Cuarenta y uno ( y uno más)

I either knew, or forgot,that yesterday was the anniversary of the “Baile de los cuarenta y uno”… the 41 Dance of 18 November 1901.  This was the raid on a drag ball (about half the men were in women’s clothing), that ended with the men … who were mostly from prominent Mexican City families… were arrested and “sold” as convict laborers for Oaxacan tobacco farms or into labor battalions for the army.

41 is a odd number, and if it was a formal ball (drag or otherwise), someone was missing a dance partner.  The missing person was said to have been Ignacio de la Torre… just coincidentally Porfirio Diaz’ son-in-law, and uncle by marriage to the then Mexico City police chief, Felix Diaz.  While Ignacio’s sexual preferences were well known, he kept a relatively low profile the rest of his life, though he showed a particular interest in a handsome, well-dressed horse trainer he later hired.  A fellow named Emiliano Zapata.  No evidence that Zapata had much in common with de la Torre beyond an interest in horses, but still, Zapata was thin, neat, and a snappy dresser.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Cuarenta y uno, more than a century later, is still Mexico City slang for a gay man.