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Jonas’s story has survived in a collection of information about the Viekšniai region compiled by local historians. About 1980-2000. In this land the stories of the elderly about their youth and life were collected. In these stories, some people even mentioned John.
Transgender people are now commonly known as people who do not identify with their biological sex. They want to wear clothing of the opposite sex, be seen by other people as members of the opposite sex, and sometimes medically change gender.
Jonas’s story confirms that although there is little knowledge about the life of transgender people in interwar or earlier Lithuania, this does not mean that such people did not exist in Lithuania.
The surviving stories from the people who knew him about John reveal that they were very surprised by John’s habits, but did not feel angry; he was simply accepted as a local phenomenon, different from everyone else, but that he did nothing wrong and was worthy of respect.
Dressed like a woman
Historian and pedagogue, wife of the writer Balis Sruoga Vanda Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė, who emigrated to the United States after World War II, 1971. In the United States, she wrote an article for the Lithuanian magazine Aidai “The Forgotten Pioneer” about the landowner interwar artist and weaver Ona Bagnickaitė, who landed at the Santekliai mansion in the Mažeikiai district, near the town of Viekšniai.
Public domain nuotr./Vanda Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė
O.Bagnickaitė had a cellar in this mansion, where Jonas also worked. Therefore, it deserved to be mentioned in the article by V. Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė.
“Mrs. Ona herself worked on some machines and a weaver she hired worked on others. She was a very strange creature famous in her village. Jonel, called the villagers’ hen, wore men’s pants but wore women’s blue and wore a scarf over her short, light-colored hair.
Jonel, called the villagers’ hen, wore men’s pants but wore women’s blue and wore a kerchief over his short, light-colored hair.
He was a hard worker, calm, patiently lifting the mood of his lady; rarely did someone hear his voice screaming, “V. Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė described to Jonas in the article.
This is not the only source that mentions John. 1980 O. Orencienė, a Viekšniai resident, also told about Jonas to the folklorist from the Mažeikiai region Amelia Urbienė, who had been collecting the memories of the people of Viekšniai and its surroundings for many years.
This story remained in the ethnographic material compiled by A. Urbienė. It also contains Jonas’s last name, Kriaučiūnas. We present it below (uncorrected language).
“The next time, around 1925, Jonis Kriaučiūnėlis (Jonas Kriaučiūnas) lived in Gudu. Ans was a man, ale really wanted to be feminine. Liuob sits like a woman. Liuob will tie the necklace, put on a white blouse and He will wear the potatoes Shoes: high heels, women’s.
Ans was a man, ale very much wanted to be feminine. Liuob sits like a woman. Liuob will tie the necklace, put on a white blouse, and wear the potatoes. Shoes: high heels, women’s.
Only the pants are for men, but also the shorts, right up to the knees. Three white critters are sewn on the sides of the trouser legs. This is how you get to the city of Viekšniai on a holy or market day. I (O. Orencienė) served for a girl in Kriaučiūnas in Gudu. John raised chickens, grazed geese, learned to spin and weave. They did not sit at the table to eat together. He did not speak to anyone, silence and silence during the day. “
Already in independent Lithuania in 1996. V. Daugirdaitė-Sruogienė’s article was republished in the restored Lithuanian press, in the newspaper Vienybė of the Akmenė region.
A few days later, local historian and librarian Bronius Keris published an article about the Santekliai mansion in the same newspaper, supplementing the article with his memories.
„[Žmonės] I really remember that in the Santekliai mansion there was a good silent weaver, considered by people as a “chicken”, but the stories about him are more like jokes. After hearing that the weaver was O. Bagnickaitė, many people doubt, maybe she wove … ”, B. Kerys mentions briefly, without naming her name, B. Kerys.
After his death, the body was inspected by the militia.
B.Kerys, a resident of the Viekšniai region, took an interest in the history of this region and collected stories from people.
Photo from Wikipedia Commons / Former agricultural building of the Santekliai mansion
1999 Stefanija, a resident of this region, born in 1923, told B. Kerius about J. Kriaučiūnas.
This is, as far as is known, the most complete story about this person. From him we learn the fate of John.
“We called him Jonelis Kriaučiūnėlis. He was different from a young age.
We called him Jonelis Kriaučiūnėlis. He was different from a young age.
His mother has said that as long as Jonelis did not tie a large ancient handkerchief, so anciently crucified, he could not take it to church, he would not go ”, the story begins.
Dressed as a woman, according to Stefania, John walked since he was young.
