"Máscaras Mexicanas" In Rodolfo Usigli's Jano Es Una

FALL 1991

63

"Máscaras mexicanas" in Rodolfo Usigli's Jano es una
muchacha
Timothy G. Compton
Despite Rodolfo Usigli's towering presence in Mexican theatre, very few
critics have written about his work. El gesticulador and the Corona trilogy
have received a limited amount of critical attention, while the master's 35 other
plays have drawn little more than lip service. Some of theseplays are not at
all masterpieces. For example, his earliest plays would prove very difficult to
perform, and thus hold value primarily because they reveal Usigli's
development as an artist. On the other hand, at least ten plays have
considerable artistic merit, but have fallen undeservingly into obscurity.
Usigli's career as a dramatist spanned more than 40 years. As a young
man 26 years ofage, in 1931, he wrote his first play, El apóstol. In 1972 he
wrote Buenos días, Señor Presidente, his final dramatic effort. The conception
and premiere oí Jano es una muchacha in Mexico City in 1952 marks almost
the exact chronological mid-point of Usigli's literary career. At that point his
prolific pen had yielded 24 plays, 13 of which had been performed. It
appeared five years after thepremieres of El gesticulador and Corona de
sombra, but predated the other two-thirds of the Corona trilogy. Usigli
published Corona de fuego and Corona de luz in 1960 and 1968, respectively.
Although Jano's box office success did not equal that of El niño y la niebla,
which in 1951 had a record breaking run of over 450 performances during an
eight-month stretch, the public received it well andgave it a respectable run.
Despite its popularity with the masses, critics, with one exception, have
done little serious analysis of Jano. For example, Wilder P. Scott called it "a
virtual classic of the Mexican stage." He did not, however, examine it further.
In 1953, Vera F. Beck termed it the most original of Usigli's plays;
nonetheless, plot summary dominates the page and a half shededicated to the
play. She lauded its bold treatment of sexual issues and its dramatic effect
(380-81). To date, Barbara Ann McFarlin-Kosiec's dissertation is the most
substantial work of criticism on the drama. In it she translated Jano and
analyzed it in the "British American or formal tradition of criticism." She
found that "it contains principles of aesthetic form-organic unity, theme,thematic variation, balance, hierarchy, and evolution." The unbridled praise
voiced in these opinions indicates a drama worthy of widespread critical
attention, yet it has remained virtually ignored.

64

LATIN AMERICAN THEATRE REVIEW

In contrast with El gesticulador, in which political issues dominate, Jano
es una muchacha highlights social concerns. Regardless of this fundamentaldifference, both plays have at their heart the idea of "máscaras mexicanas,"
which Octavio Paz develops in El laberinto de la soledad: "Viejo o adolescente,
criollo o mestizo, general, obrero o licenciado, el mexicano se me aparece
como un ser que se encierra y se preserva: máscara el rostro y máscara la
sonrisa" (26). Paz thinks all Mexicans hide their true selves through dramatic
recourses. Donningmasks is just one part of their personal dramas, for they
also serve as dramatist, producer, and director:
E l simulador pretende ser lo que no es. Su actividad reclama una
constante improvisación, . . . A cada minuto hay que rehacer,
r ecrear, modificar el personaje que fingimos, hasta que llega un
m omento en que realidad y apariencia, mentira y verdad, se
confunden (36).
Significantly,Paz uses terminology directly from the world of drama. In fact,
Paz cites César Rubio as an example of "el problema de la autenticidad" (30).
Several literary critics have examined roughly the same issue in El gesticulador
under the banner of metatheatre (Kronik; Foster), but the idea of "máscaras"
remains, for they examine the issues of illusion and reality, truth and fiction,
authenticity...