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She sat patiently as ardent beauticians prepared her for her formal investiture, a highlight of the three-day festival — or vela — that celebrates muxe culture here every November.

This weekend's festival is called the "True Fearless Seekers of Danger" vela, a name that harkens to the risk many members of the community face.

As soon as the sun sets, locals gather at the cemetery to light candles over their family tombs and start a vigil known as “vela.”

TNT will not be used; it would malfunction like it did when they took down the first vela in 1997.

On the opposite wall were displays of marbled papers hand-rubbed with beeswax, bookbinders’ tools laid out in glass cases like surgical instruments and an 18th-century velum press standing tall beside the entrance door.