In
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
, the ''carpa'' (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: "tent", from the
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
''karpa'') theater flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Like its
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
counterpart
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, performance materials were varied, including comedic sketches,
puppet shows
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – wikt:inanimate, inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. S ...
,
political satire
Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where Political discourse analysis, political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing ...
,
acrobatics
Acrobatics () is the performance of human feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. Acrobatic skills are used in performing arts, sporting events, and martial arts. Extensive use of acrobatic skills are most often performed in acro ...
, and dance.
Its name comes from the removable canvas-roofed structure, like that of circuses, used for the theaters' traveling tours through towns and cities. Unlike classic circuses, they offered very simple theater performances without elaborate scenery that were humorous or satirical, often musical, and close to the genre of popular magazines. They emerged in the Mexican capital and then in other cities of the country, replacing the "theater of the rich," whose functions had little or nothing to do with the plain people and whose prices were out of reach of their money.
Some well-known carpas include
Carpa Valentina
Carpa Valentina was a theatre wiktionary:troupe, troupe of the Mexico, Mexican ''carpa'' (traveling tent) circuit during the 1920s and 1930s.
It was founded by a family of Russians, Russian circus performers who fled the turmoil of the 1919 Russia ...
and
Carpa Azcapotzalco In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, the ''carpa'' (Spanish: "tent", from the Quechua ''karpa'') theater flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Like its American counterpart vaudeville, performance materials were varied, including comedic s ...
. In the United States,
Carpa Cubana In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, the ''carpa'' (Spanish: "tent", from the Quechua ''karpa'') theater flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Like its American counterpart vaudeville, performance materials were varied, including comedic s ...
,
Carpa Monsavias In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, the ''carpa'' (Spanish language, Spanish: "tent", from the Quechua language, Quechua ''karpa'') theater flourished during the 1920s and 1930s. Like its United States, American counterpart vaudeville, per ...
, and
La Carpa García were the best-known.
In order to be successful on the carpa stage, an actor had to establish an immediate rapport with the audience and get laughs quickly or risk being booed off stage. This limited the portrayals to
stock characters
A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of st ...
. However, many who allowed their personalities to shine through the characters and who developed a knack for
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
later found success in the
cinema of Mexico
Mexican cinema dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ideal ...
, helping to create its
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...
.
Origin and development
Scholars derive the roots of the carpa from the medieval Mester de Juglaría or in the Mystery plays imported by the Spanish missions. The carpa emerged from seasonal theaters of the 1870s that performed ''
Don Juan Tenorio
''Don Juan Tenorio: Drama religioso-fantástico en dos partes'' (Don Juan Tenorio: Religious-Fantasy Drama in Two Parts) is a play written in 1844 by José Zorrilla. It is the more romantic of the two principal Spanish-language literary interpr ...
'' for the
Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead ( es, Día de Muertos or ''Día de los Muertos'') is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It is widely obser ...
(November 1) and finished with religious plays for
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
. This type of show was reserved for the privileged classes. This practice continued during the regime of
Porfirio Díaz
José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori ( or ; ; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915), known as Porfirio Díaz, was a Mexican general and politician who served seven terms as President of Mexico, a total of 31 years, from 28 November 1876 to 6 Decem ...
and the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...
.
Following the Revolution, companies set up large carpas in
Tacuba
Tacuba is a municipality in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador.
Church Of Tacuba
It is located in Villa of Tacuba. It is head of the municipality of the same name in the department of Ahuachapán, at about 14 Kilometers of the city of Ahu ...
,
Tacubaya
Tacubaya is a working-class area of west-central Mexico City, in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo, consisting of the '' colonia'' Tacubaya proper and adjacent areas in other colonias, with San Miguel Chapultepec sección II, Observatorio, Daniel Ga ...
, and
Azcapotzalco
Azcapotzalco ( nci, Āzcapōtzalco , , from ''wikt:azcapotzalli, āzcapōtzalli'' “anthill” + ''wikt:-co, -co'' “place”; literally, “In the place of the anthills”) is a Boroughs of Mexico City, borough (''demarcación territorial'') i ...
, and some, like the Nacho Pérez carpa, toured the country. The theaters were permitted by the authorities as it kept the population distracted from the political, economic and social events that the country was experiencing. These temporary theatres allowed Mexico's urban underclass to forget their daily troubles and were encouraged by the government as an alternative to
pulque
Pulque (; nci, metoctli), or octli, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, a rather viscous co ...
halls and
brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
s.
Most carpa, especially at the beginning, mainly presented comedians, dancers and singers, sometimes magicians or conjurers and jugglers or ventriloquists. Generally, the performances consisted of three "tandas": the first included audiences of all ages, including children, and presented artists who were less known or attracted smaller audiences; in the second tanda, the quality of the show increased. The third, after 8 p.m., had the featured acts — from this emerged such well-known characters as
Cantinflas
Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes (12 August 1911 – 20 April 1993), known by the stage name Cantinflas (), was a Mexican comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He is considered to have been the most widely-accomplished Mexican comedian and is cele ...
and
Manuel Medel
Manuel Medel (1906 – 1997) was a Mexican film actor.Mraz p.125 A comedian, during the late 1930s he teamed up with the rising star Cantinflas for three films.
