carlo Bevilacqua

Photographer Filmmaker Creative Director / Storytelling

Follow Hire

Location: Milan

Nationality: Italy

Biography: I'm photographer, filmmaker and visual storyteller. I started taking pictures, originally focusing on societal and anthropological photographic studies. I alternate photography and direction of documentaries and video clips. I'm based in... MORE

News

Omeggid. San Blas Indigenous Transgenders. Panama

Private Draft

carlo bevilacqua

Jan 16, 2020

In the archipelago of San Blas and in general in the comarca (district) of Kuna Yala, the autonomous territories of the indigenous populations of the Kuna in the Republic of Panama, there is the traditional presence of the Omeggids, as transsexuals are called in the indigenous language and which means "like a woman".
Omeggids are biological males who have relationships with men in the community who usually do typically female jobs, such as weaving and sewing fabrics called Molas.
Having a child Omeggid is a chance for Kuna families.
If a child begins to have female attitudes, he is left free to express his personality and not forced to have typically male behaviors.
A legend tells that three ancestral personalities, three brothers, gave life to the civilization of the Kuna. Ibeorgun, Giggardiryai and Wiggudun.
The first, Ibeorgun, represented the masculine principle and the organizer of the Guna people.
The second Giggadiryai, was the female principle, experienced in housework, equal rights and empowerment.
The third, Wiggudun, was representative of gender fluency.
These three figures still correspond today to the current social organization of the Kuna.

Omeggid. San Blas Indigenous Transgenders . Panama by carlo Bevilacqua
In the archipelago of San Blas and in general in the comarca (district) of Kuna Yala, the autonomous territories of the indigenous populations of the Kuna in the Republic of Panama, there is the traditional presence of the Omeggids, as..