"te adoramos maría": mexico's 'playboy'...oh boy!!

as millions of guadalupanos, or devotees of the virgen de guadalupe, prepared to venerate her on her day, playboy magazine was also preparing its december issue that was 'graced' (pun well intended) with the model maría florencia onori on the cover. this maría posed as THAT maría and caused some...well, discomfort, much of what one of my forthcoming book's chapters deals with, representations that conflate sexuality and religion. in addition to the coincidence exploited by playboy executives and creative teams--december is a month for mexicans that is about december 12 (the day in which the virgen de guadalupe is honored) and december 24 (well, you know, the birth of baby jesus, that gave birth while still a virgin)--raul sayrols, publisher of playboy mexico, attempts to explain yet another one: "the image is not and never was intended to portray the virgin of guadalupe or any other religious figure. the intent was to reflect a renaissance-like mood on the cover." well, yes, i say...since then, playboy has apologized.

tu futuro en libertad o el libro del sexo...¡gratuito!

i'd never set foot in the museo de historia natural, a natural history museum ensconced in the second sector of chapultepec park in mexico city, until one sunday afternoon earlier this month. i went there to attend a special event/performance for children/youth by jesusa rodríguez, which was to take place in the museum's sala del universo that, i should mention, has not changed at all since the museum opened in 1964, during the adolfo lópez mateos sexenio; its loveliness resides in its unintentional retro feel. as most, if not all of her performances, rodríguez's show, "el libro del sexo gratuito," used political satire to make a comment on the recently released book by mexico city mayor, marcelo ebrard, tu futuro en libertad: por una sexualidad y salud reproductiva con responsabilidad. this book, which has caused much controversy, was published by the government of mexico city and is to be or is being distributed to third year secundaria students, as well as those attending preparatoria (i.e. high school-aged youth). get yours free here or here:



in typical rodríguez fashion, the performance, even from its very title, offers up that witticism that has marked her political cabaret performances for over twenty years. that is, "el libro del sexo gratuito" can be read two ways, "the free book about sex" or "the book about gratuitous sex"...jejejejesusa! it's a one-woman show where rodríguez impersonates (i know, wrong word), i should say parodies elba ester gordillo; her character, elba estéril, stands in front of her class in the appropriately semi-lit room to (mis-)educate the children of mexico city about all things related to sexuality. here's a snippet, where, as you'll see/hear, rodríguez doesn't skip a beat and makes a comment regarding the much-discussed proposal ("reform") that would begin to privatize pemex.


[i apologize for the quality of the video, i have an old camera w/no lights, plus the room was very dark, something that rodríguez used to her advantage by saying that sex and discussions about sexuality in the mexican context are most often kept in the dark.]


p.s.a few weeks ago mexican journalist patricia vega published an essay in emeequis about the controversy of tu futuro en libertad that included an interview with guillermo bustamante manilla. in this interview the leader of the UNPF (unión nacional de padres de familia), a very conservative catholic right-wing organization, states that tu futuro en libertad basically promotes "a culture of death." what would jejejesusa say in regard to this? i'm sure she's integrated the controversy that came about after the book's release in her subsequent performances of "el libro del sexo gratuito."



p.s. #2 updated on sept. 3

i wonder if ms. palin reads spanish. probably not, huh? it may be worthwhile to translate tu futuro en libertad for her and her loved ones. or not, it may be too late; from indexed.

"noches árabes al pastor" in tepoztlán

during the summer of 2006 the folks gathered at the annual meeting of the tepoztlán institute for the transnational history of the americas were treated, for one night, to a political cabaret performance piece by jesusa rodríguez and company. noches árabes al pastor is, according to la jornada newspaper, a theatrical-musical spectacle about the "awkward" [my word] relationship between mexicans and their body, as well as discussing HIV prevention. inspired by the one thousand and one nights collection of stories, rodríguez et. al. spin the story of how princess reshazada tells stories to sultan charriar and aids him in feeling comfortable with his own body and finding sexual identity. this is all done in the form of political satirical sketches, interspersed with musical and dance numbers. check out the parody of the 'dance of the seven veils' below:



while most of the public appreciated and applauded jesusa rodríguez and co. for coming to tepoztlán in the middle of a busy week, they also caused a bit of apprehension among us-based and trained scholars too aware of racism against african americans in their context. [an aside: jesusa had been working unrelentlessly in mexico city, organizing politico-theatrical protests and aiding the efforts in trying to get the votes recounted during the presidential elections of 2006.] however, among this crowd, who was delighted at sexuality being deconstructed before their ("our") eyes, 'discomfort' did occur. one such moment occured when jesusa rodriguez pulled out a memín pinguín doll out of a box and made him dance while regina orozco sang a francisco gabilondo soler (aka cri-cri) children's classic, "negrito bailarín." see video below:



in the following days of conversations among the scholars present at that summer's institute, minstrelsy and blackface were words often used to describe what they saw. while some knew who memín pinguín was, because they had grown up reading his historietas ("comic books") or because of the "stamp controversy" a year before, some were unfamiliar with his 'stamp' in mexican cultural production. still one of the operative words to describe what had happened was "stereotype." this entry is but a signal to a much-needed intervention and is but a work in progress. and here i'd want to join the ranks of dr. nericcio, and would like to attempt to unpack the intricacies of doing transnational academic work on cultural and racial stereotypes. it's one of my tasks at hand for the upcoming months, if not years.

posdata: i should have said something about smugudrú's dance...