Photographer directs his lens at the maringuilla, a recurring figure in Mexican dances.

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 2

Photographer and ethnologist Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera presents Maringuilla, a unique approach to the disruptive female figure, historically played by men, in dances performed in Mexico.

The photography exhibition, curated by Michel Blancsubé, brings together 55 images captured over three decades in one-third of the country's states.

In an interview with La Jornada, Coronel (CDMX, 1961) said that maringuilla is a Nahuatl word that refers to the farcical and sometimes serious character that is part of the country's dances, especially indigenous ones.

The exhibition doesn't offer an anthropological or preservation perspective on this figure, as there's no previous exhibition or book based solely on it. I'm interested in the aesthetic perspective, often farcical, and how this disruptive character enters into almost every state's ritual. I liked the complexity of the character itself .

Recurring character

The art critic and historian said the idea for this exhibition came to him when he began photographing the dances in 1995 and noticed that this character appears in all of them. Mexican photographers have a maringuilla, some very good ones, from Graciela Iturbide to Manuel Álvarez Bravo. There isn't a single one who has approached Mexican dances and doesn't have one .

The universe of this project started with some 2,000 photographs that the artist took throughout the country, since I go to all the festivals I can , from which the curator selected, for example, some from Puebla and San Luis Potosí.

Since Greece and Rome, Juan Rafael Coronel continued, even in Shakespeare's time, women did not participate in dances, so the female characters were assumed by men. This is where the subtlety lies: it's not that they disguise themselves as women in a transvestite sense, but rather that they take possession of the character, the divinity, the importance, and the character that is to be exemplified .

He emphasized that he's the only character the audience will see in 55 images, because he's the least visible; I was very interested in making him present and making it clear how he functions in the ritualization of the dances .

▲ For the ethnologist, the idea for the exhibition at the Patricia Conde Gallery came about when he began photographing dances in 1995 and noticed that this character appears in all of them. Mexican photographers have a maringuilla style, some of them very good, like Graciela Iturbide and Manuel Álvarez Bravo , he explained in an interview. Here, The Atmosphere of an Embrace, Puebla. Photo courtesy of the artist .

Coronel said that for about two decades in Mexico, women and children have begun to participate in the comparsas, which has led to "a visual variability compared to when I began capturing the first images.

There are towns in the Sierra de Puebla where, in any month without a fiesta, there are 200 or 300 people, because many work as braceros. But when the town's celebration, the patron saint's day, arrives, the 5,000 return, and they have kept the tradition: the captain, the one who leads the dance, the one who preserves the masks, is still there. It's very strange because they come from very far away, and now it's even more dangerous, with President Donald Trump, with the risk that they won't be able to return.

Sometimes you have to be folkloric

She recalled that about six months ago she attended a Xantolo festival in La Huasteca and saw two young women dressed in traditional attire. She asked their permission to photograph them. They agreed, saying, "Maybe you have to be folkloric ." She commented that when she began touring Mexico, these girls would still speak Tének and be fully integrated into their community, even though the country, the world, and communications have changed .

He explained that the Rarámuri have a very different way of performing dances compared to the Kúrpites in Michoacán. Although both include maringuillas, they vary greatly. "We still haven't fully understood that they are different civilizations. Not just from a small cultural perspective; I mean, they were and continue to be non-Western civilizations.

That's very interesting about Mexico, because you go to different areas and find yourself in another nation, with another language, another food system. We just have the sense of unification of Mexico City.

The Maringuilla exhibition will remain open until August 16 at the Patricia Conde gallery (68 General Juan Cano Street, San Miguel Chapultepec First Section).

▲ The reflection of this version of Cervantes's text is that no one can forbid us from dreaming, the artists affirm. Photo by Moysés Zúñiga Santiago

Fabiola Palapa Quijas

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 3

With red noses and red tennis shoes, typical elements of the clown, the members of the Mexican Theater Collective Los Alichanes put on the play Quijote y Panza, an adaptation of the classic The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, in order to show that the great stories that we all know are not boring or difficult to understand, but rather speak of that which excites and inspires us .

With dramaturgy by Lucero Trejo, the story ends when Don Quixote regains his sanity, because dreaming was what kept him alive. This is what happens in today's world: dreams and the need to find something better keep us alive, or rather, without losing the vital impulse that allows us to transform this reality. "If we lose that, we lose everything ," commented Los Alichanes.

The play, which brings audiences closer to this timeless classic in a playful way, will be presented weekends until August 3 at the Helénico Theater. The collective includes Lucero Trejo, Mauricio Pimentel, Bárbara Pohlenz, Magdalena Alpizar, Diana Becerril, Víctor Manuel Vargas Avena, Dania Fuentes Marín, Antony de la Vega, and Faride Ramírez Asuad.

The actors expressed their use of clown technique to tell the classic in a humorous and intelligent way. “The clown character is always about portraying human vices by exposing them in a simple and direct way. It's somewhat related to the technique of gesture, because it's about finding the clown in each actor, by pushing their own characteristics to the limit. By approaching this style, we seek to explore the ridiculous and vulnerability. It's not about being funny, but deeply authentic, reaching the point of the most human of human beings. Thus, paradoxically, the nose becomes a portal to reveal the inner world without masks.”

