Vogue is making history by featuring a Muxe person on the cover of its December issue in the U.K. and Mexico.
Muxe – derived from the Spanish word for woman, mujer – refers to a person assigned male at birth who lives her life as a woman and is sometimes seen as part of a third gender. The term is specific to the Zapotec cultures of southern Mexico, according to anthropologist and former California State University – Chico professor Beverly Chiñas.
Related: 17 men were busted pretending to be trans women to run for office in Mexico
Estrella Vazquez, a 37-year-old muxe designer, will grace the cover.
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“Once upon a time there was a land full of magic, fine gold, and iguanas, where the warm breeze still whispers in the ears of the people walking by,” Vogue Mexico wrote in its Instagram post.
“It is here that, in time immemorial, the story of the third gender begins. In a world in which labels seem essential, muxes appear as a figures who defy classification. The third gender has an important role in the Zapotec history and becomes the living proof of the ancestral magic that still walks on this land.”
“I think it’s a huge step,” cover model Vazquez told The Guardian about the magazine issue. “There’s still discrimination, but it’s not as much now and you don’t see it like you once did.”
