Muxes, Velas, and the Performance of Zapotec Style: Festival Economies and Indigenous Queer Labor
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Date
2018-03
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Abstract
My presentation investigates the role of performance and visual culture in Mexican festivals known as velas. I analyze how the velas create local economic and social opportunities that elevate women and muxes, a third-gender identity rooted in Zapotec culture in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Women and muxes are the main arbiters of local culture, through their control of the vela festivals, where the reproduction of ethnic and social identities occurs. Through their performance of local fashion and the preservation of culinary and linguistic heritage, these social dramas are a crucial part of local political and social discourse. Women and muxes, I argue, make their presence known and their voices heard through various social dramas performed during the multi-day vela celebrations, which include parades, parties, and a Catholic Mass. I show how velas function as a public stage where local groups and individuals can construct and contest sociopolitical identity. My methodology is based in the interdisciplinary field of Performance Studies, which builds upon Anthropology, Women and Gender Studies, and Indigenous Studies. My work adds to a limited body of scholarship that elucidates the intersections of queerness and ethnicity.
Description
The Arts: 1st Place (The Ohio State University Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum)
Keywords
Performance Studies, Queer, Mexico, Indigenous