title: How can I use unicode string as index for pd.DataFrame?
body: <p>I use Python 2.7 and I have created a pandas DataFrame using <code>pd.read_excel(my_path, encoding="utf-8")</code> named <code>my_reader</code>. One of its columns is named 'Descrição'.</p>
  
  <p>I have all the columns names in a list named <code>client_list</code>.</p>
  
  <p>When I'm trying to use my list's data as index for <code>my_reader</code> I get an error </p>
  
  <pre><code>KeyError: 'Descri\xc3\xa7\xc3\xa3o'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It works fine with all other data which contain only English letters. When I print <code>client_list</code> I get the names correctly displayed</p>
  
  <pre><code>print client_list[0]
  Descrição
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But </p>
  
  <pre><code> client_list[0]
  'Descri\xc3\xa7\xc3\xa3o'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So I can't use </p>
  
  <pre><code>my_reader[client_list[i]]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any ideas?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>