Respecting, and Celebrating, Transvestites

“Attaching flowers to a ribbon headdress, pulling a lace slip under an embroidered skirt and draping a necklace of gold coins over his head, Pedro Martinez puts the finishing touches on the traditional costume of Zapotec women in southern Mexico. ‘When I get all dressed up like this my father always says, ‘Oh Pedro! You look just like your mother when she was young,’ beams Martinez, 28, gluing on fake eyelashes in front of a mirror. Martinez spent two hours in the hair salon he owns getting ready for this weekend’s festival of the ‘muxes,’ indigenous gays and transvestites in the town of Juchitan who have found a haven of acceptance in Mexico’s macho society. The muxes (pronounced moo-shes), mostly of ethnic Zapotec descent, are widely respected in the southern town where a dance and parade that crowns a transvestite queen and celebrates the harvest has been held annually for the last 33 years. Anthropologists say the tradition of blurring genders among Mexico’s indigenous population is centuries old but has been revived in recent decades due to the gay pride movement.” [The Age]