ipl-logo

Muxes In Zapotec Culture

1388 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The social construction of identity

When an academic work establishes the use of the cultural analysis approach, we obtain as a result that the concept of "cultural interactions" entails the idea of negotiation, tensions and competing forces that pursue the establishment of a common pattern of exchanges in a specific society. At the same time, this common pattern of exchanges that is in constant tension, which is dynamic, shapes the identity of individuals, and from that identity they react, make decisions and construct their vision of the world. But how many tensions can an individual tolerate? What impact do these tensions have on the construction of 'social normality '? This essay will explore these issues through the film Carmín Tropical by Rigoberto Perezcano, a film made …show more content…

Those are two important characteristics of Juchitan live, where a greater representativeness of women in the public domain and greater relevance in decision making within the household are promoted. According to authors such as Miano Borrusso (1999), Taylor (2006) and Subero (2013), this logic is important to understand why the gender identity of the muxes is based more on group necessities than in individual needs.

But how can we understand the emergence of muxes in Zapotec culture? How and who are they? The muxes are “…also indigenous persons who speak Zapotec, lead very public lives 24/7, live within a society and culture which, like the Zuni man-woman, recognizes the existence of an indigenous third sex/gender category that is neither male nor female but muxe. While most muxes cross-dress and are called vestidas, some only dress for the fiestas, yet there is no necessary relationship between being muxe and cross-dressing” (Mirandé, 2016: …show more content…

To what extent is the identity of the muxe constructed and to what extent is it a chosen genre? With the above as a background, we could say that be a muxe is not a free choice in all cases, but a cultural imposition with practical social purposes that specifically benefit parents; situation that collides with the vision inside the family and the community where being muxe is seen as an immutable, natural and miraculous characteristic (Mirandé, 2016: 394). To put an example, I mentioned that in Juchitán a traditional festivity had place with the name of "velas", with religious and communitarian purposes. The muxes have a vela for honored themselves, it is called "The Intrépida Vela” and it is composed by a three-day celebration held on the third weekend of November. As Mirandé can

Show More
Related
56 Words | 1 Pages

Overall, gender shapes these individuals experience in United States. Many either assimilate to hegemonic ideals or resist it. Latinx migrants, youths, and queers all face the gender inequities that society implements on them due to their social location. Thus, gender is one of the many factors that affect the Latinx community and continue to affect it.

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

Growing up under both the influence of his parents’ Mexican culture and his own experience of a more modern California, Richard Rodriguez seemed to have the best of both worlds. His Mexican lifestyle was the way of tradition and cynicism, and his California lifestyle was the way of defiance and optimism. However, as he writes in his book Days of Obligation, this clash between cultures only conflicted his feelings. Rodriguez’s acknowledgement of the age and the religion of California and Mexico allows himself to explore his identity struggle. With the big age difference between Mexico and California, Rodriguez finds himself facing the paradox of Mexican rigidity or California novelty.

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

The Zapotecs are known as the Cloud People or Bena Zaa. The reason behind the name Cloud People is their belief that they would return to the clouds when they died and there were supernatural beings in the sky. They lived in the southern highlands of Mesoamerica in the valley of Oaxaca. The zapotecs are known to have inhibited the region from 500 BC which was the late Pre-classical period. The capital city of this group came to be known as Monte Albana which was later shifted to Mitla.

Read More
336 Words | 2 Pages

Intermarriage between latinx and non-Hispanic whites can go three ways in terms of cultures, it can be disregarded, equally embraced, or one is taking in more than the other. When a couple in this case Latinx culture can be disregarded due to the negative stigmas that comes with being latinx, the partners experiences that lead to a disagreement in the cultural norms of the traditional latinx values, or the idea that the latinx identity doesn’t really apply to them due to their own personal way of how they grew up and around who. It creates challenges because even if these couples believe themselves to identify white society won’t see them that way because no matter how hard one try you can’t escape culture. However, it can also go both ways

Read More
366 Words | 2 Pages

Juan Gomez Quinones, historian and scholar defines culture as a “central concept” that all people share. That concept varies from the group’s behaviorism, habits and beliefs. Quinones believe that factors such as “culture, history, and nationality” are all interconnected which gives people a common ground. Quinone’s calculated language on his concept of culture invokes a sense of similarity and trivial connection between humans. Instead of describing how diverse culture separates people, Quinone’s embraces the ability of diversity to bind people to one large community.

