Tired and fed up with daily life in the patriarchy, Friederike Oertel embarks on a journey to Mexico – to one of the last matriarchies in the world. She hopes to gain some distance, learn from the local women, and return home with fresh perspectives. But even in a matriarchy, being a woman proves to be more complicated than she expected.
Many things are different in Juchitán: women are the heads of their families, property is passed down from mothers to daughters, and muxes – individuals of a third gender – are socially accepted. This “city of women” is generally considered a matriarchy and, as such, a living alternative to patriarchy.
With language that brings the shimmering colors of the place to life, and with an empathetic view of an urban society that functions according to its own rules, the author explores her own womanhood, investigates self-doubt and contradictions, questions gender-role expectations, and allows emotions to wash over and rinse through her. The centuries-old concept of matriarchy is both myth and reality, one that turns Friederike Oertel’s life upside down and helps her to reexamine what it truly means to be a woman in a patriarchal society.
