El Telegrafo - The 2015 law allows to opt for maternal last name

In 2008, Argentina approved the Civil Registry Law so that couples are the ones who decide the order of the surnames that their children should have.Chile joined this country, in the same year;Uruguay in 2013, and Mexico, in 2016, as examples in the region.

In 2015, the initiative also found Eco in Ecuador.Article 37 of the Organic Law on Identity Management and civil data stipulated that “(...) the father and mother, by mutual agreement, may agree to change the order of the surnames at the time of registration.The order of the surnames that the couple has chosen for the first child will govern for the rest of the offspring of this link. ”

Between 2015 and 2019, the Civil Registry of Ecuador received 1,175 requests for change of order of surnames.Of that figure, 1,066 (most) corresponded to citizens with ages below the first year of life.

The province that had the greatest registrations of this type was Pichincha, with a total of 341 people.This was followed by Guayas, with 145, and Manabí, with 72. The initiative seeks to establish equality before personal identity.

Jan Colonel and Kelly Vargas are one of the couples who decided to access this right.

For Kelly, in other countries the importance of the order of surnames is an inconsequential issue: “The surnames are not constitutive of the individual, but become a political claim.For the mother, social changes require challenges that are willing to assume. ”

Jan explained that his first reason was emotional.In her life there were women, her mother, grandmother, aunts, who formed a pillar in the upbringing of her.She thus decided to change the order of her son's last names.First placing his wife's, he was configured in a symbolic act "so that my son knows the legacy he has behind."

As a couple, they confirmed to public media that the decision was easy to make because it had already been a talked and agreed issue in advance.However, the difficulty came in the execution of the decision.

As an experience, ”said Kelly -, when he arrived where a notary to issue the output order of his son, the official appealed to the couple's individual decision."It began to increp me what my son is going to suffer, without having a livelihood and without knowing me."

Jan, on the contrary, preferred not to confront the issue but explained (to the notary) that it was an autonomous couple and that it was a civil right established by norm.“The inheritance that I want to leave my son is to eradicate the macho vision.I want my son to be freer, ”he emphasized.

For Kelly, it is urgent to deconstruct the patriarchal logic in society and, for this, he stressed that the best way is to "conquer" the people around them to explain the historical importance of women."We believe that our child will win argumentative and linguistic capital because he will have to explain and confront and that will make him rethink as an individual and recognize the difference of him," she said.

But not only that;Both decided to bet on redefining the role of colors, toys, games, etc., for the raising of their offspring.In addition, they seek to educate him in respect for life even non -human."Since childhood we are showing him that he is part of the world and not that the world is available to him."

Within the expansion of rights, for Kelly there are still challenges to give especially in favor of the GLBTI community, such as health.She explained that trans people have a life expectancy of 35 years, so the State should assume mandatory health plans that would allow aesthetic transformations that consolidate the self -deficiency of the subject.In addition, she stressed that education is important to free the society from violence.

This coincided by Jan, who clarified that the commitment to eradicate discrimination and violence is through education and change of cultural gaze, training and political participation."All people deserve a decent life," he said.

The individual decision -making is so important for Kelly and Jan that they even were open to his son who later decides if he wants to maintain the surnames agreed by his parents or if, on the contrary, he would like to change it.(YO)