{"id":36483,"date":"2024-09-20T13:23:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=36483"},"modified":"2024-09-20T13:23:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:23:55","slug":"la-india-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=36483","title":{"rendered":"La India Maria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“La India Mar\u00eda<\/strong>” (born Mar\u00eda Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco<\/strong>. The character frequently endures situations of racial discrimination, classism, and corruption, although in all of these turmoils, Mar\u00eda undoubtedly resolves them with hilarious acts of good-nature and morality. She has represented the poor indigenous, the migrant worker, the forsaken woman, and even free-spirited nuns for over 30 years.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco Fragoso<\/strong> (17 December 1940 \u2013 1 May 2015) was a Mexican actress, comedian, singer-songwriter and dancer. She is best known for creating and portraying La India Mar\u00eda, a comical character based on indigenous Mexican women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early life<\/strong>
Velasco was born in Puebla<\/strong>, to Tom\u00e1s Velasco Saavedra, a railway mechanic, and Mar\u00eda Elena Fragoso Pe\u00f3n. She had three siblings, Gloria, Tom\u00e1s and Susana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the death of Tom\u00e1s Velasco, the family moved to Mexico City, where she worked as a dancer at the Teatro T\u00edvoli.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Photos from the India Maria Facebook<\/a> Fan Page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Mexploitation?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Playing an illiterate, poor, indigenous woman in Mexican cinema creates controversy. Author Seraina Rohrer (University of Texas Press) provides a scholarly study of the “La India Maria” architype. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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La India Mar\u00eda<\/strong>\u2014a humble and stubborn indigenous Mexican woman\u2014is one of the most popular characters of the Mexican stage, television, and film. Created and portrayed by Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco<\/strong>, La India Mar\u00eda has delighted audiences since the late 1960s with slapstick humor that slyly critiques discrimination and the powerful.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, however, many critics have derided the iconic figure as a racist depiction of a negative stereotype and dismissed the India Mar\u00eda films as exploitation cinema unworthy of serious attention. By contrast, La India Mar\u00eda<\/strong> builds a convincing case for Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco as an artist whose work as a director and producer\u2014rare for women in Mexican cinema\u2014has been widely and unjustly overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on extensive interviews with Velasco, her family, and film industry professionals, as well as on archival research, Seraina Rohrer offers the first full account of Velasco\u2019s life; her portrayal of La India Mar\u00eda in vaudeville, television, and sixteen feature film comedies, including Ni de aqu\u00ed, ni de all\u00e1 [Neither here, nor there]; and her controversial reception in Mexico and the United States. Rohrer traces the films\u2019 financing, production, and distribution, as well as censorship practices of the period, and compares them to other Mexploitation films produced at the same time. Adding a new chapter to the history of a much-understudied period of Mexican cinema commonly referred to as \u201cla crisis,\u201d this pioneering research enriches our appreciation of Mexploitation <\/strong>films.<\/p>\nUniversity of Texas Press<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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India Maria decides to go live with a cousin in the capital of Mexico to find a good job, but all kinds of complications arise.
– IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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La India Maria portrays a poor but honorable woman who causes a stir around town when she decides to become a witch doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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On a Sunday morning, an attorney arrives at a small convent to bring bad news. The property, which was given by the Jovellanos family forty-seven years before, has been recollected as the inheritance was not done with the proper legal procedure, and the actual heir plans to sell it off to build a shopping mall there. However, due to this mishap, the nuns are given a right to buy the property, which is worth 400,000 pesos. At the same time, a letter with the news of a new arrival is received by the convent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the new arrival is on her way. Her name is Sor Mar\u00eda Nicolasa, and in the train Sor Mar\u00eda is traveling in she befriends the children there. – Wikipedia<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An indigenous potter becomes the first female municipal president of Chipitongo el Alto. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A maid and her boss’s dog are the inheritors of a large fortune of money, properties and mansions. However, the boss’s furious relatives scheme several unsuccessful plans to get rid of them. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Sor Mar\u00eda Nicolasa, an indigenous nun nicknamed “Sor Tequila,” seems to get herself in funny situations while she travels around helping people. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Street taco girl Nicolasa sells outside a movie studio, and her popularity puts the studio’s own restaurant in jeopardy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An indigenous woman who works as a maid brings her homeless family to live at the house where she works at after the owners get divorced and leave to Spain. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An indigenous woman helps a wounded pilot when he crashes his plane.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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After mistakenly going to jail, Maria makes friends with a woman whose kids live in the streets and Maria gets the idea to help them. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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An old potter and his granddaughter are invited to an archaeological convention in Acapulco where they are hired to create a copy of a well-known Mexica artifact in order to protect the original. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A poor woman goes to Mexico City to find her mother and sister but later sees that her sister is a rich actress and does not believe her. – IMDB

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La India Maria goes to the United States to work to earn money for her grandfather but causes mischief and is chased down by secret agents who want her to go back to Mexico – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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La India Maria raises a kidnapped newborn and is chased down by criminals who want the boy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The committee of a female presidential candidate searches for her twin sister when she becomes incapacitated in a fireworks accident. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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At the request of her ancestor, emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, La India Mar\u00eda must find and destroy Tezcatlipoca’s magical black mirror to prevent the destruction of Mexico. – IMDB<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Obituary for Maria Elena Velasco Fragoso<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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WHO WAS SHE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Elena Velasco Fragoso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Born in Puebla on December 17, 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-At almost 15 years old she worked as a second soprano at the T\u00edvoli theater and as a dancer in the ballets of Ricardo Luna and Jos\u00e9 Luis Hurtado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stood out in university theatre by acting in productions such as The Seventh Seal<\/strong>, by Ingmar Bergman (1970), Two Old Panics , by Virgilio Pi\u00f1era (1972), and Inmaculada, by H\u00e9ctor Azar (1972).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She studied drama with Dimitrio Sarr\u00e1s and Carlos Ancira; film direction with Ludwig Marules and screenwriting with Xavier Robles and Ra\u00fal Figueroa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[…]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India Mar\u00eda, who was known for being cheerful, witty and noble, held different jobs and tasks throughout her filmography, such as a wrestler, bullfighter, motorcyclist and even municipal president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the comedic tone, the popular character also exposed various problems of today’s society, such as racism, discrimination, poverty, sexism, crime, bureaucratic corruption and even kidnapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her clothing closely resembled that of a Mazahua woman, but the ethnic group to which she belonged varied according to the character’s different films.<\/p>\nExcelsior<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The Seventh Seal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So, Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco<\/strong>, the actress who played La India Maria<\/strong>, was in a college production of The Seventh Seal<\/strong>, by Ingmar Bergman. We can only imagine this with the help of Elder G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“La India Mar\u00eda” (born Mar\u00eda Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress Mar\u00eda Elena Velasco. The character frequently endures situations of racial discrimination, classism, and corruption, although in all of these turmoils, Mar\u00eda undoubtedly resolves them with hilarious acts of good-nature and morality. She has represented the poor indigenous, the migrant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mexico","category-movies"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36483"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36557,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36483\/revisions\/36557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}