Mexico: Folk dancing from the land "where no [gays] are born / and those who are born die"

Oh fun. So you are a member of a folk dance troop from a coastal Mexican region and you're invited to perform for the editorial team of a local Oaxaca newspaper. You begin with a little verse about your hometown of Pinotepa and thank the journalists for the invite.

The men wear white shirts and pants and cream-colored straw hats. The women wear long colorful skirts and their long hair tied in braids. The traditional dances illustrate elaborate courtships and dancers of opposite gender trade sing-along verses as they dance. The guest newspaper, Noticias, calls some of the verses "picaresque."

Take this one, for example: "I'm from the Small Coast where there are plenty of flings / where the men are men and women women / where no fags are born / and those who are born die."

Ah, how quaint. Mexican machismo and homophobia is alive and well even in some forms of traditional cultural expression.