I for a THEATER of IDEAS: FELIPE SANTANDER and the POLITICAL PERFORMANCE in MEXICO
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
FOR A THEATER OF IDEAS: FELIPE SANTANDER AND THE POLITICAL PERFORMANCE IN MEXICO by Emma Catherine Freeman BA in Spanish, University of Glasgow, 2009 MA in Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures University of Pittsburgh 2016 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Emma Catherine Freeman It was defended on October 28th, 2016 and approved by John Beverley, PhD, Distinguished Professor Aurea María Sotomayor-Miletti, PhD, Professor Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, PhD, Assistant Professor Dissertation Advisors: Joshua Lund, PhD, Associate Professor Juan Duchesne Winter, PhD, Professsor ii Copyright © by Emma Catherine Freeman 2016 iii FOR A THEATER OF IDEAS: FELIPE SANTANDER AND THE POLITICAL PERFORMANCE IN MEXICO Emma Catherine Freeman, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2016 This dissertation is the first critical study of the work of Mexican playwright and director, Felipe Santander. I argue that the six plays that Santander wrote and directed from 1978 to 1990 draw on historical instances of popular struggle in order to propose the continuing presence of Revolutionary concerns in the contemporary context of 1980s Mexico. Across three chapters I analyze how Santander’s fictionalized representations of historical events contribute to the production of what I call his ‘aesthetics of solidarity’: a term which I use to refer to the set of strategies that are mobilized in order to produce an experience of equality in his audience. My first chapter focuses on El extensionista (1978), Santander’s best known play, which I read as re- politicizing elements of the Revolutionary Nationalist imaginary as the foundation for a public conversation about the on-going issue of agrarian reform. The following chapter analyses the remaining three plays from Santander’s Teatro Campesino cycle. I maintain that through these plays Santander theorizes an alternative historiography of Mexico which foregrounds the on- going revolutionary struggles of the people and opposes the established myth of the so-called pax príista. In the context of the emerging scholarship on the Mexican ‘Dirty War’, my dissertation contributes to a reflection on theater’s relationship to these broader historical processes. Finally, I examine La ley no escrita and México-USA as critical performances of the media archive that replace a capitalist logic of fragmentation with an aesthetics of solidarity. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... VII 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 FELIPE SANTANDER AND THE ARCHIVE ................................................ 2 1.2 SANTANDER AND THE NEW POPULAR THEATER MOVEMENT .... 21 1.3 EL NUEVO TEATRO POPULAR IN MEXICO .............................................. 30 1.4 THE PERFORMANCE OF HISTORY .......................................................... 37 1.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY ................................................................................... 45 2.0 CHAPTER 1: THE LONG REVOLUTION: EL EXTENSIONISTA’S POLITICS OF SOLIDARITY ....................................................................................................................... 47 2.1.1 The Critical Perspective: Acclaimed and Ignored...................................... 50 2.2 PART 1: LA PROBLEMÁTICA DEL EXTENSIONISTA: FINDING THE STAGE, REACHING THE AUDIENCE ......................................................................... 52 2.3 PART 2: THE AESTHETICS OF A REVOLUTION RECONFIGURED . 68 3.0 CHAPTER 2: SANTANDER’S TEATRO CAMPESINO: A TIGER’S LEAP INTO THE PAST ........................................................................................................................ 86 3.1 THE REVOLUTION AS RUPTURE AND CONTINUITY IN A PROPÓSITO DE RAMONA ............................................................................................... 92 3.1.1 Taking the Audience Behind the Scenes ...................................................... 93 v 3.1.2 “Hasta sus últimas consecuencias…”: The Mexican Revolution Reimagined ................................................................................................................. 98 3.2 EL CORRIDO DE LOS DOS HERMANOS: A “CORRIDO” OF EPIC PROPORTIONS ............................................................................................................... 