The colourful crowd was led by a band and muxes carrying candles. They have an important role in the community,” Noé Díaz added.Īfter mass, the traditional procession began through the streets of the town. “I guess muxes are so respected because they are more a social gender rather than a sexual one. There, each muxe had a section with tables and decorations where food and drinks were served to their guests. One named Kika (who also only goes by her first name) had invited us for tonight’s vela. They’re just more respected, so they can be more visible,” said Fernando Noé Díaz, a primary school teacher who has many muxe friends. “It’s not true there are more of them here.
According to this story, the third bag sprung a leak in Juchitán, and that’s the reason why there are so many muxes here. A second version of the saint’s legend says that Vicente Ferrer was carrying three bags: one with female seeds, one with male seeds and one where the two were mixed. Some say they fell out from the pocket of Vicente Ferrer, the patron saint of Juchitán, as he passed through town, which, according to locals, means they were born under a lucky star. That’s because the concept of muxe exists only here, on the Istmo de Tehuantepec, where they are an important part of the community. Avendaño similarly emphasised that ‘muxe’ is a Zapotec term and it can’t be understood without knowing more about their culture. “What we know, ‘under Western eyes’, as ‘male-to-female transvestite’, ‘male-to-female transsexual’, ‘effeminate gay’ or ‘masculine gay’ seems to be included within the category of ‘muxe’ as long as there is also a strong component of ethnic identity,” writes anthropologist Pablo Céspedes Vargas in his article Muxes at work: between community belonging and heteronormativity in the workplace. Basically, we can say that a muxe is any person who was born a man but doesn’t act masculine,” Avendaño said. And there were some wearing men’s clothes, showing their status with just simple makeup and nail polish. Others seemed to prefer Western-style dresses or drag queen apparel. There were muxes who, like the local tehuanas (women from the Istmo de Tehuantepec), wore the same richly embroidered outfits that inspired Frida Kahlo’s unique look. Observing the different muxes, I couldn’t see much in common between their styles. With more modern performers, such as Bruno Mars and Janelle Monáe, still referencing Little Richard, his status as a style pioneer is in no doubt – more than 60 years after he scared Waters’ grandmother.I was at Vela de Las Intrepidas (Vigil of the Intrepids), the annual celebration of muxes that takes place each November in Juchitán de Zaragoza, a small town on the Istmo de Tehuantepec. “Prince is the Little Richard of his generation,” he told Joan Rivers in 1989, turning to the camera to address Prince himself: “I was wearing purple before you was wearing it!” Little Richard took the compliment, and added a bit of shade. On the cover of his 1986 album Parade, he is photographed in a crop top, with quiff, mascara and pencil moustache. Man, we’d never seen anything like that.” Prince, meanwhile, paid tribute in looks. “Little Richard was just unreal,” Bowie told Rolling Stone. Both owe debts to Little Richard – and acknowledge them. Photograph: Bill Howard/ANL/Rex/Shutterstockĭavid Bowie and Prince are often – rightly – cited as music’s great fashion innovators, playing with gender in fashion and pushing the boundaries when it comes to the optics of male sexuality.
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