Zapotec culture

Where women rule !... by Simon & Katerina

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Although Mexico has become the second largest economy in Latin America, it still hasn’t managed to shake off its old macho cowboy image. In the far South of the country, however, since the Spanish conquistadors set foot on the continent, a group of indigenous Indians have stubbornly fought to be an exception to that rule.

Matriarchal strength... Medium

• Women control business and family money.
• Women are actively involved in politics.
• Women are regarded as being the more rational and intelligent of the sexes.
• Young educated Zapotecs are trying to preserve their special cultural heritage.

Threats to the system... High

• Women are becoming more dependent on the man’s earnings.
• Fewer women are doing business, because of competition from outsiders.
• Alcoholism from the rest of Mexican society is creating a more violent society.

Impressions from our first trip in 2005:

“Around the plaza of Tehuantepec we see women, big women, riding motorized chariots like in the 1959 film ‘Ben-Hur’, the drivers are men - puny men. The women are fully clad in traditional Zapotec dress; long flowing skirts and black tops boldly embroidered with brightly coloured flowers. We note their destination - ‘San Blas Atempa’

“Yes, women rule here but men do not want to admit it,” says Maria, a huge butcher woman at the local street market in San Blas Atempa.

“I am the head of the family because I look after money. When a family is poor people will gossip that the woman is not good in managing money.“

What happens if your husband refuses to give you the money?

“That is simple - he will not eat,” she says smiling resolutely.

Manuel, Maria’s skinny husband, works as a motor-caro driver and waits patiently on the other side of the street.

“For sure the selling at the market is better," he says, "you finish your work early, as a driver you have to work the whole day."

“But, I could not do it because there are just women here. Everywhere else in Mexico men also work at the markets."

A sign of the old ways

Men work the feilds from 3am to 10am, giving the produce to the women to sell at the market, while the men sleep during the day.

Later, the wife returns and give her husband some pocket money, which he invariably spends on alcohol, namely mescal (the local spirit made from the Agava plant).

“Why do only women dance at the fiestas?

“This is our tradition. Some men will dance later. They have to drink first to gain some courage,” Valentina says, glancing over towards the men’s half with a concerned look.

Valintina and Victor had invited us for a nonestop evening of Fiestas in Sanblas.

Victor, with a beer in one hand and a plate of Ignuana tacos in the other tells us: “Women do not drink so much, so they are cleverer in the head. A man just gets drunk, sees another woman and loses his mind and disappears. He cannot manage money like a woman can.”

A young Tehuana, who runs graphic design shop explains the difference between her and her friends from other parts of Mexico: “ I am surely more confident. I am not afraid to defend myself. My mum taught me that when someone attacks me, I have to ‘take a stone, or a stick, or whatever you can find and fight’.”

“This is how I was brought up, to be independent and to arrange and solve everything. My mum says – ‘learn, you will have to look after your man one day, when you get married’.”

“My dream is to set up a culture centre in my town with a real arts scene. I am already involved with a group of friends in various cultural activities. We publish a Zapotec magazine and organise musical concerts. We are trying to revive our old traditions where only non-alcoholic horchata is drunk.”

"Women are in charge," the policeman jokes, slowly nodding his head, and then breaks into laughter.

Moments after the policeman leaves the bar a fight erupts. The barman tries to stop it, but it is too late. The women are at each others throats kicking and shouting.