
Teódulo and Prisca.
Casimiro was a wealthy farmer
who owned 42 hectares of land and a small
mezcal
Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a liquor, distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave.
Agaves or magueys are endemic to the Americas and found globally as ornamental plants. The ''Agave'' genus is a member of the Agavoid ...
factory.
Robles was three years old when Casimiro died,
[Edith Pérez Abarca (2007), page 28.] and a few years later Josefa married Jesús Martinez, one of the ranch workers who took care of the livestock.
Josefa and Jesús had three more children, Luis, Concepción and Jesús Martínez Ávila.
They raised the children in the Catholic religion.
Robles studied until the fourth grade at the school for young ladies in
Chilpancingo
Chilpancingo de los Bravo (commonly shortened to Chilpancingo; ; Nahuatl: Chilpantzinco ()) is the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. In 2010 it had a population of 187,251 people. The municipality has an area of ...
.
[Laura Espejel López (2000), p. 306.]
From a young age, Robles showed an interest in activities that were considered masculine, learning to tame horses and handling weapons, and becoming an excellent marksman and rider.
Before joining the army, he was treasurer in a
Maderistas club in
Xochipala.
Army life
Robles joined the army in 1911 or 1912,
[David Pérez López, ''Historias cercanas (relatos ignorados de la frontera)'' (2004), page 125.] perhaps when General
Juan Andreu Almazán
Juan Andreu Almazán (May 12, 1891 – October 9, 1965) was a Mexican revolutionary general, politician and businessman. He held high posts in the Mexican Army in the 1920s and ran for the presidency of Mexico in 1940 in a highly disputed electi ...
passed through Xochipala in 1911 as pressure mounted against
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a General (Mexico), Mexican general and politician who was the dictator of Mexico from 1876 until Mexican Revolution, his overthrow in 1911 seizing power in a Plan ...
to resign as president.
Between August and November 1911, Robles was sent to the Gulf of Mexico on a commission in order to obtain money from oil companies for the revolutionary cause.
Two years later, Robles began to dress as a man and demanded to be treated as such.
(Robles was not alone as a person
assigned female presenting as male in the Mexican army at the time. Maria de la Luz Barrera and
Ángel(a) Jiménez also adopted male identities during the war.) From 1913 to 1918, Robles fought as "el coronel Robles" with the
Zapatistas
Zapatista(s) may refer to:
* Liberation Army of the South, a guerrilla force led by Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican Revolution 1911–1920
** Zapatismo, the armed movement identified with the ideas of Emiliano Zapata
* Zapatista Army of National L ...
under the command of
Jesús H. Salgado, , and . Robles gained the respect of peers and superiors as a capable military leader, and was eventually given his own command.
In 1919, some time after
Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata Salazar (; 8 August 1879 – 10 April 1919) was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and the insp ...
was killed, Robles and 315 men under his command joined the forces of
Alvaro Obregón, and in 1920 fought with them in the
Agua Prieta Revolt
In the history of Mexico, the Plan of Agua Prieta () was a manifesto, or plan, that articulated the reasons for rebellion against the government of Venustiano Carranza. Three revolutionary generals from Sonora, Álvaro Obregón, Plutarco Elí ...
which brought an end to the government of
Venustiano Carranza
José Venustiano Carranza de la Garza (; 29 December 1859 – 21 May 1920), known as Venustiano Carranza, was a Mexican land owner and politician who served as President of Mexico from 1917 until his assassination in 1920, during the Mexican Re ...
.
In 1924, Robles supported General Alvaro Obregón against the Delahuertist rebellion under the command of General Adrian Castrejón, where the Delahuertista general died and Robles was hurt.
Following the military phase of the Revolution, Robles supported revolutionary general Álvaro Obregón when the latter was
president of Mexico
The president of Mexico (), officially the president of the United Mexican States (), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Constitution of Mexico, the president heads the executive branch of the federal government and ...
in 1920–1924; Robles fought with Obregón's forces to put down the 1923 rebellion of
Adolfo de la Huerta
Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor (; 26 May 1881 – 9 July 1955) was a Mexican politician, the 45th President of Mexico from 1 June to 30 November 1920, following the overthrow of Mexican president Venustiano Carranza, with Sonoran generals ...
.
When Robles settled in
Iguala
Iguala (), known officially as Iguala de la Independencia, is a historic city located from the state capital of Chilpancingo, in the Mexican state of Guerrero in southwestern Mexico.
Geography
The city of Iguala stands on Federal Highway 95 ...
for a time after the revolution, a group of men are said to have attacked him wanting to reveal his anatomy; he killed two in self-defense.
[Gabriela Cano, ''Unconcealable Realities of Desire'', in ''Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico'' (2007, ), ed. by Mary Kay Vaughan, Gabriela Cano, Jocelyn H. Olcott, page 45.] In 1939 he supported Almazán in the presidential election.
In 1948, Robles received the medical certificate required to officially enter the Confederation of Veterans of the Revolution.
The medical revision confirmed that Robles had received six bullet wounds.
[
]
Awards
In 1970, the Mexican Secretary of National Defense recognized Robles as a veteran (''veterano'') of the Revolution.
Personal life and death
Robles met Ángela Torres in Apipilulco in the 1930s, and they later married.[ They adopted a daughter together, Regula Robles Torres. Horacio Legrás says that both later became estranged from Robles.][ Extracted from: ][ and Robles had already received several military honors. Furthermore, Robles's death certificate notes that he lost the ability to speak more than a year before dying.
Robles died 9 December 1984, aged 95.][Laura Espejel López (2000), p. 319.]
Gender identity and legacy
According to historian Gabriela Cano Ortega, Robles adopted a male identity not as a survival strategy but because of a strong desire to be a man.[Oswaldo Estrada, ''Troubled Memories: Iconic Mexican Women and the Traps of Representation'' (2018, ), page 180: "Others, such as Amelia Robles, became true transgendered subjects over the course of the revolution and defined themselves as men for the rest of their lives."] Robles's male identity was accepted by family, society, and the Mexican government, and Robles lived as a man from the age of 24 until his death.honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...
for women, similar to English ''Lady
''Lady'' is a term for a woman who behaves in a polite way. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the female counterpart of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men.
"Lady" is al ...
''), he would threaten them with a pistol.transgender
A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth.
The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...
.soldaderas
''Soldaderas'', often called Adelitas, were women in the military who participated in the conflict of the Mexican Revolution, ranging from commanding officers to combatants to camp followers. "In many respects, the Mexican revolution was not o ...
.
See also
* Albert Cashier, American Civil War soldier
* James Barry (surgeon)
James Barry (born Margaret Anne Bulkley, or Bulkeley; – 25 July 1865) was a Military medicine, military surgeon in the British Army. Originally from the city of Cork (city), Cork in Ireland, Barry obtained a medical degree from the Univers ...
* Mexican Armed Forces
The Mexican Armed Forces () are the military forces of the United Mexican States. The Spanish crown established a standing military in colonial Mexico in the eighteenth century. After Mexican independence in 1821, the military played an import ...
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robles Avila, Amelio
1889 births
1984 deaths
20th-century Mexican LGBTQ people
Mexican military personnel
Mexican revolutionaries
Mexican transgender men
Mexican LGBTQ military personnel
People from Guerrero
Transgender military personnel