Jesusa Rodríguez is a Mexican theater director, actress, performance artist, social activist and elected Senator of the Morena party. Her "espectáculos" do not necessarily adhere to traditional genre classification. These works draw on Greek tragedy, cabaret, pre-Columbian, and operatic traditions. They can take the form of a revue, sketch, "carpa", or political performance art. From 1990 until 2005, she and her wife, the Argentine singer/actress Liliana Felipe, operated El Hábito and , alternative performances spaces in Mexico City. El Hábito is now under the administration of Las Reinas Chulas, and Rodríguez is now dedicated to independent projects. In the 1980s Rodríguez notably directed an adaption of Mozart's Don Giovanni, featuring an all-female cast, entitled Donna Giovanni. In 1988 she directed Oskar Panizza's El Concilio de Amor. Rodríguez won an Obie for Best Actor in Las Horas de Belén, A Book of Hours along with Ruth Maleczech and New York-based Mabou Mines. Rodríguez's works regularly revisit historical cultures, icons, and symbols, such as her "La gira mamal de la Coatlicue" of 1993, where she transforms a pre-Hispanic statue from the Mexica Room of Mexico’s National Anthropology Museum into a contemporary, living being. Through the use of an indigenous female icon confined in a museum, the artist parodies the attitude of official Mexican politicians toward their country’s problems. This work calls upon her children not to forget her and complains about not having a special car like the pope’s. Rodríguez calls the show “pre-Hispanic cabaret,” thus pointing to the need to reduce the monolithic myths upon which nationalism tends to be based. Other famous female icons recreated by Rodríguez in her shows include Frida Kahlo, La Malinche and the nunJuana Inés de la Cruz. Jesusa has impersonated Sor Juana in many political demonstrations and, as part of the MexicoCity Pride March. In these particular cases, Rodríguez represented her version of Mexican history "by revisiting and emphasizing the dissident sexualities of these women, who have been hidden or strategically forgotten by official culture". In 2002, she collaborated with Liliana Felipe and Regina Orozcos on "New War, New War," for the 3rd Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. Rodríguez also contributes regularly to Mexico's most important feminist journal, Debate Feminista.
Selected Performances
1990: La gira mamal de la Coatlicue, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City 1991: La Malinche en Dios T.V., Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City 1992: Cielo de abajo, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City 1995: Sor Juana en Almoloya, Teatro Bar El Habito, Mexico City 2001: La soldadera autogena, Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Monterrey, Mexico 2004: Cabaret prehispanico, Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumNew York
