Los Mecos De Veracruz: Queer Gestures and the Performance of Nahua Indigeneity

This article examines the “danza de los mecos”, a dance performed annually by young Nahua men during carnaval in Tecomate, Veracruz, honor of Tlacatecolotl/Tlahuelliloc, deceitful and capricious demon-like figure otherwise known as “el Diablo”. The performance features Indigenous who dress devils, wear masks, or women. Drawing on fieldwork, I analyse mecos” critical site which to examine embodiment indigeneity, enactment epistemologies, queer gestures that subvert colonial structures power contemporary Mexico. By focusing dancing bodies, attend intricate ways bodily acts transmit memory, knowledge, imagination through ritual. explore role embodied expressions indigeneity play queering systems power, while allowing simultaneously assert undermine their masculinity.