08 · 07 · 25

The glory of “La Peque” Josefina Vicens

Rafael Aviña

Josefina Vicens was born in Tabasco on November 23, 1911, and died in Mexico City on November 22, 1988. “La Peque”, as she was known in the film industry and literary circles, established herself with two novels: The Empty Book (1958)—which won the Xavier Villarrutia Prize, defeating Carlos Fuentes, who wrote Where the Air Is Clear—and The False Years (1982). She authored plays, short stories, several screenplays, and chronicles on politics, literature, and bullfighting, often writing under pseudonyms such as Diógenes García or Pepe Faroles. Josefina Vicens was a proud Cardenista¹, feminist, and combative journalist. She wore her hair short, smoked, dressed in a masculine style, and drank tequila with Juan Rulfo, one of her best friends. 

The daughter of a Spanish father, Josefina was a member of “Acción Femenil” [Women's Action] of the Technical and Manual Workers Section of the Film Production Workers Union. She served as vice president of SOGEM (General Society of Writers of Mexico) and held the presidency of the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences between 1970 and 1976. She was a regular customer at Café París in Mexico City's historic center and attended Hispanic Literature and History courses at the UNAM as an auditing student. From her previous work in various government offices, “La Peque” drew on her lucid and subtle observations of bureaucracy for the characters in the film Resigned for Reasons of Health (1975), which she co-wrote with Fernanda Villeli and which was directed by Rafael Baledón. She employed similar observations for the characters in her first novel, The Empty Book, which focuses on a bureaucrat’s inability to write, who is determined to become a novelist.

Josefina Vicens made her debut as a screenwriter in 1954 with La rival, directed by Chano Urueta and written by her and Mauricio de la Serna. It was a melodrama that proposed a curious and atypical variation on a love triangle. In this film, the wife (Lilia del Valle) of an idealistic architect (Miguel Torruco) turns out to be superficial and opportunistic, while the mistress (María Douglas) is a sensitive and demure woman. “La Peque” wrote more than 20 film scripts, including Pensión de artistas (1956), a comedy featuring several stars of the entertainment industry at the time: María Victoria, Lola Beltrán, Tongolele, Pedro Vargas, and others; A Thousand and One Nights (1957), starring Tin Tan and María Antonieta Pons; and La sombra del otro (1957), featuring boxer Ricardo Pajarito Moreno, Ana Bertha Lepe, and Viruta and Capulina.

One of her most successful stories was Las señoritas Vivanco (1958), in which Sara García and Prudencia Grifell play a pair of highborn young ladies who have been ruined by their brother's profligacy. As a result, they resort to stealing to support a little girl who arrives at their home. It is a black comedy with two splendid actresses and a very entertaining plot. Vicens collaborated on this screenplay with Elena Garro and Juan de la Cabada. The film was followed by El proceso de las señoritas Vivanco (1959), in which the sisters end up in prison.

In addition to writing compelling stories about generational crises and youth conflicts, such as Los novios de mis hijas [My Daughters' Boyfriends] (1964), Los problemas de mamá [Mom's Problems] (1968), Mother's Day (1968), and El juicio de los hijos (1970), all starring the beautiful and talented actress Amparo Rivelles; Josefina Vicens conceived a couple of notable stories in the 1970s: Los perros de Dios (1973) by Francisco del Villar, for which she won the Ariel for Best Screenplay and first place in the Second Film Screenplay Competition. The plot allowed her to explore her views on sexuality and featured a disturbing and sensitive intimate scene between Meche Carreño and Helena Rojo.

Resigned for Reasons of Health (1975) earned her another Ariel for Best Screenplay during the Echeverría era of cinema, which she shared with Fernanda Villeli. Starring Ignacio López Tarso, Carmen Montejo, and Silvia Mariscal,  the film tells the story of government corruption and the unwritten rules of Mexican politics. It also won first place at the Moscow International Film Festival. In the plot, the secretary of public works is removed for not agreeing with the president's business interests, and the new minister turns out to be an honest man who rewards his chief engineer for his integrity. The story explores the ever-popular "resignations for health reasons" in Mexican politics, though the film went unnoticed at its premiere.

“Scripts are not written with skirts or pants, but with intelligence. And intelligence has no gender. There is no relationship, rivalry, or competition. I write better scripts than many men, and many men write better scripts than I do.” —Josefina Vicens. La Peque remains a figure in our cinema waiting to be discovered.
 

Translated by Abigail Puebla

Translator's Notes

1. TN: Cardenismo refers both to President Lázaro Cárdenas’ government and his program of reforms. The Cardenistas were a coalition of supporters, some of whom actively promoted his agenda.