05 · 31 · 22

María Félix and the revolutionary empowerment

Rafael Aviña

In 1958, filmmaker Ismael Rodríguez brought together in The Soldiers of Pancho Villa the two most important and international actresses of Mexican cinema: María Félix and Dolores del Río. However, the original project, based on a plot by José Bolaños —the future director of La soldadera (1966)—, initially intended to unite Félix with the beautiful and sensual actress from Chihuahua, Elsa Aguirre, 16 years younger. And that, supposedly, terrified Maria and prevented it from happening. It was then that she asked Ismael to include Dolores. All in all, the film worked perfectly.

The Soldiers of Pancho Villa, with cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa and dialogues by Ricardo Garibay, was a sort of film that summarized the revolutionary theme, with a multi-spectacular cast that included María, Dolores, Pedro Armendáriz, Emilio Fernández, Ignacio López Tarso, Flor Silvestre, Cuco Sánchez, Emma Roldán and David Reynoso, among others, and of course Antonio Aguilar as Captain Ventura, a Carranza supporter. With this film, Ismael Rodríguez tried to carry out the great adaptation of the Mexican Revolution and, to do so, color, large sets of extras or excessive epic action scenes were not enough. In a duel of divas, María Félix, in her role as Refugio “La Cucaracha”, a very empowered soldier, alternated for the only time with Dolores, in her role as Isabel Puente, the aristocratic and decent lady, and in between them, the sinister Colonel Zeta, always dressed in black and played by “El Indio” Fernández, whom they both love.

Thus, on the other hand, and above the Villista myth embodied by Pedro Armendáriz, Fernando Fernández or José Elías Moreno and their resigned females, María Félix was resurrected in a series of full-color blockbusters to become the Mexican Revolution itself. Thus, Roberto Gavaldón's La escondida (1955) inaugurated a new myth for Félix as a revolutionary heroine in a melodrama where she shared a “cama de piedra”¹ ["stone bed"] —in the voice of Cuco Sánchez— with a General who became governor and a farmhand who became a sergeant (Andrés Soler and Pedro Armendáriz).

Café Colón (dir. Benito Alazraki, 1958), inspired by a novel by Rafael F. Muñoz, shows a group of revolutionaries who take over a town and the Federal Colonel (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) suspends his wedding with Félix, owner of the Café Colón, who ends up falling in love with the Zapatista Colonel played by Pedro Armendáriz and together they join the fight. Soon to follow were the rampages of the brave peasant Juana Gallo (dir. Miguel Zacarías, 1960), La Bandida (dir. Roberto Rodríguez, 1962), with a woman courtesan who puts two revolutionary Generals in check, La Valentina (dir. Rogelio A. González, 1965), which exploited the mischievousness of Eulalio González “Piporro”, and ended with the surrealist revolutionary vision of Juan Ibáñez in La Generala (1970).

In Juana Gallo, for example, María goes from peasant to leader of the Revolution, taking up arms against the traitor Huerta, and falls in love with a federal captain played by Jorge Mistral, and Luis Aguilar, as Colonel Arturo Ceballos Rico, joins forces with her. All films are set in a universe of rebozos, brothels, dancers and female soldiers ready to fight toe to toe with the macho man in turn. By the way, one of the curious anecdotes surrounding The Soldiers of Pancho Villa were the confrontations between “Indio” Fernández and Armendáriz againts Ismael Rodríguez, beacuse they were determined to change Ricardo Garibay's dialogues. Ismael could only take away their anger when he told them to rewrite their dialogues: “Hey, we are not scriptwriters”, and they had no choice but to give in. The same thing happened between María and Dolores. The former complained to Ismael that Lolita was raising her eyebrow in one scene: “If she keeps raising her eyebrow at me, I'll raise both of them”. "Oh no. You take care of me, Ismael," Del Río replied. By the way, it was in this film where María Félix said some off-color words such as: “No tiene madre!”², in a series of female characters ahead of what today is empowerment.

Interestingly, before the series of films about the Mexican Revolution starring María, La negra Angustias (1949) appeared, starring María Elena Marqués and directed by Matilde Landeta, based on a novel by Francisco Rojas González. The plot was set in the State of Morelos. Young Angustias, daughter of the generous bandit Antón Farrera (Eduardo Arozamena), suffers discrimination for living with the witch Crescencia (a splendid Enriqueta Reza) and for refusing to be a victim of harassment by men. After stabbing a charro³ who tries to rape her, Angustias flees to the mountains and joins the troops of Emiliano Zapata. She becomes a colonel and follows her father's teachings and imparts justice among women and peasants in one of the first stories of female empowerment in Mexico.

Translated by Adrik Díaz

Translator's Notes

1. TN: Title of the film's theme song.
2. TN: "No tiene madre" is a swear phrase used in Mexico to refer to someone who has no shame or who behaves in a reprehensible manner.
3. TN: A rider who exhibits his skills in the handling of the lasso, in horse training and other equestrian exercises performed to handle cattle following Mexican country traditions.