Jesusa Rodríguez (born 1955,

Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

) is a Mexican theater director, actress,

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist, social activist, elected Senator of the

Morena Morena or MORENA may refer to: Places * Morena, Madhya Pradesh, a town in central India * Morena (Lok Sabha constituency), Madhya Pradesh * Morena (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Madhya Pradesh * Morena, San Diego, California, a neighborhood * Mo ...

party and an active promoter of the use of marihuana and other drugs. She is an active representative of the LGBT community. Her low-cost "espectáculos" (a

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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

word that can mean both "spectacles" and "shows") do not necessarily adhere to traditional genre classification. These works draw on Greek tragedy,

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

, and

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

tic traditions. They can take the form of a revue, sketch, "

carpa 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, pe ...

", or political performance art.

Biography

In the 1980s, Rodríguez notably directed an adaption of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'', featuring an all-female cast, entitled ''Donna Giovanni'' (1983). In 1988 she directed

Oskar Panizza Leopold Hermann Oskar Panizza (12 November 1853 – 28 September 1921) was a German psychiatrist and avant-garde author, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, publisher and literary journal editor. He is best known for his provocative tragicomedy, ...

's ''El Concilio de Amor'' (''The Council of Love''). Rodríguez won an

Obie The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

for Best Actor in ''Las Horas de Belén, A Book of Hours'' (1999) along with

Ruth Maleczech Ruth Sophia Reinprecht (January 8, 1939 – September 30, 2013), professionally known as Ruth Maleczech, was an American avant-garde stage actress.Mabou Mines Mabou Mines is an experimental theatre company founded in 1970 and based in New York City. Founding and history Mabou Mines was founded by David Warrilow, Lee Breuer, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass, at the house of Akalaiti ...

. From 1990 until 2005, she and her wife, the Argentine singer/actress Liliana Felipe, operated El Hábito an
Teatro de la Capilla
alternative performances spaces in Mexico City. El Hábito is now under the administration of Las Reinas Chulas, and Rodríguez is now dedicated to independent projects. Rodríguez's works regularly revisit historical cultures, icons, and symbols, such as her "La gira mamal de la Coatlicue" of 1993, where she transforms a pre-Hispanic statue from the Mexica (

Aztec The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the Post-Classic stage, post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central ...

) Room of Mexico's National Anthropology Museum into a contemporary, living being. Through the use of an indigenous female icon confined in a museum, the artist parodies the attitude of official Mexican politicians toward their country's problems. This work calls upon her children not to forget her and complains about not having a special car (a "mama-mobile") like the pope's. Rodríguez calls the show "pre-Hispanic cabaret," thus pointing to the need to reduce the monolithic myths upon which nationalism tends to be based. Other famous female icons recreated by Rodríguez in her shows include

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...

(''Trece señoritas'', 1983),

La Malinche Marina () or Malintzin (; 1500 – 1529), more popularly known as La Malinche (), was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who became known for contributing to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (1519–1521), by acting as an int ...

(transformed by Rodríguez into an interpreter for former president

Ernesto Zedillo Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was the 61st president of Mexico from 1994 to 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from the Institutional Re ...

and the U.S. Marines) and the

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

Juana Inés de la Cruz Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Santillana, better known as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (12 November 1651 – 17 April 1695), was a Hieronymite nun and a Mexican writer, philosopher, composer and poet of the Baroque period, nicknamed "Th ...

("Las trampas del fatuo", 1990, and "Sor Juana en Almoloya," 1995). Jesusa has impersonated Sor Juana in many political demonstrations and, as part of the Mexico City Pride March. In these particular cases, Rodríguez represented her version of Mexican history "by revisiting and emphasizing the dissident sexualities of these women, who have been hidden or strategically forgotten by official culture". In 2002, she collaborated with Liliana Felipe and Regina Orozcos on "New War, New War," for the 3rd Encuentro of the

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Diana Taylor (born 1950) is an American academic. She is a professor of performance studies and Spanish at New York University' s Tisch School of the Arts and the founding director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. She is ...

. Rodríguez also contributes regularly to Mexico's most important feminist journal, ''

Debate Feminista Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

''.

Selected performances

* 1990: La gira mamal de la Coatlicue, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City * 1991: La Malinche en Dios T.V., Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City * 1992: Cielo de abajo, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City * 1995: Sor Juana en Almoloya, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City * 2001: La soldadera autogena, Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Monterrey, Mexico * 2004: Cabaret prehispanico, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York

References

Sources

* Costantino, Roselyn, "Visibility as Strategy: Jesusa Rodríguez's Body in Play", ''Corpus Delecti: Performance'' (2000) * ''Art of the Americas''. Ed. Coco Fusco. London/New York: Routledge: pp. 63 – 77

External links

*
Teatro de la CapillaJesusa Rodríguez Papers
at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Jesusa 1955 births Living people Mexican stage actresses Mexican lesbian actresses Mexican lesbian writers Mexican lesbian politicians Mexican LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Mexican feminist writers Mexican women dramatists and playwrights Actresses from Mexico City Lesbian dramatists and playwrights LGBTQ members of the Congress of Mexico Morena (political party) politicians