WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN AUGUST
August
5
GO: Screening on Thursday,
August 5, at the Black Box, 1060 Union Ave., KCMO. Indoor screening at 5 pm, outdoor screening at 8 pm.
LEARNING LANGUAGE Hugo Ximello-Salido isn’t the first documentarian to train his lens on Muxe (pronounced MOOche), a third gender that’s an established and celebrated part of the Zapotec culture in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. MUXE: The Language of Art & Culture, a new documentary from KCbased Ximello-Salido that will make its local premiere at the Queer Narrative Festival at the Black Box West Bottoms, stands out for not just its striking imagery but also its deep dive into the cultural roots of the Muxe. “There are many documentaries about the Muxe community, but
none of them ask why they are concentrated in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca,” he says. “Zapotec language doesn’t use pronouns like we do—so this is telling us that Zapotec culture views on gender, prior to the Europeans, was very different.” Muxe aren’t what Americans would call transgender, he points out; they’re Muxe. “Something that really surprised me is how well integrated they are into their communities,” he says. “One of the things that I did was interview a priest. I asked many questions: How does Catholicism see the Muxe community? Are they judged by the church? His point was that it doesn’t matter—for anyone, you will be judged depending on your actions.”
KANSASCITYMAG.COM AUGUST 2021
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