5to aniversario de El Hábito.

Video documentary celebrating the 5th anniversary of Teatro-Bar El Hábito. Its founders, Jesusa Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe, created this queer 'mockumentary' as a parodic pseudo-ethnographic study of their renowned venue in Mexico City. Tracing its roots to the tradition of German cabaret and analyzing the queer nuances of their creative work, the 'Patronas' thread footage from memorable performances performed at El Hábito: 'El Primer Fracaso, ' 'Cachirulo para Adultos, ' 'Homenaje a Cri-Cri, ' and 'Juicio a Salinas, ' to name just a few. The ongoing voice-over commentary mocks the ultra-conservative view many Mexicans have of Rodríguez & Felipe's ground-breaking work, considered a 'perverse' influence on Catholic, right-wing conservative values and traditions. This retrospective is a testimony both to the trajectory and prolific work of Rodríguez and Felipe, and to the kind of space El Hábito is: a hotbed for intellectuals, feminists, gay rights activists and open-minded, progressive people who want to be engaged by a smart and critical humor. Mexican director, actress, playwright, performance artist, scenographer, entrepreneur, and social activist Jesusa Rodríguez has been called the most important woman of Mexico. Often referred to as a 'chameleon, ' Rodríguez moves seemingly effortlessly and with vigor across the spectrum of cultural forms, styles, and tones. Her 'espectáculos' (as both spectacles and shows) challenge traditional classification, crossing with ease generic boundaries: from elite to popular to mass, from Greek tragedy to cabaret, from pre-Columbian indigenous to opera, from revue, sketch and 'carpa, ' to performative acts within political projects. Humor, satire, linguistic play, and the body are constants in her productions. She seeks to render corporal and, thus, visible, the tensions between the discourses in operation on and through the individual and collective body. Rodriguez's energy is intense and her commitment non-negotiable, always interrogating the nature, site, and consequences of power and its representation. Liliana Felipe, one of Latin America's foremost singers and composers, was born in Argentina in the 1950s. She left for Mexico just before the outbreak of the 'Dirty War' (1976), but her sister and brother-in-law were both 'disappeared'--victims of the military dictatorship's criminal politics. Liliana's music has a wide following in Latin America. She continues to be a powerful presence in Argentina, working with human rights organizations--especially H.I.J.O.S. (the organization of the children of the disappeared). In Mexico, Liliana went to one of Jesusa Rodríguez's performances. Jesusa, catching a glimpse of Felipe in the audience, remembers saying to herself: 'I am going to die with that woman.' Since then, Liliana and Jesusa have created two performance spaces, El Cuervo and later El Hábito in Coyoacán, Mexico City, that they still run. They 'married' in February 2000. El Hábito (www.elhabito.com.mx) is a hotbed for intellectuals, feminists, gay rights activists and open-minded, progressive people who want to be engaged by a smart and critical humor. In this off-off space, and with the collaboration of their theater cooperative Las Divas, Jesusa y Liliana have produced hundreds of shows since the 1980s. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics