Xochihuaque, or Cross-Dressed Man and Woman

Format: Illuminated Codex

Location of Production: Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, Mexico City, New Spain

 Xochihuaque, or cross-dressed man and woman appears in Book 10 of the Florentine Codex, a 16th-century manuscript created in colonial Mexico through the collaboration of Bernardino de Sahagún, Nahua authors, and artists. The image shows two seated figures, one dressed as a man and the other as a woman, with speech scrolls emerging from their mouths. The accompanying text describes a xochihua, or “possessor of flowers,” as someone who adopts the clothing, hairstyle, speech, and behavior associated with another gender. The female-presenting figure has a traditional hairstyle and sits with her legs folded behind her, while the male-presenting figure has cropped hair and masculine clothing. The flower between them identifies them as xochihuaque (Sousa, 2017).

This image demonstrates how information design was practiced before modern printing by combining written language with visual signs. The speech scrolls, clothing, hairstyles, posture, and flower each communicate information that supports the written description. These elements function as informational signs rather than decoration, showing how manuscript designers could organize complex social information through both visual and verbal communication.

This image provides an example of how gender nonconformity can be communicated through graphic design because it communicates gender through multiple recognizable signs rather than biological characteristics alone. Sousa explains that the text and image suggest that “gender has trumped biology,” with the person dressed and speaking as a man being biologically female and vice versa (Sousa, 2017). The design makes this gender crossing visible through clothing, hair, posture, and speech. The combination of these signs especially important because no single characteristic communicates gender by itself. Instead, the viewer interprets several signs together to understand how each person is presenting their gender. This demonstrates how graphic design can make gender nonconformity visible through culturally specific systems of visual communication.