The indigenous Zapotecs consider the “Muxes” to be a third type; they are generally people who feel and are rich like women. In the new Mexican drama, a boy moves to a small town in Oaxaca and seeing Muxes for the first time, which makes people wonder who he is. As it happens, a mysterious death brings the boy closer to his best friend.
Opening Shot: A boy runs through the trees to the cave, and a man in a red kerchief follows him.
Core: We saw someone talking to a young boy, then another boy came into the cave, hearing his friend struggling. He defended his friend against the man, who called the boy a gay slur. A fight ensues. The man, who appeared to be drunk, stumbled back and fell into the river, smacking his head on a rock in the water. Blood flows upward, and the man either faints or dies.
A few weeks earlier, Manuel (Frida Sofía Cruz Salinas) arrived in a small town in Oaxaca to stay with his grandmother Rafaela (Mercedes Hernández). Luisa (Iazua Larios), a friend of Manuel’s mother, introduces her son Erik (Mauro Guzmán), who is the same age. They don’t seem to have much in common; Erik plays baseball, but Manuel doesn’t like sports. But Erik is told to make Manuel feel comfortable, and the two begin to bond as Manuel does some daring things like take an iguana from a teenager trying to hunt it, take a hunter’s bike, and ride a restricted wind farm.
When Manuel goes to the market to deliver his grandmother’s dishes to some vendors, he is attracted to Solange (La Bruja de Texcoco), a transgender woman. In Zapotec culture, people like Solange are called Muxes, or people who act and dress like women; The Zapotecs consider the Muxes a “third gender,” though more traditional men like Erik’s father Jacinto (Jorge A. Jimenez) disagree.
Jacinto doesn’t like Erik hanging out with Manuel; he also calls Manuel a gay slur and tells Erik that hanging out with Manuel can make him gay, too. Erik points out to Manuel that he walks differently and differently from him. Manuel doesn’t seem to care, and so does Erik, but he says it’s to look out for a new friend. They were hanging out in a cave by the river that had been Erik’s personal place for years.
Rafaela takes Manuel to Solange’s house, where she and another woman make a dress. Solange talks to Manuel about Muxes, and Manuel is intrigued. It also helps people solidify their identity, which we see when Erik takes them to another secret place, where both men and women bathe.
Will Sharing Remind You? Heart barrier meet I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Take us: In the middle of The Secret of the River is the friendship between Erik and Manuel, which started as a pretty fast and close friendship and only got older as the two boys tried to cover up what happened in the river.
Nothing is wrong; Manuel died during the family wedding when Jacinto gave him a smack on the head and told him that he was happy to go back home, and one of the people in the wedding party stumbled over and attacked him. Erik defends him, and that causes the attacker to trip and hit his head in the river.
But that’s not what boys would think; they think the death is their fault, and as they investigate, their friends will grow closer as they try to keep the story straight.
In the second half of the season, the grown-up Erik (Diego Calva) will face this death, although we are not sure if it will be with the grown-up Manuel or not – perhaps Manuel discovers that he is Muex and changes his name. . Either way, the first half of the season is an illustration of how someone like Erik can overcome the biases of the household he grew up in and expand his horizons through his friendship with Manuel.
Type and Skin: It wasn’t in the first episode.
Parting shot: Jacinto leads the search party for the missing man, who is now stuck on some rocks in the river.
Sleeping stars: Lisa Rivas plays the young Paulina, a classmate that Erik falls in love with. He seems like a person, but it also seems that the long-simmering relationship will fix at some point; Yoshira Escárrega plays Paulina as an adult.
Most Pilot-y Line: When young Pauline said no to young Erik who asked her to be his girlfriend, she said, “Don’t say no. One day, we will get married.” Is being an obsessive stalker any less creepy at 11?
Call Us: STREAM IT. The Secret of the River is a touching story of unexpected friendships that are made before tragedy strikes and become solid after.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but not the kids themselves: they’re TV junkies. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and others.
