El Patio Spanish

Amelia Robles, la coronela. Author: Sergio Cena. https://www.laizquierdadiario.com.ve/Historia-grafica-Amelia-Robles-la-coronela

As time passed, my interests changed, and I learned to appreciate all the old stories about my family. That was why, on this trip, I asked my father to tell me everything he knew about Amelia. .

His tale was complemented by a visit to Xochilapa, a small settlement close to the town where my father lives and where Amelia and my great-grandfather were from. Before we got there, we visited a nearby archeological area called La Organera, which takes its name from the myriad organ pipe cactuses that grow in the region. We were the only ones there. There were no guards and nobody working on the archeological site, so we had to sneak in by jumping the barbed-wire fence that was unsuccessfully protecting the place. An archeological site just for us: what a privilege!

After this unlawful visit, we carried on towards Xochipala. The town was deserted. Later we found out that, because of certain conflicts around drug trafficking in the region, people barely leave their homes for fear of running into someone who might ruin their lives as a consequence of sheer chance.

Photo: Gabriela Cano

In the historian’s house there were several photos of Amelia and also of my great-grandfather. My father had never seen a photo of him and I still remember how emotional he was as he held the image in his hands. There was Luis, on horseback, with a look that, yes, recalled my father’s eyes, but which also reminded me of my beloved Uncle Guillermo.

At that moment I understood that, through my curiosity, I had not only discovered the famous figure in my family tree that my sister could have spoken about after her project, but that I was also witnessing something more personal and intimate: the connection between my father and his grandfather, of whom he had only heard stories and whom he had never seen, even in a photograph. The image lined up with the stories that his mother – my grandmother – had told him about Luis and the horse on which he took her riding.

Amelia Robles Ávila

When she returned to Xochipala from the Revolution, she officially adopted her masculine personality in the town, as he had already done on the battlefield. He cut off his braids, began to dress as a man, and asked everyone to call him Amelio rather than Amelia.

Not long after his arrival he brought Ángela Torres to live with him, with whom he spent the rest of his life and raised an adopted daughter.

In 1955, he began to carry out official proceedings with the Ministry of National Defense under the name of Amelio Robles Ávila. Fifteen years later, he was officially recognised as a “Veterano ( in the masculine) de la Revolución Mexicana” and that same year as a “Legionario (masculine again) de Honor”. In 1973, he received the medal of Mérito revolucionario.

Amelio Robles Ávila y Esteban Estrada, circa 1942. Photo by Gertrude Duby, Museo Na Bolom, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

It was an emotional moment for my father and for me: not only had we discovered more about our family's revolutionary hero and about our direct ancestor, we had also confirmed a painful truth that left us more disturbed than contented.

Amelio died in 1984. He lived for 94 years, 70 of them as a man. In 2007, a prize was created in his honour: the Premio Amelio Robles, awarded each year at the Festival de la Diversidad de Género in Monterrey, one of the biggest cities in Mexico. This award, created by LGBTQIA+ community groups, aims to recognise the contributions and careers of activists who work to improve respect of gender diversity.