Amidst the seemingly-ceaseless hostility and discriminatory air the year 2020 has enveloped us in, a brief reprieve from said negativity may be found in the pages of Nelson Morales’ book Musas Muxe. Morales explores not only sexuality and gender identity in his intensely-colored photographs, but explicates a refreshing cultural acceptance to a third gender.

A muxe is an individual assigned male at birth but takes to the behaviors and dress commonly associated with femininity. Growing up in the city of Oaxaca, central Mexico, Morales was exposed to the bracing overall inclusion of this third gender. Contrastingly to Mexico’s ethnic culture majority, the Zepotec culture of southern Mexico possesses a predominant population of muxes and therefore face less hostility than their openly gay and trans counterparts in other regions of Mexico. The Zepotec culture sees the idea of choosing gender or sexual orientation as farcical; akin to suggesting one can choose their own skin color.

Equivalently to our own westernized version of sexuality, a sort of spectrum and fluidity exists regarding these incongruous individuals. The authentic muxe, who wants to be a woman and lives as such. The muxes children, who throughout their childhood can wear women’s clothing. The elderly muxes. And the muxes who do not dress up as women. The muxes may be vestidas– “dressed”– wearing female clothes, or pintadas– “painted”– wearing male clothes and makeup.

Over the eight-year documentation, Morales not only captures the dynamism, intimacy, and lifestyles of these people, but confronts his own identity in relation to them. While photographing the series, the inclination to assimilate with them and bask in their transgressive freedom sparred with Morales’ fear of tension and repudiation among them. With every photograph taken, the muxes became more and more intertwined as a part of Morales collective story and of his culture. He considers them to be dual entities. Rather than confining themselves to the label of “homosexual”, the muxes have eclipsed the notion of gender and appropriated a complete, new singularity with its own sentiment of beauty.

To some, the characters which vibrantly recline across two-page spreads, may be disquieting but to Morales they document the journey to his own realization and happiness, encapsulating different moments and dimensions of his life. Through his muxe series, Morales exemplifies the view of a gay-friendly indigenous culture, pointing his lens towards the perseverance of lives commonly associated with affliction and alienation, yet bolstering self-professed pride.