The Secret of the River review, excellent Mexican series

The Secret of the River (El Secreto del Río) comes from Mexico. It’s an 8 part series. I thought it was a queer masterpiece full of tender and touching portraits of what it is to be transgender, or muxes, in certain parts of Oaxaca.

The Secret of the River has many storylines. There is a mystery/suspense thread. There is an in depth exploration of friendship in many forms. There are several love stories. At the heart of it all is a beautiful boy named Manuel (Frida Sofía Cruz Salinas) who grows up to be a beautiful woman named Sicarú (Trinidad González).

The opening scene is a drunk man falling into a river and hitting his head on a rock. Watching him die are Manuel and Young Erik (Mauro Guzmán). The man was attempting to molest Manuel. The children fought back. They were afraid they would be sent to jail, although the death was an accident. They agree to never tell what happened.

Then the story backs up and we see how things go to that point. Manuel came to the small Oaxacan village to stay with his grandmother (Mercedes Hernández). He thought it was a temporary visit while his mother worked in the U.S. He became friends with Erik.

Erik was all boy with a homophobic father (Jorge A. Jimenez) who didn’t want his kid hanging around with the feminine acting Manuel. The father tried to beat the friendship out of Erik, but it didn’t work. Erik had a crush on Young Paulina (Lisa Rivas) and she became one of Manuel’s allies, too.

The child actors in the series carried most of it for many episodes and they were outstanding, particularly Frida Sofía Cruz Salinas. Manuel was bullied, harassed and misunderstood. His friends didn’t really understand him either, but they tried.

Their village was home to a group of muxes. Muxes are sometimes referred to as a third gender. When Manuel saw Solange (La Bruja de Texcoco) in the market, he recognized immediately that he had found something he wanted to know more about. He befriended Solange, Ámbar (Nova Coronel), and other muxes. They helped him understand himself.

Later, after the incident at the river, Manuel’s homophobic father came and took him away from the grandmother. The friends were separated at age 9.

Erik (Diego Calva as an adult) stays in the village. He marries Paulina (Yoshira Escárrega as an adult). After 20 years, their old friend returns as the transgender woman Sicarú. It was a difficult adjustment for Erik accepting Sicarú as a woman. Her muxes friends embraced her immediately.

One of Sicarú’s childhood bullies was now chief of police. He harassed her as an adult and seemed to have found some damning evidence about that 20 year old death in the river. Plus he was doing something shady in Sicarú’s grandmother’s old house.

All of Sicarú’s life had been lived under threat and tension, but now the story grew dangerous and suspenseful. Some exciting things happened toward the end that put the lifelong friendships Sicarú had built to the test.

The entire series was a thoughtful and enlightened examination of gender. The way the child Manuel was portrayed was well done – so clear, and so full of understanding. I found it beautiful. I know a lot of folks have watched Will & Harper recently. It comes at transition from an older person’s perspective. With Manuel, we see it from the beginning and witness what it means to be different as a child in an unaccepting world.

The trailer is not full of spoilers. You can see The Secret of the River on Netflix.