00:00:03.041 --> 00:00:06.291
Well, we're talking about a Mexico
in which there were no bars

00:00:06.291 --> 00:00:09.916
and absolutely no sexual diversity.

00:00:09.916 --> 00:00:14.541
It was a time of raids. Police
would come to your home,

00:00:14.541 --> 00:00:19.250
like right now, for example. They
would come and take everyone.

00:00:19.250 --> 00:00:23.750
And the yellow press would
send out alarms and alerts.

00:00:23.750 --> 00:00:28.875
Earrings and wigs were forcibly put on
them, as well as paint on their mouth.

00:00:28.875 --> 00:00:31.750
And they would call everyone in their agendas.

00:00:31.750 --> 00:00:35.916
Some employers would fire them,
and families disowned them.

00:00:37.583 --> 00:00:40.583
Dear Nancy

00:00:41.958 --> 00:00:45.291
It is very important to mention that
Nancy Cardenas was the first woman,

00:00:46.541 --> 00:00:50.583
I think in the Americas, surely,

00:00:51.083 --> 00:00:56.166
who stood up in the International
Women's Year and said:

00:00:56.166 --> 00:01:03.291
"I am lesbian, and there are no rights
here for women who love other women".

00:01:14.125 --> 00:01:16.958
Letter by Carlos Monsivais to
Nancy Cardenas before her death

00:01:16.958 --> 00:01:23.000
Dear Nancy, I begin this story of friendship
and admiration from the beginning.

00:01:24.541 --> 00:01:26.875
(Music)

00:01:29.458 --> 00:01:33.083
I saw you for the first time in 1955

00:01:33.083 --> 00:01:36.166
in the hallways of the School of Philosophy,

00:01:36.166 --> 00:01:41.416
And your body language and your way
of speaking caught my attention.

00:01:41.416 --> 00:01:47.000
While I was timid, you,
inevitably, were a leader.

00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.791
Luis Prieto introduced us,
and after half hour I knew it all.

00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:55.875
(Music)

00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.583
You were born in 1934 in Parras,

00:02:02.583 --> 00:02:06.666
and came from a large family
of farmers and merchants.

00:02:08.583 --> 00:02:10.666
(Music)

00:02:13.208 --> 00:02:17.750
The Cardenas family is a
very nice family from Parras.

00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:22.625
And Parras is a place where
I think life is, or was, very calm,

00:02:22.625 --> 00:02:25.625
and in which everyone was so
affectionate among each other.

00:02:26.875 --> 00:02:29.875
Nancy was the youngest of eight siblings.

00:02:29.875 --> 00:02:36.000
Five brothers and three sisters.

00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:39.333
She told me that when she was in school
she was the first one to get there

00:02:39.333 --> 00:02:45.458
and would sit in at the edge of the sidewalk
waiting for the school to open.

00:02:46.833 --> 00:02:53.541
Given that we had no electricity
after eleven at night in Parras,

00:02:53.541 --> 00:02:57.291
Nancy, who was very studious,

00:02:57.291 --> 00:03:06.083
would grab a small lamp and continue reading.

00:03:06.083 --> 00:03:09.041
The reality of those times
was that women did not study,

00:03:09.041 --> 00:03:14.166
and if they did study, they would study
to become the mothers of the future,

00:03:14.166 --> 00:03:18.333
or cooks, and similar roles,

00:03:18.333 --> 00:03:22.125
and Nancy did not buy into that idea.

00:03:22.125 --> 00:03:26.708
Nancy believed that men
and women were equal

00:03:26.708 --> 00:03:31.250
and that both had equal rights
and freedoms in all aspects.

00:03:31.250 --> 00:03:35.250
Daughter of Matias Cardenas
and Esperanza Martinez,

00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:37.666
from the state of Nuevo Leon,

00:03:37.666 --> 00:03:42.875
from a young age, she had been
characterized for her leadership

00:03:42.875 --> 00:03:45.333
that made her unique.

00:03:45.333 --> 00:03:48.333
She was liberal minded since she was a girl.

00:03:48.333 --> 00:03:51.958
Well, liberal, let's say that
she made her own decisions.

00:03:51.958 --> 00:03:56.625
Well, liberal, let's say that
she made her own decisions.

00:03:56.625 --> 00:04:02.041
In the 50's, Nancy's first
publications in poetry

00:04:02.041 --> 00:04:07.208
and opinion column were issued by
"El  Popular," a local newspaper

00:04:07.208 --> 00:04:10.916
that is still active today in Parras.

00:04:10.916 --> 00:04:14.500
Ever since I learned to do rhymes

00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:18.083
and octosyllabic verses in the ninth grade,

00:04:18.083 --> 00:04:19.458
I became fascinated with them.

00:04:19.458 --> 00:04:25.375
I would dedicate quarters and calavera
poems to people in my family.

