Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles

Origins to 1960

Colin Gunckel, Jan-Christopher Horak, Lisa Jarvinen

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781978801240, 9781978801257
• eBook ISBN: 9781978801264
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: North American History

Historically, Los Angeles and its exhibition market have been central to the international success of Latin American cinema. Not only was Los Angeles a site crucial for exhibition of these films, but it became the most important hub in the western hemisphere for the distribution of Spanish language films made for Latin American audiences. Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles builds upon this foundational insight to both examine the considerable, ongoing role that Los Angeles played in the history of Spanish-language cinema and to explore the implications of this transnational dynamic for the study and analysis of Latin American cinema before 1960. The volume editors aim to flesh out the gaps between Hollywood and Latin America, American imperialism and Latin American nationalism in order to produce a more nuanced view of transnational cultural relations in the western hemisphere.

Chapter 1

El Espectáculo

THE CULTURE OF THE REVISTAS IN MEXICO CITY AND LOS ANGELES, 1900–1940

Jacqueline Avila

En el teatro de revista, todo es posible.

(In the theater of revues, everything is possible.)

—Armando de María y Campos, El teatro de género chico en la revolución mexicana

The so-called epoca de oro, or Golden Age, of Mexican cinema (roughly 1936–1952) is composed of several film genres that are considered significant in the exhibition of mexicanidad (Mexicanness)—the cultural identity of Mexican people.1 Genres such as the comedia ranchera (ranch comedy) and the prostitute melodrama, among others, offered varying interpretations of mexicanidad that often contradicted each other but maintained a wide public following. A major source of influence for these films was Mexico’s teatro de revistas (theater of revues), also called revistas or teatro de género chico.2 The revistas began as a popular theatrical practice at the turn of the twentieth century that was geared toward social and political commentary. Their popularity with the public and their malleable structure were instrumental to the success of Mexico’s national film industry.

The revistas and early sound film shared several characteristics, including narratives, stock characters, and backdrops. Another significant element was the soundscape that included music, sound, and dialogue.3 As revista companies traveled to Los Angeles during and after the years of the armed struggle of the revolution (1910–1920), the theatrical practice reterritorialized, absorbing local musical and theatrical culture and becoming a crucial space where the Mexican revista flourished. The result created a hybridized cosmopolitan practice that perpetuated national archetypes with specific sound and music associations, developing soundscape models that were later used in Mexican synchronized sound films. This chapter examines those elements of cultural hybridization that shaped the teatro de revistas as it traveled from Mexico City to Los Angeles and how it may have contributed to and influenced Mexican cinema. The soundscape shaped by the revistas in their eclectic theatrical structure transferred over into Mexican cinematic practice beginning in the 1930s, constructing a cultural and aesthetic bridge between popular theater and sound cinema. The influence of revistas on sound cinema in turn shaped exhibition practices in Los Angeles, where film screenings were frequently combined with live performances that drew from this theatrical tradition.

Teatro de Revistas: Cultural Hybridization

The Porfiriato—the thirty-five-year dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911)—is marked as a period of economic growth and modernization and one of oppression and greed. One of the cornerstones of the Díaz dictatorship was the attraction of foreign investors to help stimulate the economy.4 This tactic centralized power within Mexico City, taking away employment from the local population and opening the economy to foreigners. As commerce and industry flourished, new consumer cultures developed in which cosmopolitanism became the embodiment of the elite class. Porfirian high culture embraced everything that was foreign, shaping Mexico City into a thriving modern and cultural center. At the core of this growing cosmopolitanism was a process of cultural hybridization that intersected the local and the global, creating new representations of mexicanidad.

Nestor García Canclini defines hybridization as the “socio-cultural processes in which discrete structures or practices, previously existing in separate form, are combined to generate new structures, objects, and practices.”5 The process of hybridization impacts popular culture and conceptions of national identity construction. García Canclini argues that “hybridization occurs under specific social and historical conditions, amid systems of production and consumption that at times operate coercively. . . . Another of the social entities that both foster and condition hybridization is the city.”6 The fin de siècle in Mexico City exhibits several cases of cultural hybridization, and the teatro de revistas is one such example.

