**1. Introduction**

Historically, melodrama and romantic comedy have been the most watched film genres in Mexico. In the beginning, the film industry contributed to the postrevolutionary national project to create an idea of a united, developing country. The melodrama and ranchera comedy produced in the Golden Age era (1936–1956) displayed a series of stereotypes related to an inherited European patriarchal culture and, according to Koper [1], to the notion of *mestizaje* that followed an official cultural policy depicting a "raceless" nation where the indigenous was apparently valued. These movie genres showed hegemonic stereotypes such as the macho, the pure and virginal woman, and the *Indio*, which were seen as "idealized identities" (p. 100) that reinforced the inequitable power relations and the discriminatory effects of this policy. Later, with a national transformation driven by modernity, these stereotypes evolved accordingly with changing economic, political, and social contexts, but still guided by a heteronormed society where class and gender inequalities remained, and indigenous people were reduced or made invisible.

Therefore, when indigenous people appear on the screen, they do not have a leading role or agency; their identity conflicts are not represented. They are conceived in a one dimensional fashion: precisely as "indigenous", "poor people" only ([2], p. 102), or simply as "heterosexuals". They are generally not portrayed as human beings with multiple dimensions, including various sexual identities. The practices and behavior of indigenous people represented on screen are defined by the religious syncretism that is inherited from the Spanish Conquest, and in which the cosmogony of their origins has become veiled. They are often presented as victims, forced to assimilate *mestizaje* or related to a class condition defined by a rurality that is perceived as backward. Most are minor characters, like farmers, domestic workers, healers and midwives; confident and hardworking people, but not very intelligent ([3], p. 284). Fiction films like *La Llovizna* (1977), *Ley de Herodes* (1999), *Piedras Verdes* (2001), *Roma* (2018), *El ombligo de Guie'dani* (2018), and *Nuevo orden* (2020) are good examples of this trend.

In contrast, *Sueño en otro idioma* (2017) is a melodrama that presents different characteristics. The film breaks away from class, race, gender, and ethnicity stereotypes that represent an established series of ideas about being Mexican. The story takes place in a small town defined by the encounter between the ancient culture of *Zikril* and worldwide neoliberalism. The film depicts a contemporary indigenous homosexual couple, like the metonymy of a nation where pre-Hispanic cultures, *mestizaje*, the social transformations of the Mexican Revolution, and the current crisis of modernity meet, showing another facet of Mexican identity. The characters act and make decisions, they are the protagonists, they are not victims or reduced to class differences, their inner world and their sexuality is explored, and although syncretism is present, their pre-Hispanic past is not veiled. The protagonists fight to be part of the national imaginary, in order to transform the stereotypical system that has long organized the idea of mexicaness.
