Muxe

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In Zapotec cultures of Oaxaca (southern Mexico), a muxe (or muxhe) is a physically male individual who dresses and behaves in a 'feminine' manner; they may be seen as a third gender. Some marry women and have children while others choose men as sexual or romantic partners. One study estimates that 6 percent of males in an Isthmus Zapotec community in the early 1970s were muxe (Rymph, 1974). Other Zapotec communities have similar "third gender" roles, such as the biza’ah of Teotitlán. The word muxe is thought to derive from the 16th century Spanish word for "woman".

In contrast to Mexico's dominant mestizo culture (where machismo prevails), Oaxaca has a predominantly Zapotec population, and it is widely reported that there is less hostility toward muxe in the region than homosexual, effeminate males and transwomen face elsewhere in the strongly Catholic country. In an article published in 1995, anthropologist Beverly Chiñas explains that in the Zapotec culture, "the idea of choosing gender or of sexual orientation is as ludicrous as suggesting that one can choose one's skin color." Most people traditionally view their gender as something God has given them (whether man, woman, or muxe), and few muxes desire genital surgery. The men they have sexual relations with, known as mayate, are not necessarily considered homosexual. Muxes may be vestidas (transvestites) or pintadas (wearing male clothes and make-up). It has been suggested that while the three gender system predates Spanish colonization, the phenomenon of muxes dressing as women is fairly recent, beginning in the 1950s and gaining popularity until nearly all of the younger generation of muxes today are vestidas (Gómez Regalado 2005).

Muxes generally belong to the poorer classes of society. Gender variance and same-sex desire in wealthier communities of the region are more likely to follow a more western taxonomy of gay, bisexual and transgender. Such individuals are also more likely to remain in "the closet".

In 2003, 25-year-old muxe Amaranta Gómez Regalado from Juchitán de Zaragoza gained international prominence as a congressional candidate for the Mexico Possible party in the Oaxaca state elections. Her broad platform included calls for the decriminalization of marijuana and abortion.

[edit] References

• Chiñas, Beverly (1995). Isthmus Zapotec attitudes toward sex and gender anomalies, pp. 293-302 in Stephen O. Murray (ed.), "Latin American Male Homosexualities" Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Gómez Regalado, Amaranta (2005). Transcending. Article onlinePDF (50.0 KiB)
• Roscoe,Will (1998). Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
• Rymph, David (1974). Cross-sex behavior in an Isthmus Zapotec village. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Mexico City.
• Stephen, Lynn (2002), Sexualities and Genders in Zapotec Oaxaca. Article onlinePDF (98.6 KiB)