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UPDATED: Nov. 10, 2020 at 1:15 a.m.

Syracuse University’s LGBT Resource Center and Office of Multicultural Affairs streamed “SIJSIWAYULU,” a play produced by the Angel Rose Artist Collective, to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance this year. A Q&A session followed the performance.

The play, written by Petrona Xemi Tapepechul, is about two transgender women reclaiming their Two-Spirit identity through Indigenous Salvadoran culture and diaspora while living in the United States.

Petrona presented the play in memory of Angel Rose, a transgender woman who died on Dec. 10, 2019, at 21. Rose worked with Petrona and Ahanu Tapepechul in Washington, D.C., at their artist collective as a resident makeup director and in the play.

Ionah Scully, a doctoral student in the Department of Cultural Foundations of Education at SU, hosted the event and welcomed everyone on Zoom in Cree, the traditional language of the Cree people.

Before beginning the play, which was prerecorded, Scully asked all of the guests on Zoom to take a “moment of quiet” to reflect on the relationship between their identities and the location they are Zooming in from.

Scully said being Two-Spirited is to be connected with both their past and future. People unaware of Indigenous cultures commonly misunderstand being Two-Spirited to mean identifying as both a man and a woman, they said.

The play began with two spirit workers surrounded by candles welcoming the great spirits of the west, the east, the south and the north as drums played in the background. Drums, prayer and burning are important tools to summon the ancestors, Petrona’s character Sital said in the play.

The two main characters, Alex and Sital, are Salvadoran transgender women in the United States attempting to feel confident within their identities by communicating with their ancestors and reclaiming their ancestorial Two-Spirited identity.

“This (play) is a rallying cry for the Trans-Indigenous,” Ahanu said.

Ketzali Weyapan, who plays Alex, explained that transgender Indigenous people face the intersectionality of being gender non-conforming and a minority on the land that their ancestors once owned.

Petrona (right) as Sital and Ketzali (left) as Alex perform together in the play “SIJSIWAYULU.” Screenshot

In the second scene of the play, Weyapan faced the camera head-on and called out non-Indigenous people who “ask me what is Latinx? As though to accuse me of a great misdeed. You ask me to explain myself?”

Weyapan said her role in the play felt like a “lived experience” due to its similarity to her life after she came out as a transgender woman two years ago. In those scenes, Alex reaches out to Sital for advice because she is depressed since she is struggling to call upon the ancestors for guidance.

Sital tells her the ancestors are waiting for her, but she must bring them gifts such as fresh mint, prayers, drums beating and dance. When Alex accomplishes the ceremony with an ancestor named Siwanawal — dressed in a dark dress, with a black veil and black and red makeup — she is frightened by the communication and is left angry with the idea that she will always be considered “trash” to the colonized society.

When Sital and Alex meet again, they learn that the meaning of the Nawat word “Sijsiwayulu,” no longer means “heart of a woman” in English and rather translates to “gay man.”

Over the summer, Weyapan, Petrona and Ahanu all participated in a class online to learn Nawat through El Salvador’s Cultural Center of Spain.

Weyapan said that the teachers displayed moments of ignorance because Nawat was not their first language, and she wished that Indigenous Salvadorans led the class.

“It’s very much like a contradiction because it’s like, how can you have a cultural center (in El Salvador) dedicated to Spain?”

The last time Sital and Alex meet in the play, Sital has just met the ancestor Nantzin Anastacia Lopez Lopez, a Nawat singer and speaker. Before Alex can meet Lopez Lopez, she must confidently say she is a transgender woman because that is the only way the ancestor will take her seriously when they meet.

After the play, Scully hosted a Q&A, but for the most part the actresses and audience communicated freely. For Weyapan, Petrona and Ahanu, this was their first time watching the hour-long production entirely, so they appreciated everyone’s positive responses to the play.

“I love your story, and your beautiful smile that accompanied it, Ketzali,” one audience member said. “Thank you each. The play was beautiful.”

CORRECTIONS: In a previous version of this post, a photo caption misstated the character Petrona Xemi Tapepechul portrays in the scene pictured. Petrona portrays Siwayul in this scene. A previous version of this post also incorrectly stated that Ionah Scully welcomed the audience in Nawat, the traditional language of Indigenous Salvadorans. Scully welcomed the audience in Cree, the traditional language of the Cree people. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on November 7, 2020 at 2:23 am

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