10 · 16 · 06

Eréndira premieres at Pátzcuaro 17/10/06

Clara Sánchez

Eréndira La Indomable, which premieres today at the Teatro Emperador Caltzoltzin in Pátzcuaro, is about “a heroine like Joan of Arc,” said the film’s director Juan Mora Catlett.
The movie was filmed in Tzin Tzun Tzan, Santa Fé de la Laguna, the Paricutín’s Rodilla del Diablo, and Uruapan. The stoy is based on the legend of Eréndira, a young indigenous woman who stole a horse from the Spanish conquistadors to defend her people.
Mora explained in an interview that the idea came from a research project he was working on with historian Juan O´Gorman more than 10 years ago. He discovered an image of Gertrudis Bocanegra riding a horse: “While I was researching Michoacan’s history, I realized that the legend had been completely suppressed, so I decided to write about it.”
The film, which took seven weeks to make, tries to portray the Spanish conquest from a different perspective: “They have always told us that the Spaniards came and conquered the Aztecs, but we often forget that there was a clash of cultures at the time, that the Aztecs had dominance over most people. When the Spanish arrived, they saw them as one of the tribes they had to struggle to get the gold they wanted. Some other native groups formed an alliance with the Spanish, because they thought they would help them beat the Aztecs.”

The director emphasized that his aim was not to portray factual reality, but to “make a film as a film, with great creative freedom. The movie is closely related to the visual arts.”
Actor Edgar Alejandre talked about working in both Purepecha and Spanish in this film: “playing a bad guy was very challenging.”
Actress Xochiquétzal Rodríguez said she felt honored to be part of a film that portrays local traditions.