The revista fused several popular entertainments, including the French revue, the Spanish zarzuela, vaudeville, burlesque, and satire.7 During the Porfiriato, Mexico City experienced an invasion of Spanish zarzuelas and Italian operas, sculpting an eclectic soundscape.8 Zarzuelas held the most popular following as “the great capital became ‘zarzuela-ized’” because the public flocked to theaters to be entertained by narratives of romantic misunderstandings and musical performances.9 Although several Spanish zarzuelas have proven to be highly influential in the revista’s development, El año pasado por agua (Last Year for Water; 1899) by Ricardo de la Vega and Federico Chueca served as an important model. Alejandro Ortiz Bullé Goyri asserts that various dramatic elements and musical numbers were taken from this zarzuela and reinterpreted, or “Mexicanized,” for the Mexican stage. One such example is “Cuplé de la bombilla y la electricidad,” which welcomes the modern invention of the telephone with grace and charm. The 1904 revista Chin Chun Chan by José F. Elizondo with music by Luis G. Jordá features a similar comical and flirty number entitled “El teléfono sin hilos” (“The Wireless Telephone”).10

The revista is typically structured into one act that is divided into cuadros, or scenes, beginning with a prologue and containing various comical skits and musical performances.11 Revista narratives centered on socially relevant topics and were geared toward the working class. According to Nicolás Kanellos, the revista “represented the birth of a truly Mexican national theater” that was revered for its piquant political and social commentary.12 With librettos written by Mexico City journalists such as José F. Elizondo and Antonio Guzmán Aguilera (more popularly known as Guz Águila), the revistas at times provided biting criticisms on political and social issues and contemporary gender roles.13 They focused on the everyday of Mexican society, emphasizing “the character, music, dialect, and folklore of various Mexican regions.”14

The revistas were utilitarian, directed toward representing the pulse of the nation at politically unstable moments.15 Armando de María y Campos posits that the Spanish zarzuela exemplified how to include political commentary on stage, but the Mexican revistas surpassed what the Spaniards offered: “The Mexican authors of political theater outperformed their teachers, the Spanish, in which they received . . . the first inspirations and discoveries of the formulas, ‘machotes’ (models) actually, for addressing political issues, extracting from the scenes the characters, or relating to them to suit their own purposes.”16 It was, however, not just contemporary politics that made its way onto the stage; the popular press and popular culture did as well. The revista La cuatra plana (The Fourth Page), written by Luis Fernández Frías, premiered at the Teatro Principal on October 28, 1899.17 Its major source of inspiration was the fourth page of the popular periodical El Imparcial that featured advertisement inserts.18 La cuatra plana highlights how theatrical entertainment and the press became inextricably intertwined to form an aesthetically significant part of popular culture.

The Soundscape of the Revistas

The revista soundscape refers to the variety of musical genres, sounds, and dialogues articulated on stage. References to the soundscape are discussed in historical studies of popular Mexican theater, providing a conception of what type of music and sounds were used and how they influenced various national symbols and archetypes. As the revistas surged in popularity during the revolution, librettists used comedy and satire to criticize contemporary politics. Actors impersonated revolutionary leaders, among others, to appeal to the public.19 The librettists often reinterpreted crucial events of the revolution with a comedic and ironic slant. One of the most popular revistas políticas (political revistas) was El país de la metralla (The Country of Shrapnel), written by José F. Elizondo with music by Rafael Gascón. According to de María y Campos, El país de la metralla, which premiered May 25, 1913, was a revista that conveyed “the traditional elements of the genre” and was set during “La Decena Trágica.”20 John Koegel states that this revista was both scandalous and successful, depicting the characters “Vespaciano Garbanza” and “Patata,” satirical references to Venustiano Carranza and Emiliano Zapata. The revista also satirized the United States through its famous chorus line of singing Uncle Sams and featured “a French cancan danced to the rhythm of machine guns.”21 Intriguingly, the revista also introduced a character representing “the unknown economic and social phenomenon in Mexico,” labeled “Mademoiselle Crisis.” In a scene resembling “La maquinista del amor” (“The Machinist of Love”) from the Spanish zarzuela Las bribonas (The I...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. El Espectáculo: The Culture of the Revistas in Mexico City and Los Angeles, 1900–1940
• Chapter 2. Ramona in the City: Mexican Los Angeles, Dolores Del Rio, and the Remaking of a Mythic Story
• Chapter 3. Please Sing to Me: The Immigrant Nostalgia That Sparked the Mexican Film Industry
• Chapter 4. A Mass Market for Spanish-Language Films: Los Angeles, Hybridity, and the Emergence of Latino Audiovisual Media
• Chapter 5. Cantabria Films and the LA Film Market, 1938–1940
• Chapter 6. A Cinema between Mexico and Hollywood: What We Can Learn from Adaptations, Remakes, Dubs, Talent Swaps, and Other Curiosities
• Chapter 7. On the Nuevo Teatro Máximo de la Raza: Still Thinking, Feeling, and Speaking Spanish On- and Offscreen
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Notes on Contributors
• Index