Xaneri's Story: Being a Muxe, Resisting, and Flourishing
She grew up as a muxe girl in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. In the city, she experienced sexist violence and called herself a transmuxe. Everywhere she goes, she is Xaneri, the one who weaves with her ancestors and lives her identity without fixed categories, embodying diverse childhoods and adolescences.
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Xaneri was born in Juchitán, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, to a family that embraced her femininity from childhood. Her paternal grandmother, a healer, sensed it before her birth: she was special. As a child, she was able to freely express her feminine nature and was recognized as a muxe huini , a Zapotec term for muxe girls .
Everything changed in her adolescence, when she migrated to the Costa Chica region, to San Pedro Jicayán, where she faced sexist violence. There, she had to hide her femininity and weave in secret. This activity became an intimate form of resistance. Although she was recognized as a muxe since childhood, her appropriation of the term has been a profound and personal process: she redefines it through tenderness, textiles, and flowers.
Xaneri describes herself as a transmuxe in urban contexts, and as a muxe' gunaa —one who wears feminine attire—in the Isthmus. She doesn't see her identity as a third gender or a fixed category, but rather as a living identity of duality and freedom. Her muxeity is expressed in both the feminine and the masculine.
An essential part of her life is the backstrap loom, which she learned from her Mixtec grandmother. For her, weaving is more than an art: it's a way of healing, storytelling, connecting with her ancestors, and resisting. Her weavings tell stories of pain, joy, and dignity.
Xaneri doesn't walk alone: she recognizes other muxes like Felina, Cazorla, Mitzary, and Pilar Salinas. She also recognizes those who have been murdered. She denounces the fact that the Isthmus is not the paradise many imagine for muxes: violence, forced migration, and a lack of access to healthcare and work continue.
muxe children and adolescents . She offers herself as a "garden" where others can grow and flourish without fear, wearing huipil and showcasing their femininity. She believes in tenderness as a radical policy, as a way to heal, resist, and embrace. For her work of care and visibility, she was crowned Muxe Queen in Oaxaca (2023) and Mexico City (2024). On July 5, she surrendered her crown. Her commitment continues: she remains a guide and a refuge so that others can live their muxeidad with dignity, pride, and love.
Juntes Narramos is a project by Malvestida , Volcánicas , GirlUp , Balance and Presentes to strengthen and amplify the voices of youth through narratives of diversity..
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