From forced marriage to advocate for Indigenous women, Guadalupe Paxilá challenges harmful community practices

At 15, Xkon was forced into a marriage after her parents received 20,000 pesos. She had two children from the union, then fled the situation and devoted herself to preventing other women from enduring what she had experienced.

Now a Maya Tseltal Indigenous lawyer from Guadalupe Paxilá, in Chiapas’s Chilón municipality, Xkon faces rejection from the community she works to defend. She says she lives in two worlds: her community, where traditions described as “uses and customs” continue, and the city, where such practices are viewed negatively. In both, she says, machismo dominates women.

“Many times there is a patriarchal pact in the community,” Xkon says. When a woman reports violence and a community lawyer supports her, relatives of the person involved can create a social structure to drive that lawyer out of the community, she says.

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Many times there is a patriarchal pact in the community.

Xkon, also known as Leticia, was among the women who pushed for a ban on child marriage. Mexico prohibited the practice by law in all states in 2020, with prison sentences of eight to 15 years for those who carry it out. Yet the article says such marriages still occur in some communities.

“These marriages still exist, and they are not agreed to by us but decided by our parents,” she says. She rejects describing them simply as “uses and customs,” calling them harmful community practices instead. INEGI’s 2020 population census recorded 1,029 children aged 12 to 14 who were married or in unions. Girls accounted for 809, or 79%, and boys for 220, or 21%. In most cases, the girls were partnered with men at least six years older.

Xkon continues her work so younger generations can have opportunities she did not.

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These marriages still exist, and they are not agreed to by us but decided by our parents.