interesting article and slideshow

mexico isn't all drug war deaths after all

A Lifestyle Distinct: The Muxe of Mexico
By MARC LACEY
Mexico City — Mexico can be intolerant of homosexuality; it can also be quite liberal. Gay-bashing incidents are not uncommon in the countryside, where many Mexicans consider homosexuality a sin. In Mexico City, meanwhile, same-sex domestic partnerships are legally recognized — and often celebrated lavishly in government offices as if they were marriages.

But nowhere are attitudes toward sex and gender quite as elastic as in the far reaches of the southern state of Oaxaca. There, in the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into gay and straight. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” (pronounced MOO-shays) — men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.

“Muxe” is a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish “mujer,” or woman; it is reserved for males who, from boyhood, have felt themselves drawn to living as a woman, anticipating roles set out for them by the community..............

photo: Katie Orlinsky for The New York Times AT THE DEBUT Carmelo López Bernal, 13, at the recent annual town-wide muxe celebration, the occasion for his first appearance in the identity of a girl.

wow wow wow

instead of david beckham getting paid a kazillion buck, all those soccer teams should hire these mexican kids

A M A Z I N G
(from bifurcated rivets via a welsh view)well i can't get it to play (i'm still going to leave the embed, just in case) anyway - here's the LINK CLICK IT!

they get up each morning at 4

and do NOT stop working until they go to bed. who? the women of SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI. they cook and clean and take care of their children. the town government is made up of all men. women cannot vote much less attend town assemblies. now one (woman) is running for mayor.

first off, ALL of those women should just STOP serving those men. it is not that i'm saying women shouldn't be homemakers. they should if they wish it. but NONE of their rights should be taken away from them AND they should be fully appreciated for the work they do

(note: men over 60 also cannot vote.)

Some Mexican women lose right to vote
Move to respect indigenous rights opens door to discrimination by males

SANTA MARIA QUIEGOLANI, Mexico - Women in this Indian village high in the pine-clad mountains of Oaxaca rise each morning at 4 a.m. to gather firewood, grind corn, prepare the day’s food, care for the children and clean the house.
But they aren’t allowed to vote in local elections, because — the men say — they don’t do enough work.
It was here, in a village that has struggled for centuries to preserve its Zapotec traditions, that Eufrosina Cruz, 27, decided to become the first woman to run for mayor — despite the fact that women aren’t allowed to attend town assemblies, much less run for office...........

.............Men over 60 also can't vote. But the male leaders are refusing to budge. “We live differently here, senor, than people in the city. Here, women are dedicated to their homes, and men work the fields,” Apolonio Mendoza, the secretary of the all-male town council, told a visiting reporter.
Cruz has received some support from older men, who by village law lose their political rights when they turn 60. Some younger men also say the system must change and give women more rights..........

picture: Eufrosina Cruz, left, speaks as she stands in the doorway with Celia Miguel Lopez in Santa Maria Quiegolani, Mexico, on Jan. 6. Cruz is waging a national battle to defend her right to run for mayor of her Zapotec village.
Gregory Bull / AP