Selected filmography
* ''Such Is My Country
''Such Is My Country'' ( es, ¡Así es m ...
, Manuel Medel, and later performers such as
Resortes
Adalberto Martínez Chávez (25 January 1916 – April 4, 2003), better known in the entertainment world as Resortes, was a renowned Mexican actor. Known primarily for his talent as a comedian, Resortes was also a dancer. His stage name is Spanis ...
and
Clavillazo
José Antonio Hipólito Espino Mora (13 August 1910 – 24 November 1993), better known as ''Clavillazo'' (Great Little Nail) was a Mexican comedic actor who was mostly popular during the 1940s to the 1960s.
History
His catchphrases were "''"¡P ...
.
Boom period
The carpa were itinerant and performed the same day that it arrived in a town. This made the public identify more with the actors, since it was a closer coexistence: the inhabitants of the towns saw the performers in the process of setting up their tents. The carpas were economical, since the show was presented on a wooden stage and the chairs were arranged, they used tarpaulins or wooden boards to improvise the dressing rooms, but the public was quite demanding with the quality of the performances.
As the carpas boomed, they began to rent premises to perform. These premises were located mostly in Mexico City, where there were already established theaters, but the boom of the carpas and the tandas was so great that one was presented at the Palace of Fine Arts, with the staging of "Rayando el sol" by Roberto Soto, "El Panzón Soto", a marquee comedian known for his satire.
Features
The show began with the arrival in a neighborhood or on a street of a truck that unloaded a modest tent with a dirt floor that could accommodate 100 spectators, and with no dressing rooms other than the lower part of a 6 by 8-meter parquet.
There were also larger tents with capacity for 200 people and probably better dressing rooms, and with patched and powdered costumes like that of the medieval bank robbers, or perhaps feathers and sequins in better condition, and always with performers of all qualities: from beginners for the first and second tandas and experienced and talented artists for the third. Planks provided improvised benches where the public would sit (folding chairs, made of wood first, and sheet metal later, were provided later in the era).
Social impact
Curiosity made townspeople stop to see how a modest place for shows was being put together... that instant was taken advantage of by the herald to announce the artists who would present in each of the tandas. Putting together the enclosure, the "gritones" (screams) begin to call the public to the event that will last part of the afternoon until they enter the night, extolling the artists and musicians. Those who attended the performances had the opportunity to meet the artists, singers, and comedians who the public heard on the radio, as well as stars who delighted with their dances and colorful costumes of sequins and feathers. The public, mostly workers and employees, but also journalists and art critics, arrived with the expectation of seeing musical numbers, current themes of political criticism expressed by characters from the neighborhood: Politicians and "catrines" were, mainly, the targets of the jokes and attacks of the neighborhood characters represented in the "little hair", the drunkard, the quarrelsome or the rogue, making them stand above those of the "upper class" by ridiculing them based on high-sounding words or incoherent speeches that left them perplexed and provoked the laughter of the public.
The realization of the desires for a dignified life and for social justice took shape in the carpa, long before in the social and political analyses of the period before the Revolution, but also during it and in the later stage; and the criticism that the Carpa embodied disappeared only because of the mediatization of television and the censorship that the governments applied to it.
Plays
In addition to "carpas" with comic, musical and variety shows, there were some specializing in plays, such as el Tayita by the Padilla Brothers, where the actress Blanquita Morones made her debut, and which toured much of the national territory. One of the places that this el Tayita theater was most successful was in the port of
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
, where the famous comedian and magician El "Pipochas" worked in his intermissions, other of the people who worked at that time in the plays were Mr. "Jorge Lavat" and a child from the port of Acapulco, who in the intermissions towards imitations with singing phonomimics of artists such as "Sandro" and "Raphael" that child is called "David Pérez Vargas" and even work in a play next to a member of the "Padilla" family back in the years 70's this carpa was installed in the heart of the port, the place known today as "The Crafts Market" of the parasal.
One of the most remembered stagings was "Crown of Tears," a famous radio soap opera with Prudencia Griffel and which was later taken to the movies and television in soap opera format.
Stock characters
*The
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
*The ''
pelado
In Mexican society, ''pelado'' is "a term invented to describe a certain class of urban 'bum' in Mexico in the 1920s."
Historical background
Mexico has a long tradition of urban poverty, beginning with the ''léperos'', a term referring to shiftle ...
''
*The shrew
*The
corrupt policeman
*The
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
*The
dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle desp ...
References
{{reflist
Spanish language
Theatre in Mexico
Theatrical genres