Amidst applause and jubilant dancing, the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, Victor Hugo Sosa, partook in a unique marriage ceremony with a female reptile, as per a traditional custom believed to bestow prosperity upon his community.
The town, located in the Tehuantepec isthmus of Mexico and predominantly inhabited by Indigenous Chontal people, witnessed the reenactment of an ancestral ritual, where Sosa pledged his union to a reptile named Alicia Adriana.
The reptile is a caiman, a species resembling an alligator and commonly found in the marshlands of Mexico and Central America. Sosa pledged his loyalty to what local folklore refers to as "the princess girl," and vowed to remain faithful.
"I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important. You can't have a marriage without love... I yield to marriage with the princess girl," Sosa said during the ritual.
Marriage between a man and a female caiman has happened here for 230 years to commemorate the day when two Indigenous groups came to peace -- with a marriage.
According to tradition, a Chontal king, currently symbolised by the mayor, forged unity by marrying a princess girl from the Huave Indigenous group, who is symbolised by the female alligator. The Huave community resides in the coastal region of Oaxaca state, situated near this inland town.
The wedding allows the sides to "link with what is the emblem of Mother Earth, asking the all-powerful for rain, the germination of the seed, all those things that are peace and harmony for the Chontal man," Jaime Zarate, chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula, explained.
Before the wedding ceremony, the reptile is taken house to house so that inhabitants can take her in their arms and dance. The alligator wears a green skirt, a colorful hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins.
The creature's snout is bound shut to avoid any pre-marital mishaps.
Later, she is put in a white bride's costume and taken to town hall for the blessed event.
As part of the ritual, Joel Vasquez, a local fisherman, tosses his net and intones the town's hopes that the marriage may bring "good fishing, so that there is prosperity, equilibrium and ways to live in peace."
After the wedding, the mayor dances with his bride to the sounds of traditional music.
"We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content," Sosa told AFP.
As the dance winds down, the king plants a kiss on the snout of the "princess girl."
(AFP)
Kulsuma Aktergetty images
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