Mexican Mayor Marries Reptile To Bring Fortune To His People
In a customary ceremony meant to bring prosperity to his people, the mayor of a tiny town in southern Mexico wed a female lizard while bystanders cheered and danced.
In reenacting an ancestral tradition, Victor Hugo Sosa, the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a village of Indigenous Chontal people in the Tehuantepec isthmus of Mexico, chose Alicia Adriana, a lizard, as his bride.
The reptile is a caiman, a marsh creature that is native to Mexico and Central America and resembles an alligator.
According to local legend, Sosa vowed to stay true to “the princess girl.”
“I take ownership because we care about one another. That is what matters. Without love, a marriage cannot exist… During the ritual, Sosa declared, “I submit to marriage with the princess daughter.
Since 230 years ago, a male and female caiman has been married to mark the occasion when two Indigenous communities made peace through matrimony.
According to tradition, conflicts were resolved when a Chontal king, represented in modern times by the mayor, wed a princess girl of the Huave Indigenous group, symbolized by the female alligator.
Near this inland village, in the state of Oaxaca, reside the Huave. In order to “link with what is the emblem of Mother Earth, asking the all-powerful for rain, the germination of the seed, and all those things that are peace and harmony for the Chontal man,” as Jaime Zarate, chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula, puts it, the parties can “link with what is the symbol of Mother Earth” at the wedding.
The reptile is transported from home to house before the wedding so that the residents can dance with her while she is in their arms. The alligator is decked out with a green skirt, vibrant hand-embroidered tunic, ribbon, and sequin headpiece.
She is afterward dressed as a white bride and brought to the town hall for the blessed occasion.
A local fisherman, Joel Vasquez throws his net as part of the ceremony while reciting the community’s wishes that the union will result in “good fishing so that there is prosperity, equilibrium, and ways to live in peace.”
Following the ceremony, the mayor and his bride dance to traditional music.
Because we celebrate the blending of two cultures, we are joyful. The populace is happy, Sosa told AFP.