One of the challenges the collective faces in staging the play is "the seemingly anachronistic nature of the language, since no one speaks Old Spanish, which contains hyperbole and Latin phrases.

Another challenge was maintaining the dizzying pace of an episodic work, where each scene must have a beginning, middle, and end, while also being part of a larger whole . In the end, the six actors managed to bring to life a large number of characters and recreate the most famous passages from Cervantes's story.

The friendship between the protagonists is fundamental. It's true that Don Quixote fights giants, but it would be impossible for him to do so without the support of his faithful squire. Sancho knows that everything Don Quixote sees exists only in his imagination, and yet he climbs into the dream and supports him to the very end, while discovering within himself the capacity to venture out and become someone different , the artistic group commented.

The members of the collective agreed that Quixote and Panza show that no one lives alone, that imagining and dreaming bring great fortune and joy; that is, despite all the circumstances we live through, nothing and no one can take away our ability to build the world we desire .

Reflecting on what they wish to convey to the public, the group commented that “the message can be appreciated in the words of Mr. Austreberto Goytia, who was part of our audience in one of our previous seasons: 'This prolongs my existence, because we discover so many useful things for our lives and for the common good, that one thinks of finding the strength to continue forward and always put oneself at the service of the community.'”

Quijote and Panza will be presented on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 p.m. at the Centro Cultural Helénico (1500 Revolución Avenue, Guadalupe Inn neighborhood).

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, June 30, 2025, p. 3

The representative delegation of writers from Barcelona, ​​invited to the 39th Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) from November 29 to December 7, was formed based on the criteria that its members had not attended recently and that they had works or translations in Spanish.

Journalist Anna Guitart, curator of the Barcelona program, said in a webcast that it was preferred that the authors, with emphasis on the narrators, have versions in Spanish, which is why they worked with the Ramon Llull Institute as a way for those authors to reach them, given that publishing in Mexico and Latin America is complicated .

He highlighted the promotion of translation and an academic program, which includes events to promote knowledge, music, and the performing arts, to extend its presence beyond Guadalajara.

More than 60 writers, around twenty speakers, and around one hundred publishers will be coming from Barcelona. "It's not all of the city's literature, because that would be impossible ," commented the screenwriter, who also specializes in books and writing.

Some well-known names in our country include Eduardo Mendoza, winner of the 2016 Cervantes Prize and the 2025 Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature, and the poet and singer Joan Manuel Serrat, as well as the Mexican Juan Pablo Villalobos, who lives in Barcelona, ​​and the narrator Javier Cercas.

Aware of the past

Guitart commented that the Barcelona delegation will be a delight and will showcase the city's current and highly diverse literary creation. "We are mindful of the past with tributes to key figures. Some will serve to speak about the boom or exile, an important link between our city and Mexico: Carmen Balcells, Joan Brossa, Ana María Matute, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, and Jacint Verdaguer."

With the exercise of 3 and a half million euros, artists such as Kiko Amat, Santi Balmes, Sergei Belbel, Rocío Bonilla, Martha Buchaca, Núria Cadenes, Maria Canelles, Oriol Canosa, Toni Clapés, Juana Dolores, Txell Feixas, Mercè Galí, Ferran Garcia, Mar García Puig, Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Carlo Gul, Anna Manso, Pablo will be announced Martín Sánchez, Xavier Mas, Josep Maria Miró, Alba Muñoz, Eduard Olesti, Bel Olid and Marta Orriols.

Also: Montse Abets, Rafael Argullol, Xavier Bosch, Mireia Calafell, Maite Carranza, Álvaro Colomer, Alba Dedeu, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Anna Gual, Mercè Ibarz, Ramon Mas, Txell Martí, Andreu Martín, Miquel de Palol, Josep Pedrals, Adrià Pujol, Jordi Puntí, Susanna Rafart, Carme Riera, Maria Carme Roca, Mercè Rodoreda, Regina Rodríguez Sirvent and Gemma Ruiz.

The flowers will come

Barcelona's motto for its collaboration at the fair is "Vindran les flors " (The Flowers Will Come), taken from a story by Mercè Rodoreda, which links Barcelona literature with the city of Guadalajara and the tradition of Sant Jordi.

He explained that for the guest pavilion at the fairgrounds, it was important that the 1,183 square meters allocated reflect our unique idea of ​​a square, a meeting point, a public space in Barcelona, ​​which can be used to celebrate Saint George's Day . It will include an auditorium where much of the Catalan city's programming will be presented, and 10,000 books related to the Catalan capital and representing the authors who are coming will be on offer.

The FIL Forum will feature musical artists such as Maria Arnal, Rigoberta Bandini, Love of Lesbian, Roger Mas i la Cobla de Sant Jordi, Mushkaa, La Señora Tomassa, and Tarta Relena. Three stage shows will also be performed: Sonoma by La Veronal; Jo, travesti by Josep Maria Miró; and a dramatized reading of La plaça del diamant by Mercè Rodoreda, directed by Carlota Subirós. Some of the participants and actresses are Mexican.

The program launch was attended by Josep Maria Carreté, Secretary General of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, as well as Trinidad Padilla and Marisol Schulz, President and Director of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, in that order.