Read More
876 Words | 4 Pages

Daring to Be Out and Visible” by Letitia Gomez, she illustrates the discrimination and obstacles to be visible within the Latinx community. Her organization, ENLACE, knew it was necessary to be present at the Latina/o festival parade to demonstrate that the LGBT community was incorporated within the Latinx. The parade organizers faced pressure to take ENLACE out of the parade, regardless, they were guaranteed a spot in the parade, where they faced yelling and harassment by attendees. In addition, only eight people showed up to ride with ENLACE, although the whole membership was invited. This is again, a result of the reification of the Latinx Sphere, where comments made by a local D.C. Latino DJ that in the Latinx community, there were no gays, that there did not exist a word for “gay” in Spanish, become materialized when people in ENLACE, felt

Read More
403 Words | 2 Pages

Whatsmore, the imperial authorities owned lands and had “monopolized power within city-states”(Smith 2005, 97). Although the Aztec empire had economic and political control over its people, it doesn’t always result in ideological dominance. The increase female figurine collections from Huexotla and Xaltocan suggested changing ideologies concerning gender roles. Aztec monumental sculptures showed obvious male-dominant ideology where they sculpted mutilated women to represent subjugation of its enemies(Brumfiel 1996, 156). The colossal statue of Coatlicue showed a decapitated woman and the relief of Coyolxauhqui from the Templo Mayor showed a naked woman whose limbs were separated (Brumfiel 1996, 156).

Read More
1045 Words | 5 Pages

Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.

Read More
907 Words | 4 Pages

Their shared experiences and interactions reflect the dynamic and complex nature of symbolic interactionism. A vital component to consider with this theory is resistance to change, which highlights individuals' difficulty when encountering new circumstances or definitions. A crucial aspect of this theory is the resistance to change that individuals face when encountering new circumstances or definitions. The Andes survivors' initial reluctance to accept Canessa's definition of human bodies is a prime example of this challenge. It underscores the difficulty of breaking away from long-held beliefs acquired through socialization and the power of social influence in shaping our perceptions of reality.

Read More
807 Words | 4 Pages

Yet, overall, Guzmán’s treatment of the collective is subtle and, in general, manifests fragmentarily; the collective does not appear onscreen as a multitude demanding social change, but rather as a phantasm that has not managed to fully coalesce and revive in postdictatorial times. Gone, for example, are the militant throngs of La batalla that undulate in the streets as if they were one body. Instead, in Guzmán’s postdictatorship cinema, the collective is something to be mourned, desired, celebrated, or intuited. By contrast, Pino Solanas’s post-2001 films return us to the political of Third Cinema—mass street action and overt, incendiary ideological discourse—in ways that Guzmán’s films do not. This move toward citing a Third Cinema aesthetic to revive its potential in the present is the second move I want to examine.

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

When some mexicans shifted to Mexico City they struggled to adapt. However later “A third of labor in Mexico City was made up of women, 82% of whom were indians or mestizas”(Vigil 136). Shifting from an hacienda to a city was very different for both females and males. However women could not believe that they could soon begin working as domestic workers as well. Such as being waitresses, food preparers, and street vendors.

Read More
1451 Words | 6 Pages

This essay will seek to examine how contemporary Spanish youth identities are portrayed in the two films Historias del kronen and Abre los ojos. To fully understand the youth sub-cultures of the 90s embodied in the two films, it is pivotal to understand the historical context. Historias del Kronen is set in the 1992 post-Franco era where sudden excessive freedom after the dictatorship, especially the legalisation of drugs for recreational use from 1982 to 1992, led the youth culture into apathy and resistance towards responsibilities and morals and concurrently made the Spanish youth more inclined into trivial matters such as sex, drugs and constant partying. The –pasotismo- the characters feel, especially Carlos, is emblematic of how

Read More
1412 Words | 6 Pages

This essay, both intentionally and unintentionally gives us a glimpse of contemporary Latin American race relations,

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

Over generations, the role of women in society has shifted and changed immensely, improving upon many aspects of rights and values that women have. The changes occurred gave women opportunities to provide ideas, to have the same rights as men, giving women freedom, leading to many contributions of many significant and valuable events. But from current roles of women being equal to those of men, how women stood in ancient society significantly differs and contrast with ours today. Throughout history, the role and significance of women were always outweighed by the dominance and influence of men. The role of women in ancient times varied throughout, depending on the place and area in the world, in which women had different roles and impacts on their own society.

Read More
878 Words | 4 Pages

In the villages of Umuofia, men are seen as more imperious and well respected while females are portrayed as weak. For example, it was mentioned that “his mothers and sisters worked hard enough but they grew women’s crops like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.” (Achebe 17).

Read More

More about Muxes In Zapotec Culture

Related Topics

Open Document