“One great friend is worth more than a thousand lovers.” – Quote from The Secret Of The River

This series will absorb you from beginning to end. The milieu is a sub-culture within a perennial culture, with the subculture being both accepted yet simultaneously reviled. It is also a ‘love’ story between two young boys that again transcends our definition of love. It is not necessarily romantic but clearly goes beyond the level of being platonic. It is a special and unique love shared between two boys that morphs into a devotion unique only with them. It is a stunning and beautiful love story that even surpasses our conventional understanding of any defining description of affection.

The story takes place in a small village in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. Manuel (Frida Sophia Cruz Salinaz) comes to live with his grandmother out of necessity. Manuel is ‘different’. Something about the way he acts and behaves does not live up to the standards of being a male. Meanwhile, Erik (Mauro Guzman) befriends him, even though Manuel is not like him. He is drawn to him. They form this strange and wonderful bond between them that becomes unshakable and strong. Even at the rath of Erik’s father, who is considerably homophobic, cannot disquiet this chain between them.

While exploring the town, Manuel encounters someone special and unique. He meets Solange (La Bruja de Texcoco) She is a Muxe. I was completely unaware of the concept of a Muxe or its impact on that part of the Mexican culture. A Muxe is a man dressed as a woman and acts like one. They are men who fashion and conduct themselves in ways associated as women in the community. They are recognized among the Zapotec people in Oaxaca, Mexico as a ‘third gender’. This concept has gone back generations. Interestingly, men use Muxes to learn about sex but for the most part would never consider themselves ‘gay’. In large part, this is also a story about the Muxes as well. There is no diminishing their impact on this story or on the culture as a whole. It is a fascinating story of how something considered abhorrent can be blended and woven into the culture of society as normalized as it is and yet still not be accepted. It is just not logical. Thus, the paradox of culture.

When Manuel discovers the world of the Muxes, he realizes he is accepted yet does not feel like this is still him. He loves the trappings but still feels hollow inside. The bond between Erik and Manuel grows exponentially, and they act as if they are linked almost symbiotically. Unfortunately, they are involved in an incident leading to the death of Eric’s uncle when he tries to do something truly abhorrent to Manuel. Erik and Manuel make a pact, an oath, to never revel its secret which is….

Unfortunately, Manuel’s real father reemerges and forcibly removes Manuel from his grandmother. Before leaving, Eric and Manuel share a covenant that no matter what, they will never be parted from each other.

Fast forward 20 years and Manuel returns to attend Solange’s funeral. Much has changed. Manuel is now Sicaru (Trinidad Gonzalez, who is trans in real life). She has undergone gender affirmation surgery and now lives with her boyfriend in the United States. Eric (Diego Calva) has obviously blossomed into a handsome young man and is married to his childhood sweetheart Paulina (Yoshira Escarrega).

Their friendship now faces much different challenges as adults. This is a story of their internal struggles, tribulations, and confused feelings as they try, and sort out what kinds of relationships they all have and what really does the intensity of their connections honestly mean.

This is an exceptionally well-acted series that goes deep into the characters’ psyche. However, who are the REAL stars in this series are the individuals who are the Muxes. Solange is center-stage in the first half of this series. She provides moral guidance and a focus on how these boys need to relate to each other. She also provides a compass on how to love one another in a way that defines it only for them. Hence, their guiding principle is the quote about. Perhaps not understood as children but taken to heart as adults. La Bruja de Texcoco as Solange is a beacon of acting prowess. The gentleness, softness, yet commitment to the role is masterful and needs to be studied as a prime example of how to make acting look natural. Nova Coronel as Ambar picks up where Solange left off in the second half of the series. Here is a character so complex that volumes could be written on whom she really is. Her portrayal will leave you sometimes feeling pity for her, perhaps disappointment at other times, but always with a sense that she knows exactly and precisely who and what she is. As do the rest of the ‘muxes’ in this conclave. They carry the weight of the show as well as the main leads.

While not quite a duology, as there are so many flashbacks, the demarcation between childhood and adulthood is unequivocal. It is not smooth. Nor should it have been. This is an overwhelmingly complex series full of emotions. I am not sure I fully appreciated all that it tried to accomplish. There is so much happening within the lives of the characters that their emotional connections and how they are feeling are sometimes lost because the story gets in the way.

This series is intricately complex and reflects not only the struggles of the Muxes but of the acceptance of people who are different and also forgotten. This is still an age-old story of how much society will accept and tolerate and continue with its irrational fear of gayness that it seems to have over a dominant masculine society. And how much evilness is simply too much to endure because of male toxicity?

We also see clearly the agony of accepting, even from loved ones who in essence were our soulmates, to embrace who we truly are. It means a confrontation of how we not only see them but ourselves. More importantly, we also need to confront our feelings we have for that person. What are they to us now? How do we define them? How do we love them? Can we love them? These are just some of the journeys you will need to explore when you watch this series.

This is a deeply poignant story full of emotional upheavals and significant traumas. While it handled it all very well, it overall seemed too much for one story. The story gets a bit frayed for me when it gets so convoluted into such intricacies and other sensitive topics. All it really needed was the portrait of the two little boys and the affirmations of the transitions of them as adults. That along with the muxes would have been enough.

Now for the hard part. I would have given this series a higher rating, but two derivations bothered me significantly. One was the subtle but almost overwhelming perception that all gay males will end up being Muxes or effeminate in nature. That is a bothersome concept to me because it is implied, I am sorry to say, that gay males have a natural disposition to like to dress up as females. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would venture to say that most gay males, while we appreciate the world of drag and fully support trans individuals, do not want to dress or be women. Yes, to be sure there are effeminate gay males but that does not translate that gay males overall want to be, ‘Muxes’. That is a fallacy and a sweeping generalization.

More so, the second thing that bothered me was the fact that a girl played a part in what clearly was a boy questioning who he was. He was in no way ‘trans’ nor even knew what that even meant. While he was different, he was still a male. A role, in my mind, that should have gone to a young male actor strong enough to play that part. I am sorry but I do not subscribe to the opinion that a girl had to nail down the more effeminate portions of his personality and therefore needed to be played by a female. It is called – ACTING. I found that a bit disingenuous. This is not a reflection of her acting. She is superb in the role and indeed, this is a role of a lifetime for her. I question the wisdom and optics of casting a female for what was clearly a male role. That I found defeated the message of this series. We needed to see how a male, in all his clumsiness and uncomfortableness, would have played the role of trying to be a female for the first time. Instead, it was too smooth and polished. There was so much good in this series. For me, this really soured my opinion of telling a full and complete story. I simply refuse to believe that there is not one young male actor who would or could have played that part or would have been willing to play this role as written. It seems a shame that the director just did not take the one final step to breaking down the walls of fears and risks. As a gay man who has lived a long time and has been through so much pain/trauma to ‘come out’, I know I am being unnecessarily sensitive here, but I am hurt and offended that a choice was made to have a female play a male part.

Nonetheless, with that aside, this is an exceptional series that had me riveted and absorbed. It will have you emotionally drained before the end of it and perhaps a little angry about the continued mistreatment of individuals who no fault of their own are different and simply dance to the beat of a different drum.

I would have been completely all in if it had been a bit truer to itself; but it was not. I would watch this series again, however, just for its efforts.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Streaming on- Netflix