Mayor marries reptile to “bring good fortune to his people”
Onlookers clapped and danced as their mayor kissed a female caiman to “bring good fortune to his people”.
Victor Hugo Sosa, mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a town of Indigenous Chontal people in the Tehuantepec isthmus of Mexico, decided to re-enact an ancient ritual when he married a caiman named Alicia.
Alicia, a type of caiman endemic to Mexico and Central America, is also known as “the princess girl” by locals.
"I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important. You can't have a marriage without love... I yield to marriage with the princess girl," Sosa said during the ritual.
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According to News24, this type of ritual is nothing new.
Marriage between a human man and a female caiman has been part of a 230-year ritual.
This ritual commemorates the day two Indigenous groups came to peace by marriage.
“Tradition has it that frictions were overcome when a Chontal king, embodied these days by the mayor, wedded a princess girl of the Huave Indigenous group, represented by the female alligator.”
According to AFP, the caiman's snout was tied shut to avoid any potential mishaps.
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The creature was later put in a white bride's costume and taken to the town hall to be blessed.
After the wedding, the mayor danced with his bride to the sounds of traditional music before kissing the caiman on the snout.
"We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content," Sosa told AFP.
“We love each other” - Mexican mayor says as he weds a reptile pic.twitter.com/NPnhFFJVep
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