ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS
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RODRÍGUEZ, JESUSA Actress and social activist in Mexico. 1955 -
Jesusa Rodríguez is an actress who for many years ran her own cabaret/improv house in Mexico City called “El Habito,” referring, I believe, to a nun’s habit, where she presented plays and skits commenting on the current political situation, always with a wacky, sort of leftist, alternative, feminist/lesbian sensibility.
Below, with her partner and companion, Liliana Felipe, backstage at the Habito.
She loves to portray men. Here she is, below, in a "performance" as Benito Juárez ( the "Abraham Lincoln" of Mexico). That's her on the left.
Here she is playing another pants role, this time Prince Popocatepetl, yes, after whom the volcano was named, and Liliana gets to play the dying Princess Iztaccihuatl, the other volcano.
When the governor of the state of Puebla, Mario Marín, was recorded accepting two bottles of fine, imported Cognac as thanks for helping cover up a pederast ring, Jesusa headed to Puebla with hundreds of bottles and a demand he resign.
Below, protesting transgenically engineered produce in Mexico City.
She has become a strong activist and advocate of leftist causes and a leading supporter of Andrés López Obredor, below.
Below, with Elena Poniatowska.
Below, at the presentation of Elena Poniatowska's latest book.
Below, at the honoring of Elena Poniatowska in Cuba, with Felipe Roque, foriegn minister of Cuba, and Abel Prieto, Cuban minister of Culture, 2007.
Below, celebrating the 80th birthday of Rosario Ibarra, February 24, 2007.
Below, at a rally in Mexico City for the legalization of abortion, April 22, 2007.
Below, on the steps of the Mexico Supreme Court, Jesusa Rodríguez is protesting the "Televisa" law, which gives many broadcasting advantages to rich, establishment politicians, May 19, 2007.
She recently ridiculed the Miss Universe contest, held this year in Mexico, by staging her own Miss Realidades 2007 contest at the Hemi-Circle of Benito Juárez in Mexico City, on May 28.
In Oaxaca this year, she helped our organization, Arco Iris, and Teatro Vivo de Oaxaca during "Gay Week" and pasted up some of our sexual diversity posters in the streets, June 23, 2007. Thanks, Jesusa!
As many of you know, Mexico City, under the able and leftist leadership of Marcel Ebrard, recently passed the "civil marriage" laws which recognized unions between persons of the same sex (!). Our good friends, Jesusa and her long-time girlfriend, Liliana Felipe, took advantage of the new situation and became the twenty-ninth couple to marry at City Hall, below. Congratulations, you both!
On September 15, Mexico's Independence Day, Jesusa was chosen to give the "alternative" GRITO in the capital's main square, the Zócalo, below. "¡VIVA MEXICO!"
Look who's working! Just last week, Jesusa opened a new play in the Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Theater in Mexico City called "Thousand and One Nights of the Shepherd," as an homage to the recently died playwrite Juan José Gurrola. She proclaimed the playwrite has always been a rebel and the play speaks to the homophobia which exists in Mexico, reflects on condom use as well as avarice and greed for money. Responding to the recent assasination of gay leader Octavio Acuña in the state of Querétero by homophobes, the play will tour to five states in the region. Keep up the good work, Jesusa!
Say, I was really proud of our little theater company this last week of 2007. Teatro Vivo took some “40 graffiti artists of Oaxaca” and our friend the actress, activist, Jesusa Rodríguez, to the border of Tijuana to join our voices with the multitude of protests centered around the change of year. Keep up the good work, gang!
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NOTE: You can visit Jesusa Rodríquez at the El Hábito Theater's website:
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