Marriage is a social and legal institution that has evolved over time. In Mexico, according to INEGI,1 there has been an increase in the number of marriages, as well as an increase in divorces, with same-sex marriage being legal throughout the country. Couples continue to get married! But to whom? Who is the partner?
Technological advances and the flourishing of AI in countries such as Japan, where there is currently a tendency towards singlehood and aloneness,2 are producing cases such as that of a young man named Akihik Kondo, who in 2018 married the hologram Hatsune Miku, spending a significant amount of money to make his dream come true. "I think the concepts of happiness and love are different for each person,"3 he admitted in an interview. Incidentally, he has never had a relationship with a real woman. The hologram allowed him to have a relationship, but it had to end because the program he interacted with cancelled the service in 2022.
In Mexico, closer to nature than Japan, weddings are held with trees, "a symbolic wedding," says the couple, who imagine themselves defending the tree for the rest of their lives. "Marring a tree" is a ritual of connection with nature: "marriage is not just about planting a tree and then abandoning it, but something that people commit to in the long term, watering it, caring for it, and ensuring it grows well."4 One of the advantages of this marriage is that it is not mandatory to be monogamous; people can marry various trees!
Peruvian environmental activist Richard Torres has married different trees in different countries, as well as the sea. These weddings are held in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, and have a spiritual component connected to Pachamama—Mother Earth—or the gods of nature. This tradition also reflects a deeper view of marriage, which goes beyond the union of two people and makes it an integral part of the natural and spiritual cycle of life. In both cases, the body, whether for the hologram or the tree, is not requested. There is a mainly imaginary dimension, and we wonder: what happens to the body in such unions? Is it an imaginary belief in love, not unlike that of any person who falls in love and gets married?
[1] National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI – Mexico), data from 2023, available online: inegi.org.
[2] Cf. Kazuhisa, A., "A Community of Connections: Looking Forward to the Solo Society," 13 January 2020, available online: nippon.com/en.
[3] Clarín, "Akihiko Kondo, el hombre que se casó con un holograma, celebra su sexto aniversario de bodas: 'Es la mujer que amo,'" 11 November 2024, available online: lavanguardia.com [not translated to English].
[4] Batalla, E. M., "Casarse con un árbol… amor para toda la vida," 1 March 2018, available online: lavanguardia.com [not translated to English].