“From a very young age, maybe 15 or 16, Jonas used to walk around in a woman’s dress. He wore those shorts, with white bumps on the sides. The legs were big, these shoes were big for men. And the Socks are feminine lengths. The coat is always feminine. She was tall, but walked hunched over to make her height look more like a woman. There was no fool. People spoke to people with a fine feminine voice. When she lived in Eve’s house , coming to him while he was still outside the door or beyond, people often heard him just talking to chickens or other animals in a normal male voice. He did not want women and he had no handcuffs, “a resident of Jonas Viekšniai.
He didn’t want women and no wives.
Stefania also recounts the fact that Jonas had a jaw disease in his childhood, which caused his face to deform: “His mouth was sunken, his lips were contracted. It’s been like this for life. “And that the family farm was shared by his brothers, and John went out to serve” in the Santekliai ladies. “
“From the youngest days, until the departure of O. Bagnickaitė (to go into exile, – past ed.) John worked at Santekliai Manor. While working at Santekiai, he had made a lot of money. Those ladies paid him a salary correctly. Jonas had even bought a house in Viekšniai. Just 1940 ago, he sold those houses, saying he didn’t need them. When O. Bagnickaitė was taken away, Jonas went back to live with his brothers, ”continues the story of Stefanija written by the ethnographer.
According to Viekšniškės, Jonas spent the rest of his life living with his brothers, one of them in the empty houses of the surrounding villages, until he died at the age of 80.
John avoided traditional men’s work, but he spun and wove well, and his neighbors took care of it.
“Jonelis was spinning and weaving. He did not want male work. The spinner and the weaver were infinite.
Jonel turned and wove. He did not want male work. The spinner and the weaver were infinite.
Once we lived in Stonkus’s house, we went to the liub. Either we slaughter the pig or take it with us anyway. All the neighbors took him away, “Stefania said about Jonas.
Viekšniškė recalled only one case in which a conflict would have arisen due to Jonas’s unusual appearance.
“In the village of Gudai, Kojeliai was like a place where rural people met. Jonelis also came there. Once, after the men have had some beer, Jonelis enters. The men looked around and someone said, “Let’s see who is so old, male or female.” Jonel just grabbed the ax that was there and waited. They all withdrew. We saw that he would have cut it, “said Stefania.
Stefanija also told the local historian about John’s death. After his death, according to her, the police decided to find out what John’s sex was after all.
“An Alšauskas like that goes through us, comes in, says that Jonėlis will not be alive, I found him in the cabin. We’re leaving, the militiamen are coming, such a Baravykienė is coming, what else. Jonelis is already frozen, dying maybe two days ago. (.. .) Need to transport the fly. When they took it out, one of the policemen said that it had been walking like this for a whole century, you should take a good look at what year. Baravykienė, who was still in America, in Siberia, enlightened woman, he says, and let’s see if necessary. ”And he looked. A bra sewn, wadding here where necessary sewn. So beautifully sewn all by hand. The pants are those shorts. Just like that, the police officer stretched out and looked. It is not a joke for all of us. The militiaman looked, he says exactly us masculine, masculine as needed, ”Stefanija said.
An autopsy was performed to determine the cause of death, he said, “found a broken heart.”
“He buried the man. She looked very well covered in manhood. Dressed in a suit, tied with a tie.
Male buried. She looked very well covered with manhood. Dressed in a suit, tied with a tie.
However, my husband dug a hole in the cemetery and helped load it into the car. The collective farm was already formed, gave the machine. He was buried in the old Viekšniai cemetery, “that’s how Stefanija ended John’s story.
Different, but own
According to the stories, John did not correspond to the traditional understanding of “masculinity.”
In current terms, it could be called transgender; It is true that no one in Lithuania had ever heard such a word from the way John and the people who knew him lived.
However, surviving narratives do not suggest that the neighbors were intolerant of John because of his otherness. John was characterized by people who knew him as neutral and, at times, more positively than negatively.
His constant dressing in women’s clothing and his efforts to look as much like a woman as possible were not condemned, but perceived as harmless oddities.
“He was different from a young age”, “He was a very strange creature” are such descriptions in the stories about him, but they do not mention that someone had persecuted John, publicly condemned him, openly mocked him, blamed him for “traditional values”. contempt ”or similar.
Although it is mentioned that other villagers called John “a chicken coop”, it is clear from the context that the word did not have such an insulting or negative meaning as it does now.
Additionally, the stories mention that John was admitted to the common table, valued for his work, that neighbors looked after him when necessary, and eventually buried him.
People who knew him also emphasized that he was a good worker: a spinner, a weaver. It seems that Jonel, strangely enough, was accepted by his immediate surroundings as his own.
Clearly, it is possible that the narratives were silent about something or that the narrators did not know everything. Obviously, John’s life was not easy. The texts emphasize that John was silent, had little contact with other people, some even considered him silent.
Living in a time before transgender was still unknown and publicly discussed, John certainly had to wonder over and over why he is different from everyone else.
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