Keeping Zapotec's matriarchal tradition alive

In a film from the 1930s, the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein documented the life of the Zapotecs - self-determined women who worked as traders, kept stores of gold and chose their own husbands. This matriarchy where women wield the economic power and run public life was a legacy of the more than 2,500-year-old Zapotec culture. What’s left of this a century later, in a nation well-known for its machismo culture? Zapotec women live in the southern Mexican city of Juchitán, in a region that thrives on exchange between North and South, between the Pacific and the Atlantic. Here, the women have always done the trading. Lola took over her mother’s store selling traditional items of clothing. In 2017, an earthquake hit the region and destroyed the market, the beating heart of the city. The catastrophe also jeopardized the power of Zapotec women. With the support of her two daughters Paulina and Marisela, Lola and the other market traders were able to get back to work. Together they were once again able to organize what’s always been a motor of their redistribution economy: Festivals. 600 festivals are celebrated in the city every year, with women as the focal point. In a few days’ time it’ll be Jade’s 15th birthday marking her entry into this community of women. Her mother Ana Lilia, also a market trader, has been saving up for this event for months and wants everything to be perfect. Her muxe friend Coral helps her with the decorations made from thousands of colored cut-out pieces of paper. In Juchitán, muxes identify as people of the third gender. They are born male and assume women’s roles in the family and within society. Once a year, a church mass is held in honor of the more than 4,000 muxes - a unique event in Mexico. With every day and every festival, the Zapotec women of Juchitán defy the prevailing machismo in Mexico and fight to sustain their tradition.