*Updated May 24*
Guadalajara -
In Chihuahua, a 23 year old member of Mexico's lower legislative body, the Cámara de Diputados, is taking heat for the snug miniskirt she likes to wear on the floor of the chamber.
In the border town of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, across from Del Rio, Texas, the garment is outright banned by a local ordinance designed to protect community morals. The prohibition extends to heterosexual and homosexual wearers alike. City fathers maintain that miniskirts provocatively displayed on city sidewalks are an affront to local standards of decency.
In Playa del Carmen, along Mexico's Riviera Maya where spring breakers will soon be arriving, a 24 year old transvestite dressed in feminine attire was found by police yesterday morning, his face half destroyed by the .9 mm round which penetrated it a point blank range. The Los Zetas drug cartel is probably responsible, they say.
Expressing one's sexual identity in Mexico can be a risky proposition, even when it's accomplished by nothing more than the choice of wardrobe. Just ask PRD federal deputy Crystal Tovar Aragón.
Earlier this month a Mexican news blogger wrote a piece in Spanish about the legislator on Yahoo! "Crystal Tovar, the deputy with the shortest miniskirt" went viral in this country with these comments:
"The deputy emerged from obscurity a little more than a week ago, distinguishing herself among the 500 legislators who comprise the House of Deputies. And not because of any legislative initiative.
"The truth is that a small article of clothing she displayed while attending a floor session catapulted her career, giving her those 15 minutes of fame which we will enlarge upon just a bit now to note the passions she aroused in every direction, because of a little piece of cloth, a photographer's curiosity and the lustful tendencies of everyone present.
"So far, she's distinguished herself as a legislator by wearing the shortest miniskirt. Nothing else."
The blogger published the photo with his story, from where it's been redistributed thousands of times. He implied that Tovar lacked the qualifications to serve, in large part because she's not yet earned a college degree. And he suggested that her presence was a distraction to those focused on important national business.
Some deputies were outraged and came to Tovar's defense, demanding that the press show greater respect for female legislators. Such articles may well encourage violence against women, they contend, in a country where crimes against females often receive light punishment, if any at all.
But Tovar told the press during an interview that all the commotion would not affect her own sense of style. "I dress the way I want to dress, and nobody's going to change that." She suggested that the blogger's comment is a good example of the rampant sexism - machismo, as it's called here - which Tovar said still infects every stratum of Mexican society.
The diputada serves on the Youth, Science and Technology and Foreign Relations committees of the Cámara, a body which is the equivalent of the U.S. House of Representatives. One of the youngest members, Tovar is in school pursing a bachelor's degree in governmental administration when she's not busy on the legislative floor.
The experience did carry consequences for the young representative. Tovar was forced to close her Facebook page and carefully monitor her social media sites because of insulting, even threatening remarks which were left for her.
"It's time to stop looking at women as an object," she told the press. "It seems to me at times that we're regressing, to notions that a woman's place is in the home, wearing long skirts and taking care of the children - perhaps even that she shouldn't vote. We're moving backward, not forward.
"But what I say is that women have the same ability as men, and we have the right to feel, to think, to dress as we want, and we must be shown respect."
Apparently no one was paying attention to Tovar's comments in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, where the city recently passed a local law absolutely forbidding the wearing of miniskirts in public places. The ordinance applies to women, but it was particularly targeted at gay males and transvestites - frequent offenders, according to authorities. The only dress acceptable within Acuña city limits, the law says, is that which displays "good taste, and does not offend prevailing community morals."
Meanwhile, in Playa del Carmen, Los Zetas left a message for a local transvestite. The body of the 24 year old male execution victim was found on a street early Monday morning, with a handwritten sign by his body: Esto me pasó por no alinearme con los Z: "This happened to me for not signing up with the Zetas." The man was a known prostitute in the area, police say, and he may have been killed for refusing to hand over part of his weekly earnings to the local cartel boss. Los Zetas frequently assess a derecho de piso - "floor charge" or rent - to those who solicit sex on the street, whether they're male or female. But it's more likely the man was not killed for selling sex or even for cross-dressing, but for being a chapulín - an independent seller of drugs. That is absolutely forbidden by Los Zetas and other major drug cartels. Those who don't agree to join the sales staff are marked for immediate execution.
May 24 - Another transvestite was found beaten and murdered in Playa del Carmen two days ago. According to a Q.R. press source, organized crime groups now charge prostitutes as much as $200 USD weekly to carry on their trade. That's a huge cost of doing business in Mexico's economy, but independents who refuse to comply ultimately pay a much higher price. The February case and this one may be connected, according to the state prosecutor.
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
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