The mayor of a small town in Oaxaca, south-western Mexico has honoured a long-standing prosperity ritual by marrying a crocodile. Victor Hugo Sosa is the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, where the Indigenous Chontal people have traditionally seen crocodiles as a symbol of the mother earth deity. Sosa married a seven-year-old crocodile named 'little princess' in a traditional ceremony which has been held in the community for the past 230 years. The crocodile's personal bridal dresser, Olivia Perez, told international media that the reptile is considered royalty amongst the Indigenous population. "For us, the crocodile represents a lot because she is the queen," Perez said. "The princess who brings water, a good harvest, and rain." Parades and festivities are held to celebrate the marriage of the local leader and the reptile, and is said to commemorate the unity between the Indigenous Chontal and Huave people. In the traditional story, the mayor represents the king of the Chontal people while the crocodile is the Huave princess. "It is the union of two cultures," the mayor told international media. "The union of the Huaves and the Chontales."