Melding tradition with modernity, a folk dance troupe is making waves in Mexico by welcoming all comers, letting its dancers smash taboos and perform in whatever gender makes them happy.
Esmeralda Nunez could not be happier.
Growing up in Jalisco state, the birthplace of Mexico’s national dance, the ‘jarabe tapatio’, folk tradition was part of her childhood.
“Dancing was my passion,” the 28-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But fulfilling her passion came at a cost for Nunez, a transgender woman who had to dance as a boy in her traditional and mostly Catholic homeland.
Wearing the . . .
