Centenary of the Famous 41 : Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico,1901

On November 17, 1901, Mexico City police raided a private party and arrested 41 men, half of whom were dressed as women.

This clandestine transvestite ball was apparently not an unheard of phenomenon at the time, although it was not normally something that would gain national attention.

However, Mexican cultural trends in literature, in art, in the sciences and in journalism were inciting an atmosphere of sexual curiosity that was in search of the right turn of events to ignite a discursive explosion and focus interest on what was not a new phenomenon, but what was about to become a new concept: homosexuality.

The "nefarious ball" scandalized Mexico City and is still part of the city's lore.

It provoked social commentary on the state of masculinity in Mexico; it lived, and lives on, in popular culture; it has spawned a novel, as well as songs, ditties, engravings by famous Mexican artists and other cultural artifacts.

The editors take the scandal as the point of departure for a book that examines issues of sexuality and social control in Mexico at the turn of the century. The ball is treated as a cultural event in itself - the editors have assembled pictures, have translated part of a historical novel about the event, and include the famous engravings of Posada while, at the same time, including essays that broadly speak about the underworld in Mexico City.

What emerges from this volume is a comprehensive slice of history that includes essays on working class minorities, prison conditions, criminology, mental health discourse, etc.