Las ngad’i-dokwe: disrupciones rituales, cuerpos alterados y alteridades corporales en el mundo otomi

Among the Otomí of the Huasteca region, Carnival is presided over by the figure of the zithū (the devil, “devourer of names”), also known as mpøhø, “the rich man” or “the mestizo”. Within the Carnival celebrations, one finds characters such as the “ladies” (in Otomí, xumphø), cross-dressed men who em- body an unrestrained and sexualized desire for play and festivity. A more recent variant, known as the “madwomen” (ngäd’i), consists of men who openly identify as dokwe or homosexuals; this collective has disrupted the celebrations by introducing new aesthetics into the Huasteca Carnival. The article examines the ngäd’i-dokwe from an analytical perspective that foregrounds the unstable, shifting character of these sexed bodies as they continually move between the Otomí and mestizo worlds.