Alvaro Laiz is a photographer. In 2011 Laiz traveled to Mongolia to document the reality of that culture's transgender people.
Transmongolian has become the first step of a long term project about transgender people in nomadic societies all over the world. I would definitely love to come back and document again how life is treating them. We are in touch through social networks and we write each other periodically. As for what to do next, I am now focused in expanding this project to other countries and communities. But keep it a secret.
--Laiz
Transmongolian: the secret history of the Mongols:
I wanted to show how they are, but also how they see themselves. Identity isn’t a one-way concept but a fluent mixture of influences, both internal and external, which forms the way we face the world.
--Laiz
Transmongolian, The Secret History of the Mongols from Alvaro Laiz on Vimeo.
Mongolian society does not accept its transgender citizens.
I am aware that it may look like I was shooting in two different worlds but the link that keeps them together is tougher than it seems. Gambush, Nyamka, Chinzorig and Nurbul are forced to live their lives hidden and alternatively overexposed, in some kind of schizophrenic behavior. It is this duplicity that I wanted to underline. When they allowed me to share their daily life I began to realize I was just telling half of the story.
They may only express themselves in certain places. And these are usually underground parties where they may be accepted by society with certain roles as prostitution or night clubs. It is at this time when I developed a closer relationship and decided to take the photo-essay a step ahead. What I wanted to do was to take the viewer to a place far away from prejudices on transgender. The viewer must understand that these people are nothing but human beings who are trying to live their lives. There is nothing wrong about it.
--Laiz
They cannot express themselves normally except in certain places. Your life becomes a scenario in which you are pretending to be someone else.
Your job, your relatives become part of this performance, and little space is left to act as you would really want to be. It is insane.
--Alvaro Laiz
One bright side is that the Mongolian society is young and we believe that we can change the attitude of the public slowly through educating the younger generation about human rights principles, democratic values and tolerant, forgiving human nature.
--Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel, Mongolia LGBT Centre
What I wanted to do was to take the viewer to a place far away from prejudice. The viewer must understand that these people are nothing but human beings who are trying to live their lives. There is nothing wrong with it.
--Alvaro Laiz
Many younger transgender Mongolians flee the country as soon as they are able. Most head for Japan or The Philippines, which are much more accepting of gender-variance.
About himself Laiz writes:
Master in Visual Arts at Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, my work focuses on realities usually ignored by mass media. I conceive photography as a tool to give civil society in post-conflict zones the chance to be heard, exploring the environment, costumes and traditions of those people at risk of exclusion. My photographs have been published in international media such us Forbes, Days Japan, National Geographic, Sunday Times Magazine, Amica, Colors Magazine, CNN or Foreign Policy.
I am also co-founder of ANHUA, a collective of photographers and visual artists who have decided to join to document the social, historical and contemporary. Specializing in documentary reportage and author focused its commitment issues and concerns related to human rights, anthropology, economics and environment.
Laiz views Transmongolian as the first part of along-term project focusing on transgender people in different nomadic peoples worldwide.
It was in Venezuela that he encountered an anthropologist who informed him about the Warao people, who live in the Orinoco River basin.
I began working in Mongolia with transgender people and then I got to know there was another point of view. Some anthropologists call it the “Two Spirits” or Berdache theory. While I was working in Venezuela I came to know an anthropologist specialized in the Warao people – we found a common language in our love for photography. We always think about transgender people as something new and related to the cities (drugs, hiv, etc) and I wanted to change that.
I note that the term Berdache and the concept it involves is not appreciated by most transpeople.
The Persian root for the word referred to a young captive or slave. It's closest English word was "catamite" (the younger participant in a homosexual relationship). Later berdache became the accepted term for a male homosexual. It stopped being used in europe in the 19th century. But it was still being used in North America to refer to gender-variant indigenous people, almost always in a derogatory manner.
In the Warao culture certain individuals are considered to be neither man nor woman. They are called Tida Wena. The inclusion of such people into the Warao society dates back to Pre-Columbian tradition.
Before the late 20th century, the term berdache was widely used by anthropologists as a generic term to indicate “two-spirit” or transgender individuals. In Native American societies, berdaches played an important role both religiously and economically. They were given specific roles in their religion and were not expected to support their family like a male would, but rather they were required to do some of the women’s work and portray the behaviors and clothing of a woman. Historically, Tida Wena have been well integrated into the life of their tribes, and have often held revered and honored positions within them, but things have changed during the last 50 years.
The Warao tribes are extremely sensitive to the outdoor influence. There are a fundamental fact that is strongly complicating their survival: a few independent investigations indicate that a range in between 40% and 80% of the Warao tribe are infected with HIV, whereas Venezuelan government does not support official numbers. Having HIV [has] become a taboo and many people refuses to receive treatment, and eventually face death to avoid social pressure […] Tida Wena (transgenders) and homosexuals have been often rejected and [are[ accused of being responsible for this pandemic which is devastating the [W]arao people.
--Laiz
Wonderland:
Wonderland Eng from Alvaro Laiz on Vimeo.
Other works by Laiz have focused on HIV orphans in Uganda (Memory Books) and the ex-child soldiers from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (Future Plans).