Photo Essay: Gay Pride in Oaxaca, Mexico
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, is home to a matriarchal society in which the youngest son in the family is raised to be gay. From a young age this child is dressed up as a woman and treated as such; isthmeñan society embraces this role and encourages it. This is a long-standing Zapotec tradition extending back before the arrival of the Spaniards.
The sons are called muxhes and have historically been treated not as homosexuals, but rather as a third sex. They take up the roles as women in the matriarchy, and they carry the additional obligation of taking care of their mothers in old age.
Nowadays, muxhes are one of those anomalies that both defines a culture and blatantly contradicts it. This was evident during last month’s festivities, as the organization Vinnii Gaxheé (“different people” in Zapotec) held parades and velas (a type of all night party unique to the isthmus region) to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its founding.
During the organization’s gay pride parade, muxhes threw condoms from floats and served beer out of liter bottles to old women, young gay men and lesbians, straight couples, and families. The feeling was one of fiesta, and the Oaxacan community—conservative, Catholic, and traditional—rallied around it without seeming to blink an eye at the drag queens in elaborate isthmeñan dress laughing and holding hands aboard the floats.
Likewise, the atmosphere at the vela held the Friday following the parade was one of jubilance and abandon. Lorena Herrera, Mexico’s Pamela Anderson, graced the screaming, sweating, drunken croad with her presence and crowned Kathy the 1st the new muxhe queen.
There were parades featuring mock soldiers and the virgin Mary, traditional isthmeñan dances, telenovela stars, crates of Coronas piled in heaps on tables, and drag queens getting down to cumbia. Despite a small electrical fire which shut off the lights on half of the outdoor space, the party kept raging, isthmeñan style. And it seems Vinnii Gaxheé only gets stronger as the years go by.
1. Muxhe in traditional Ishtmeñan dress, striking a pose somewhere between folkloric and seductive.
2. Getting ready to board the float. Lots of drama and anticipation in the air.
3. The queen, Kathy Primera, poised for a trip through the main streets of Oaxaca.
4.A brief moment of repose amidst all the trappings of traditional Mexican fiestas–flags, flowers, firecrackers popping and hissing above the crowds.
5.The muxhes make their way to the Zócalo, maintaining an air of grande dame grace.
6.Queen Kathy Primera takes on an otherworldly power, silhouetted against a Oaxacan evening sky.
7.Muxhes dance salsa and cumbia at the vela, which rages deep into the night.
8.Partygoers dressed to the nines emulate the glamor of queen Kathy Primera.
9.Muxhes exert a captivating juxtaposition of the powerful and the fragile.
10.The younger generation of drag queens, in tight dresses and mini skirts, gets a lot of attention on the dance floor.
11.The night wears on as the crowd goes through cartons and cartons of Corona, glass jugs of mezcal, and plates of isthmeñan tapas.
12.Following her coronation, Kathy Primera is escorted onto the dance floor by stoic, gallant young men in traditional Zapotec dress.
13.Queen Kathy Primera poses with Lorena Herrera amidst the ecstatic, frenzied whistling and shouting of the crowd.
Community Connection
Interested in Mexico? Check out Teresa Ponikvar’s story of coming home to Oaxaca by the numbers and Dani Redd’s close encounters of the guru kind. For practical Mexico advice, take a look at ten nightlife spots in Mexico City and Matador Abroad editor and Oaxaca expat Sarah Menkedick’s foodie primer for Mexico.
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13 Comments... join the discussion!
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Vaya, Jorge! Que buenas son las fotos. #3 es mi favorita!
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Gracias por sus comentarios. En lo personal mi favorita es la #9.
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I love the beautiful women. where are the gorgeous hombres?
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Hi,
Love this story! I’m curious to know…how do the families know if their son will be the youngest?
Are there family planning situations?
Thanks!
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Buenas fotos, ojalá fueran mujeres
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all of the photos are of men. these are gay men, mostly dressed as women. aren’t they beautiful.
todo los fotos son de hombres. Estos son hombres gay mayormente vestido de mujeres, son bellas, no?↵ -
Great photos. Very interesting about the role of the 3rd child.
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While these photos are nice, the article is extremely inaccurate. Firstly, it is not a matriarchal society. Men and women’s work are considered just as important as one another, but the women are not in charge.
Secondly, families don’t raise their son to be “gay” and being gay and a “muxe” are not the same. Finding that one is a muxe is an internal process for a young boy, and is considered to be something inherant about the individual. Furthermore they are not always accepted and it can lead to family break up.
What is true is that they are generally accepted, if not at least tolerated.
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Como ha cambiado la sociedad! En mis Amos de adolecente todavia eramos muy
perseguidos!!! Me alegra que por fin se este integrando la sociedad. Aplaudo la forma de pensar de la gente del Istmo! Un ejemplo mas de gente civilizada! Si regreso a vivir a Mexico mi primera opciion es tehuantepec, Juchitan, salinacruz o la ciudad de Oaxaca. Orgullosamente Oaxaqueño↵
