Against (liberal) heroism: Remembering the narcoguerra in Matthew Paul Olmos’ so go the ghosts of Mexico

• In Event: Violent Acts/Acting Violent: Crisis and Emergency in Latin American Theatre and Performance

Abstract

Chicano playwright Matthew Paul Olmos’ so go the ghosts of mexico (2013) surrealistically dramatizes the story of Marisol Valles Garcia, a 22 year-old criminology student who became the police chief of Praxedis de Guerrero, Chihuahua, espousing non-violent tactics and instigating an unarmed police force, before coming to the U.S. and applying for asylum after being threatened by the cartels. Although ostensibly the play’s heroine, the true protagonists of the play are the ghosts of México, who represent those killed by violence under President Felipe Calderón’s narcoguerra (2006-2012). This paper explores how the play, and its three productions in México and the US –in both Spanish and English-- stage these ghosts so as to remember those killed as well as critique the transnational aspect of drug commerce. Special attention will be paid to the production choices used to both conjure the memory of past/present violence and gesture toward a possible future that requires mass mobilization against Neoliberal violence rather than individual heroism—exposing what Ileana Rodriguez calls the limits of Liberalism and what Sayak Valencia refers to as Capitalismo Gore within a theatrical frame.

Author

• Patricia A Ybarra, Brown University