Mexico's 'muxe' festival mixes activism, celebration
STORY: [Darinka, Muxe]
“A muxe is born from a flower and light. She gets out to express as she is and as she wants, and lives. This is being a muxe, the muxe community and the gay community.”
Location: Juchitan, Mexico
Members of Mexico's third-gender 'muxes' mix celebration and activism at this festival
In Indigenous Zapotec culture muxes are born biologically male and mix gay and feminine identity
[Felina Santiago, Known as matriarch of muxe community]
“In the Zapotec language, there is no gender. Muxes have always existed. And we have always resisted, too. We want these celebrations to go beyond and be bigger every day. When people look at Juchitan and the muxes and their fight it means a lot to us. But also, that they look at our daily work as a way to admire Zapotec women, who are fighters and hard workers. We muxes also want to follow women's path.”
The event was named ‘True Fearless Seekers of Danger’
in reference to the risks many members of the LGBTQ community face
including the recent suspected murder of Ociel Baena, Mexico's first openly non-binary magistrate
