Juicio a Salinas.

Roughly edited video documentation of cabaret performance by renowned artists Jesusa Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe. 'Juicio a Salinas', a mock trial of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari (president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994) at the Teatro Bar El Hábito, is an invitation to civic society to participate in a broader national call for accountability to the Mexican government in the face of charges of corruption, electoral fraud, embezzlement, and political violence. Using humor and improvisation as a tool for starting a public dialogue, the artists invite the audience to participate as a theatrical jury of deputies; in this guise, the public has the opportunity to directly question 'Salinas' (played by a cross-dressed Rodríguez) and ultimately pass judgment on him, deciding whether or not to send him to the Almoloya penitentiary. Among protest chants of 'El pueblo apoya, Salinas a Almoloya' ('The people claim it, (send) Salinas to Alomloya') and the song 'Solidaridad' ('propaganda theme song for Salinas' controversial Programa Nacional de Solidaridad, PRONASOL), the piece is proposed as a performative 'propitiatory ritual' for political justice, rehearsing civic participation in Mexico's public sphere. 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. Rodriguezs 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