workingclasshistory:

On this day, 9 December 1984, Mexican revolutionary fighter Amelio Robles Ávila died in his home town of Xochipala, Guerrero, aged 95. Assigned female at birth, Ávila joined the turbulent events of the revolution in 1912, and his first mission was to extort funds from oil companies to fund the revolutionary movement. He fought in the army of Emiliano Zapata and reached the rank of colonel. He was famous for shooting his pistol with his right hand while holding a cigar in his left, and he was himself shot at least six times.
In 1924 he declared his identity as male, was recognised as such by the military, and was later recognised as the first transgender veteran in the Mexican army. Ávila forged a male birth certificate, and insisted he be recognised as male for his next seven decades. Mexican historian Gabriela Cano explains that Ávila’s gender identity “must be distinguished from the strategic cross-dressing – the adoption of masculine outfits to pass as a man – that some women employed in periods of war to protect themselves from sexual violence that is usually more acute during armed conflict, to access military leadership positions or simply to fight as soldiers and not as soldaderas, that is to say, without the social gender restrictions that usually weigh on women in the military”. According to rumour, on one occasion Ávila was assaulted by men who tried to inspect his anatomy, and in defending himself two of the attackers were killed. A neighbour later recounted how Ávila would challenge anyone who misgendered him: “I always called him Mr. Robles, because he’d pull out his gun if someone called him a woman or Mrs.”
After his death, Mexican institutions began to undermine his identity. A rumour began that he had requested to be buried in women’s clothes, and a school and museum were named after his dead (i.e. christened) name.
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