Lifestyle

Mexican 'professional protester' has an outfit for every cause

20 Aug 2019

Mexican activist Julia Klug organises Catholic outfits in Mexico City.

Some fashionistas pride themselves on having an outfit for every occasion. Julia Klug, a Mexican activist and veteran protester, prides herself on having an outfit for every demonstration.

Whether dressed up as a priest, president or the pope, Klug has been a staple of Mexico City protests for more than two decades, bringing a splash of colour to her chosen causes with her collection of hundreds of disguises.

Outfits worn by Mexican activist Julia Klug in protests in Mexico City.

Klug, 65, does not shy from wearing her costumes to even the most serious of protests.

"I use my own body to create every kind of image you can imagine, in order to get people's attention," she told AFP.

Mexican activist Julia Klug takes part in a protest in Mexico City.

Fake blood, plastic poo

Klug has no shortage of props to enhance her performances, from fake blood to plastic excrement to a giant magnifying glass she recently made to protest allegations the Mexican government spied on journalists and human-rights activists.

She says her roots as an activist go back to her own traumatic experience as a child in Guatemala, where she was born.

Mexican activist Julia Klug poses wearing a Catholic outfit she wore to protest against the Catholic church.

Her mother died giving birth to her, and her father gave her to another family to raise. As a child, she was raped by her neighbourhood priest -- only to be beaten by her adoptive family when she told them what had happened.

She moved to Mexico as a young woman, and attended her first protest in 1997: a demonstration against late Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, founder of the ultraconservative Legion of Christ congregation, who was accused of sexually abusing minors and was forced to resign in 2006.

View of parts of outfits and objects used by Mexican activist Julia Klug in protests in Mexico City.