The mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, an indigenous Mexican community, took a female reptile as his wife. A 230 year old tradition.
A young bride with a reptilian gaze. Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa of San Pedro Huamelula, a Chontal indigenous community in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, located in southern Oaxaca state, Mexico, married a female caiman on Friday, in a traditional rite to seek prosperity and abundance for his fellow citizens.
“I accept this responsibility because we love each other: that’s what’s important, there can be no marriage if we don’t love each other. We love each other and I agree to marry the princess,” said solemnly the mayor.
The union between a male and a female caiman has been celebrated in this city for more than 230 years, to commemorate the day when two ethnic groups of the region, the Huaves and the Chontales, united through marriage.
A union to “connect to Mother Earth”
Called Alicia Adriana, the young reptile bride played the role of “the little princess” in this ancient celebration and was dressed in a white dress with silver trimmings.
According to tradition, the disputes between two towns ended with the marriage of King Chontal, now represented by the mayor, and the Huave princess, of San Mateo del Mar, embodied by the reptile.
The union allows “to connect with Mother Earth. To ask for rains, germination of seeds, all those things that are peace, the harmony of the chontal man”, explains Jaime Zarate, chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula.
The mouth always well attached
Before the wedding, Alicia Adriana is taken from house to house, wearing a green skirt, a black huipil and a headdress made of colored ribbons and sequins, for the locals to dance with her. Its mouth well attached, to avoid problems.
Joel Vasquez, fisherman from the community, casts his net and says his faith that marriage favors “good fishing, so that there is prosperity and to find the means to live in peace and good balances”.
After the wedding, the mayor dances with his wife to the rhythm of the city’s traditional music. The dance ends with a kiss which seals the union between the king and the princess. “Today’s wedding makes us very happy, because we are thus celebrating the union of two cultures. The population is happy”, assured Victor Hugo Sosa.
Source: BFM TV
