Documentary theater between a mother who lives in Mexico and a son who makes a living in theater
New forms of art and money arise in a powerful mother’s retelling of economic history

Mexican playwright and director Anacarsis Ramos and his mother, Josefina, are from Campeche, which is on the west side of the Yucatán Peninsula. A fortified city during the Spanish colonial period, it evolved into a region with one of the world’s largest petroleum reserves. Over the last few decades, it has also been one of the Mexican states with the largest population of people living in poverty. In the sixty years since 1960, Josefina has worked in this town at a string of over forty jobs of all kinds—barber, chorizo seller, video blogger—just to make ends meet. Her son Anacarsis, however, moved to Mexico City to pursue theater, escape the violence and oppression prevalent in Campeche, and come to terms with his identity as a gay man. Caught in the rise and fall of Campeche’s society and economy, the family drifted apart for many reasons, such as widespread poverty, lack of a social welfare system, and difficulties in Ramos’s creative career.

In this work of documentary theater, the mother and son recount Campeche’s economic history on stage, depicting the family amid economic and social developments and failures. His mother speaks, sometimes with humor, about her sales techniques and strategies for survival, while her son asks her questions, opening up a dialogue about theater, class society, and the harsh reality of everyday life. The family is regenerated through the creation of theater, and this process of rebuilding a new relationship is laid bare in front of the audience. Blending methods from documentary and theater, Anacarsis’s ability to interweave social criticism and personal history is impressive, and Josefina’s power is unmissable. Despite the larger societal forces to which she has been subjected, she gives her own economic history new meaning by retelling it, while boldly challenging the theater—and the entire global performing arts world—with her charisma.