On Thursday last week, San Pedro Huamelula’s mayor Victor Hugo Sosa went on to marry an alligator in a formal ceremony. The mayor joyfully granted the crowd’s repeated requests to kiss his blushing bride. LOL.
With roots in the native Chontal and Huave peoples, San Pedro Huamelula has been performing the alligator wedding custom for decades. Situated in the poor southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, on the Pacific coast, which is home to a sizable indigenous population.
A “small princess” alligator is chosen as the ceremonial bride, and the wedding celebrants sing, dance, and beg for favourable weather and fishing conditions from her. “We ask nature for enough rain, for enough food, that we have fish in the river,” Mayor Sosa explained.
