Lukas Avendaño
Lukas Avendaño was born in Oaxaca, he is a Mexican performance artist and anthropologist, who assumes himself as Muxe. He studied anthropology at the Universidad Veracruzana, in Xalapa. Avendaño's performative work is an anthropological essay, as it explores their experiences, the identity of the muxes, and gender roles. He also incorporates, within his work, his knowledge of dance and the Isthmus environment from which he originates. The experience as a muxe characterizes Avendaño's work, and based on his identity he has made explorations of what characterizes the "muxeidad", which he describes as "a total social fact" that men born this way biologically live, but who possess a non-masculine social role. In Be’ena ’Za’a Zapotec society, the muxe is a third gender that assumes certain roles traditionally considered feminine.
Avendaño explores this phenomenon in his work, problematizing the structure of the fixed roles assigned to women and men, and makes a critique of being a muxe from his own practice. This is addressed in his performance piece "Réquiem para un alcaraván" (2012), in which he explores the contradictions of muxeidad in Zapotec culture. Lukas also uses the erotic character of the body, but in a political sense, since he mixes his condition of indigenous and homosexual, reaching a "political eros".