Speaker 1: Hello for Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 1: is Willmanica. This month, we're talking about comedians women throughout
Speaker 1: history who've made us laugh. They transgressed societal norms through comedy,
Speaker 1: and often spoke out against injustice using their sharp wit. Today,
Speaker 1: we're talking about a woman who made a name for
Speaker 1: herself in Mexican cinema by reprising the same wildly successful
Speaker 1: role in more than a dozen films. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: Maria Elena Velasko. Maria Elena Velasko was born on December seventeenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty, into a family of six. Maria's mother was
Speaker 1: white and her father was Indigenous. She grew up working class,
Speaker 1: and soon after finishing secondary school, began working in the theater.
Speaker 1: She danced and sang in musicals, performed in vaudeville shows
Speaker 1: at nightclubs, and worked with male comedians as a supporting actress.
Speaker 1: Around the same time Maria was gaining her footing as
Speaker 1: an actor, many in Digital and Mazahua women were migrating
Speaker 1: from rural Mexico to Mexico City. They often worked as
Speaker 1: street vendors, selling fruit, candy and trinkets. Every day. Maria
Speaker 1: walked past these women in the streets, and one day
Speaker 1: she had an idea, what if she impersonated them? So
Speaker 1: Maria created the character La India Maria, a caricature of
Speaker 1: an indigenous Mazahua woman. Maria started out performing as La
Speaker 1: India Maria on vaudeville stages, and her character quickly became
Speaker 1: a crowd favorite. Soon enough, Maria had booked her first
Speaker 1: television appearance on the variety show Cianfrean Domingo. In the episode,
Speaker 1: while Maria is selling fruit in front of the television studio,
Speaker 1: she falls in love with the show's host and then
Speaker 1: follows him into the studio. In a series of misadventures,
Speaker 1: she makes her way past security and onto the main stage,
Speaker 1: where she proceeds to monopolize the show. This variety show
Speaker 1: was already one of Mexico's most watched programs, but the
Speaker 1: episode Maria appeared in was one of their highest rated episodes,
Speaker 1: more than four million people tuned in. Soon after appearing
Speaker 1: on TV, Maria's character got her own movie called Tanta
Speaker 1: Tanta pero Tanto. The movie premiered in nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: and the opening of the film, La India Maria is
Speaker 1: dressed in a long skirt, a bright satin blouse, and
Speaker 1: a thick knitted belt, all clothes meant to indicate that
Speaker 1: she was an indigenous woman. She's about to board a
Speaker 1: train to Mexico City with her donkey. Her parents, while
Speaker 1: telling her goodbye, also tell her it's no use writing
Speaker 1: letters home. They can't read and she can't write. When
Speaker 1: La India Maria makes it to the big city, she
Speaker 1: immediately bumbles her way into the middle of a jewel
Speaker 1: robbery and a murder. But armed with optimism and impeccable
Speaker 1: slapstick timing, La India Maria ends ubsolving both cases. She
Speaker 1: even has the time to make friends with a famous
Speaker 1: TV host. Maria's film debut was a success. Over the
Speaker 1: next few decades, Maria acted in dozens of films, and
Speaker 1: in all of them she played the same character, La
Speaker 1: India Maria. The storylines in these films were varied. Sometimes
Speaker 1: she's working as a maid for an upper class family.
Speaker 1: In one movie, she's accidentally elected to political office. But
Speaker 1: in every movie, the character of La India Maria remains
Speaker 1: the same. She's traditional and modest, uneducated, lower class, and
Speaker 1: baffled by modern Western society. She speaks mostly in broken Spanish.
Speaker 1: She's always hilarious. In nineteen seventy four, when an interviewer
Speaker 1: asked Maria if her character would ever grow or change,
Speaker 1: Maria said never. I am La India Maria and I
Speaker 1: could never leave my donkey Philimmon or stop being La
Speaker 1: India Maria. While La India Maria remained a static character,
Speaker 1: Maria kept growing in her own career. After the success
Speaker 1: of her early films, she started her own production company
Speaker 1: and wrote and produced for TV and film. Maria appeared
Speaker 1: as La India Maria for the last time I'm in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, in a movie directed by her son. She
Speaker 1: died a year later at the age of seventy four.
Speaker 1: All month We're talking about Comedians. For more information, find
Speaker 1: us on Facebook and Instagram at Willmanica Podcast special thanks
Speaker 1: to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk
Speaker 1: to you tomorrow.