A Mapuche intersex survivor’s voice that needs to be heard: Lara Neira

In all of the Americas, one of the reasons indigenous people were considered “savages” and “primitive” by white men, who were inventing sex to be only two, is because indigenous tribes everywhere believed there were more than two sexes/genders. These same tribes also believed in the freedom of diverse forms of sexual orientation and gender expression too.

It is important to know the Homophobia, Transphobia, and Intersex phobia that is truly behind the word “savage” and “primitive”. The invention of sex being only two has harmed millions of people on Earth. For many reasons these people being wiped out in the millions with the white invasion. This was/is Eugenics and Genocide, and still goes on to this day. 

My friend Lara Neira is a Mapuche Survivor of Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) as an innocent child.  Without their consent, genital corrective surgeries were done to “normalize” their body.  An intersex body, they now feel should have never been surgically changed.  Here are Lara’s messages to you, that I bring to the world so their voice may be heard and not silenced:

Sadly not all babies are born free and equal, intersex babies still to this day are being surgically cut and operated on so they look like one sex or another, instead of embracing the newborn as they are. To the parents of intersex children, please I beg of you, learn to love your child, learn to embrace their unique and wonderful body, the damage you are saving them from will be a blessing in the future. Don’t fear us intersex individuals we are here if you have questions.”   

The term disorder of sexual development is not correct, intersex is a natural variance in the human experience which is shared with other species on this planet, the human raise is the only species that see it as a disorder or a birth defect. “

I see intersex people as spiritual beings, and due to that we suffer uniquely in a way others do not understand, we come here to this world to enlighten that the universe is not black and white, but a sunburst or radiant color.”

“To those that question their worth based on what others think of you because they don’t know you and don’t make time to know you and judge you on shallow bases they have developed, know this you are worthy, you are loveable, you are perfect, you are not your disability, you are not the opinions of others, you are here now in this life for a reason and if you feel lost, know that the universe is planning some thing better than you expected, you are worthy of love, for you are made in the essence of love and light, you are here, now and you are powerful and full of grace, be proud be brave and be always yourself.”

Lara Neira

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To learn more about Mapuche people and how they believe there are more than two sexes/genders please read this book.  It sadly shows that it is our “modern” day government and medical complex that believes in only two sexes/genders.  That not only do the Mapuche people in South American believe in more than two, but that indigenousness peoples everywhere on this planet believed in more than two.  It would be mostly a white patriarchy that creates the social construct and invention of sex being only two.

Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing among Chilean Mapuche | By Ana Mariella Bacigalupo

Quotes from this book:

The three gendered binaries that shape the way machi see themselves and the way others view them are structured by different principles.

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella. Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing among Chilean Mapuche (p. 9). University of Texas Press.

The shifting gendered practices and subjectivities of machi are the most controversial aspects of Mapuche shamanism. Anthropologists have widely misread them, and the Chilean majority has shunned them as the practice of homosexuals and witches. Mapuche see machi practice as both sacred and gender deviant, and machi themselves have reacted to Chilean national and Mapuche prejudices against gender variance by shrouding their shifting gender identities and sexualities in silence.”

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella. Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing among Chilean Mapuche (pp. 9-10). University of Texas Press.

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Three gendered binaries shape the way contemporary machi see themselves and the way others view them. Structured by different principles, these three binaries give rise to different sexual ideologies and are linked to systems of power.

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella. Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing among Chilean Mapuche (p. 136). University of Texas Press.

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The third binary, that of the genders “man” and “woman,” is defined by the ritual co-gendered identities of machi, which oscillate between the two or meld them. Historical Mapuche notions of co-gendered identities and alternative sexualities have remained pervasive in the prescribed contexts of ritual. Contemporary male and female machi engage in ritual performances of feminine, masculine, and co-gendered roles. Their ritual co-gendered identities influence their everyday identities, and Mapuche construct machi sexualities in relation to all three gender binaries. The language of co-genderism also legitimates machi practice and “traditional” culture and has served as an important symbol for Mapuche identity politics and fundamentalist ideologies.

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella. Shamans of the Foye Tree: Gender, Power, and Healing among Chilean Mapuche (p. 137). University of Texas Press.

 

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Here is another book shows that sex being only two is a government and medical man-made invention, that nature never intended it to be only two sexes:

Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex | By Alice Domurat Dreger

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I am Proudly the First in Colorado to get an Intersex Birth Certificate

 

~.V.~