Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Presents ‘Soy Malintzin’
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center presents Soy Malintzin, an original production by the Guadalupe Dance Company, accompanied by Mariachi Azteca de América. Soy Malintzin will be held at the historic Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe Street on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022 at 8 p.m. Commissioned and presented by the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), this dance production was inspired by Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche, a special exhibition currently on view at SAMA.
Soy Malintzin re-envisions the controversial legacy of Malintzin/La Malinche, an enslaved indigenous woman, the mother of Meztisaje heritage, who served as a translator and cultural interpreter for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and became the mother of his first-born son.
Through the collective work of Guadalupe Dance Company members and the choreographic artistry of Maestro Juan Carlos Gaytan of Colima, México, the pieces draw attention to different aspects of La Malinche.
“Identifying with her as a human being and a woman in unimaginable circumstances, we take artistic license as we retell her plight, her story, and the impact she had on our history through music, dance, and voice,” said Jeannette Chavez, dance director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. “We hope the community will come out and enjoy this interpretation of La Malinche.”
Soy Malintzin is presented by the San Antonio Museum of Art and generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Latin American Fund.
The historic Guadalupe Theater, located at 1301 Guadalupe Street, operated as the Westside’s most opulent movie theater from 1940 until it fell into disrepair in 1970. In the spring of 1984, the reconstruction of the theater was completed and equipped for stage and screen presentations including a small art gallery.
The Guadalupe continues to present programming in music, dance, literature, film, theater, and visual arts offering an annual array of classes and workshops in music, theater and dance.
Tickets are $30, $25, $20 and can be purchased by calling (210) 271-3151 or order online.
Feature photo by Paul Casanova Garcia.
