Videos (Plays and Performances)

Astrid Hadad

Vivir Muriendo. Vivir muriendo’ is a cabaret-format show, where Astrid Hadad performs a direct political satire against the aftermath of Carlos Salinas de Gortari and Ernesto Zedillo’s Mexican government. Hadad’s iconic and continuously morphing clothes are an allegory of Mexican nation, condensed in her body and her powerful voice. Playing in the intertwining relationship between politics and sexuality, ‘Vivir muriendo’ is a thermometer of the Mexican political situation at the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century.

SummerStage 2000. In 2000, New York City’s SummerStage hosted a unique concert where three powerful women offered the best of their repertoire. Astrid Hadad, Liliana Felipe, and Eugenia León performed both individually and together, in a show organized and directed by Jesusa Rodríguez. The presence of these women in Central Park, singing in Spanish, speaks about the intertwined relationship between the local and the transnational, as well as the interest in Latin American and Latino/a culture in New York City. The political strength of this performance comes from the voices, the bodies, and the words of these amazing women. This video documentation includes mostly Astrid Hadad’s participation in the show, as well as a grand finale where she and Liliana Felipe and Eugenia León delight the audience with smart and fun rancheras.

Faxes a Rumberta. In this video documentation of ‘Faxes a Rumberta,’ Astrid Hadad brings the female body at the
center of the stage. Through her songs and her comments, she discusses issues such as gender identities, political authoritarianism, religious dogmatism, feudalistic systems, and female submission and male machismo. Hadad’s performance follows a narrative through the story of Rumberta, who starts as an innocent provincial woman who breaks with the patriarchal traditions and travels alone to Mexico City, where finally she decides to live her life in her own terms. It is specially compelling the alternation and juxtaposition of contradictory discourses on her body and her voice, given that she enacts both male and female characters. At the end, her famous mustache is a prop that suggests that gender is nothing but a construction.

Heavy Nopal (Ode to Lucha Reyes) 1990. This video documentation shows a selection of Astrid Hadad and Los Tarzanes’ songs. In ‘Heavy Nopal,’ Astrid uses iconic references, like the cactus, the rock, the pyramid, and the tequila bottle. These elements are not just scenery, but they appear also on Hadad’s own body, which so becomes a human, mobile stage, and also an altar. From the calla lilies to the extremely complex surprise-multi-purpose outfits, to the innumerable ornaments, ‘rebozos,’ virgins of Guadalupe, guns, and common places in the essence of Mexico, Astrid Hadad and her Tarzanes transport the audience through several levels of iconography. Through this iconography, Hadad offers different meanings for both the female body and the Mexican political body. Image

La Bien Pagada 1 (VII Festival de Teatro de Bogotá, Gimnasio Moderno, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia. Domingo, 16 de abril del 2000, 3era función).This video documentation of Astrid Hadad’s performance ‘La bien pagada,’ performed in the VII Theater Festival of Bogota in 2000, offers a very privileged point of view to appreciate the visual components of Hadad’s work on stage. The camera captures Hadad’s props and clothes, and highlights their role as meaningful companions for songs and music. Although her songs come from Mexican tradition and clearly refer to Mexican women, Hadad’s comments during the show suggests that gendered violence is endemic, and that is suffered not only by Latin American women, but by women all around the world. In this performance, Hadad critiques the violence against women, and speaks about the similarities between Mexico and Colombia, advocating for a broader, Latin American understanding of female sexuality.

La Bien Pagada 2 (VII Festival de Teatro de Bogotá, Centro Comunitario La Victoria, Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia. martes, 18 de abril del 2000, 4ta función). This video documentation of Astrid Hadad’s performance ‘La bien pagada,’ performed in the VII Theater Festival of Bogota in 2000, in the Community Center of La Victoria, offers an initial footage of the audience before entering to see the show, to grasp an idea of the importance and magnitude of this event. A mobile camera allows a perspective similar to the attendants to the show, where Hadad’s voice and presence are at the heart of the stage. In this performance, Hadad critiques the violence against women, and speaks about the similarities between Mexico and Colombia, advocating for a broader, Latin American understanding of female sexuality. Dressed as ‘Adelita,’ iconic female figure of the Mexican Revolution, Hadad claims a stronger position for women in society. Female sexuality is at the center of her songs, looking for a liberation of women’s bodies – playing with Emiliano Zapata’s words, Astrid Hadad uses to say
that ‘the orgasm belongs to those who work for it.’

Corazón Sangrante (1993). This awarded video clip, produced independently, offers a particular reading of Astrid Hadad’s aesthetic proposal through the song ‘Corazón sangrante.’ The video clip immerses itself in the colors, sounds, and moving images of Astrid’s Adelitas and virgins. Hadad’s body and voice are at the center of this imagery, contrasting with landscapes that suggest links between the female body and the Mexican political body. At the same time, the presence of multiple Astrids suggests a multiplicity of identities related to gender, sexuality, and politics.

Heavy Nopal (1993). This video documentation shows a selection of Astrid Hadad and Los Tarzanes’ songs. In ‘Heavy Nopal,’ Astrid uses iconic references, like the cactus, the rock, the pyramid, and the tequila bottle. These elements are not just scenery, but they appear also on Hadad’s own body, which so becomes a human, mobile stage, and also an altar. From the calla lilies to the extremely complex surprise-multi-purpose outfits, to the innumerable ornaments, ‘rebozos,’ virgins of Guadalupe, guns, and common places in the essence of Mexico, Astrid Hadad and her Tarzanes transport the audience through several levels of iconography. Through this iconography, Hadad offers different meanings for both the female body and the Mexican political body.

La Multimamada (The Multi-Breasted Woman or the Mass Suckle) 1996. The show and costume of La multimamada suggest mass suckle or mass stupidity. Inspired by Isis, the goddess of nourishment, Hadad translates the concept into a skirt covered with foam rubber life-sized breasts with pronounced dark nipples. Dangling from several of the breasts are miniature caricatures of Mexican "types," the social position of each marked by clothing--a politician or business man, a blue-collar worker. Hanging from the breasts, their macho egos are deflated and they characterized as wimpy. They become the stereotypical macho who, in spite of his bravado, is unable to wean himself off his mother's breast. Also caught in the entanglement of meanings is Mexican's relationship to their Mother/Motherland. Image

Amores Pelos. In this video documentation of Astrid Hadad 's performance 'Amores Pelos', costumed in her signature wearable art, Hadad blends popular songs and ranchero, son and bolero music and political satire with highly theatrical precision to create a genre of music she calls 'Heavy Nopal'. Her work takes on the stereotypes of Mexican culture and reframes them to comment on the forms of machismo in a variety of local and global contexts. Image | View the video

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