102 3.2.1 “El corrido” as Theatrical Genre ............................................................... 105 3.3 THE CROSS AND THE SWORD IN Y, EL MILAGRO .............................. 112 3.3.1 Church/Theater/Politics .............................................................................. 121 4.0 CHAPTER 3: PERFORMING ARCHIVES IN LA LEY NO ESCRITA AND MÉXICO-USA ........................................................................................................................... 125 4.1 LA LEY NO ESCRITA: A PLAY ABOUT AUTHORITARIANISM, CONSENSUS AND DEMOCRACY ............................................................................... 126 4.1.1 Authoritarianism and “La corriente demócratica” ................................. 128 4.1.2 Authoritarianism and Justice: The Problem of the Victim ..................... 138 4.1.3 Democracy or Consensus? The Problem of the Victim ............................ 150 4.2 MIGRANT BODIES AND ALTERNATIVES TO THE ARCHIVE IN FELIPE SANTANDER’S MÉXICO-USA (1989) .......................................................... 158 4.2.1 A Three-Ring Circus: Circuits of People, Capital and Goods ................ 168 4.2.2 Editing Reagan’s Performance Archive .................................................... 173 4.2.3 The Unbounded Body and the Production of Space ................................ 180 4.2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 186 5.0 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 187 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 191 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation director, Joshua Lund, for his enthusiastic support of this project from its inception, and his invaluable guidance at critical moments throughout its development. I am also very grateful to Juan Duchesne who not only agreed be a co-director, but who was a committed and generous reader. I owe special thanks to the rest of my committee, each of whom have made a considerable contribution to this project: to Lisa Jackson-Schebetta who introduced me to Felipe Santander’s work, asked big questions and warmly encouraged me to pursue a project in theater; to Aurea Sotomayor who introduced me to so many of the texts and ideas that formed the groundwork for this dissertation; and to John Beverley who generously agreed to join the committee at a late stage, and who has shaped my thinking since the beginning of my graduate career. I also wish to thank the University of Pittsburgh for providing me with a Summer Travel Grant in 2013, which enabled me to travel to Mexico City to do invaluable field work, and a Mellon Pre-doctoral fellowship which was fundamental to the completion of this dissertation. I am extremely grateful for the assistance of INBA-CITRU “Rodolfo Usigli” for kindly providing me with vital materials from their archive related to Felipe Santander’s work. Special thanks to Israel Franco for taking the time to orientate me and for putting me in touch with CITRU. In addition, I owe a huge debt of thanks to the following people who were kind enough to share their knowledge and time with me, and whose contribution has been immeasurable: vii In Mexico City: Felipe Galván, Benjamín Islas, Luis Mario Moncada, Carlos Azar, Deborah Ríos, Alfonso Maya, Natalia Gras, Katia Lasca of “Contigo America”, Nicolas Brunet, Julia Pozas Loyo, and Juliana and Carla Faesler. In Pittsburgh: Mónica Barrientos, Cesar Zamorano, María Auxiliadora Balladares, Adriana Pitetta, Leslie Dávila, Esther Terry, Dave Bisaha, Gerardo Aguilar, Alejandro Sánchez, Martha Mantilla. I could not have completed this dissertation without the unconditional love and support of my family, John and Melany Freeman, Mario y Silvia Mata Torres, Alberto Mata Torres and Ezra Emiliano Mata Freeman. viii 1.0 INTRODUCTION Politics plays itself out in the theatrical paradigm as the relationship between the stage and the audience, as meaning produced by the actor's body, as games of proximity or distance. Jacques Rancière, The Politics of Aesthetics (17) This dissertation is the first critical study of Mexican playwright, Felipe Santander (1935-2001), and the plays he wrote and directed from 1978 to 1989. Rejecting the historical notion of the pax príista, Santander’s theater brings stories of popular struggle to the stage, and contextualizes them within a historical trajectory that is defined, not by consensus, but by the anti-authoritarian spirit and unrealized proposals of equality that are expressed by the Mexican Revolution. I argue that Santander’s work in this period produces a vision of Mexican post-Revolutionary history in which the