00:04:25.375 --> 00:04:29.583
I wrote some of these
out of emotions

00:04:29.583 --> 00:04:31.833
that emerged after taking a trip,

00:04:31.833 --> 00:04:35.041
something special, or a personal feeling.

00:04:35.041 --> 00:04:38.041
So I began to do some free write poetry

00:04:38.041 --> 00:04:41.916
when I was fifteen or sixteen years old,

00:04:41.916 --> 00:04:43.833
and I published my work in "El Popular",

00:04:43.833 --> 00:04:46.083
the small newspaper in Parras, Coahuila.

00:04:46.083 --> 00:04:52.125
She left to Celaya because she had
a brother there. He was a salesman.

00:04:52.125 --> 00:05:02.125
Then she came to Mexico City, and this
is where she really began her life.

00:05:02.125 --> 00:05:08.000
It was interesting because the grandparents
planned for Nancy to become a doctor,

00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:11.916
and she was interested in that too.

00:05:11.916 --> 00:05:16.791
In fact, she went into med school directly,
and there were no issues in her first semester.

00:05:16.791 --> 00:05:19.500
But things changed in the second semester.

00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:22.500
I am not sure , but from what
I have heard from others,

00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:25.916
and from what she said herself,

00:05:27.583 --> 00:05:32.791
her career in medicine came to an end
when she saw corpses.

00:05:32.791 --> 00:05:34.958
She fainted.

00:05:34.958 --> 00:05:39.916
I wanted to be a teacher at
first, and then a doctor.

00:05:39.916 --> 00:05:44.083
Then, I wanted to focus on nutrition

00:05:44.083 --> 00:05:48.250
and, finally, I enrolled
at the national university

00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:52.416
for a Masters in Spanish Letters.

00:05:52.416 --> 00:05:56.583
It was there where Hector
Mendoza and Jose Luis Ibanez

00:05:56.583 --> 00:06:02.000
talked to me about theater
and I switched careers.

00:06:04.958 --> 00:06:07.958
(Music)

00:06:15.458 --> 00:06:17.791
Being born in Parras, Coahuila,

00:06:17.791 --> 00:06:21.375
and rejecting the dominant
traditions of the era,

00:06:21.375 --> 00:06:24.666
and coming to Mexico City
to study drama

00:06:24.666 --> 00:06:29.125
and quickly joining a group
consisting of actors,

00:06:29.125 --> 00:06:34.291
playwriters, novelists,
scholars, leftist activists,

00:06:34.291 --> 00:06:37.833
and gays and a few lesbians.

00:06:41.125 --> 00:06:43.541
(Music)

00:06:47.708 --> 00:06:52.375
So Nancy grew up in this environment

00:06:52.375 --> 00:06:58.125
combined with a political bearing
that she had from a young age.

00:06:58.125 --> 00:07:00.958
She was always interested in social issues,

00:07:00.958 --> 00:07:07.833
and at a moment in her life she
joins the Mexican Communist Party.

00:07:07.833 --> 00:07:15.166
Well, she was always very active and
took part in many social movements.

00:07:15.166 --> 00:07:17.708
As soon as she joined the School
of Philosophy and Letters

00:07:17.708 --> 00:07:20.791
she ran to become a student representative.

00:07:24.958 --> 00:07:30.375
She became quite popular very soon.
She was always popular.

00:07:30.375 --> 00:07:34.958
She didn’t know how to be
solitary and reclusive.

00:07:34.958 --> 00:07:39.333
That's not all. She always communicated
with the whole community,

00:07:39.333 --> 00:07:43.458
and I think that in less than two months,

00:07:43.458 --> 00:07:46.875
everybody in the school knew
who Nancy Cardenas was.

00:07:46.875 --> 00:07:49.875
I remember when I was in Philosophy.
She was going out with Beatriz Bueno,

00:07:49.875 --> 00:07:53.708
also known as Bebu. Beatriz Bueno.

00:07:53.708 --> 00:07:58.458
And everyone knew that Nancy and
Beatriz were a couple. Everyone knew.

00:07:58.458 --> 00:08:03.708
This was a respected and very famous
couple in Philosophy and Letters.

00:08:03.958 --> 00:08:10.500
Well, we knew it superficially
but we didn’t talk about it,

00:08:11.208 --> 00:08:13.750
because that is how things were.

00:08:13.750 --> 00:08:20.916
There were no freedoms of expression.

00:08:20.916 --> 00:08:22.750
What happened was that
she was also careful.

00:08:22.750 --> 00:08:28.416
She was part of the Communist Party,
which was very homophobic,

00:08:28.416 --> 00:08:32.916
so there were strong battles
within the Communist Party.

00:08:32.916 --> 00:08:36.666
Carlos Monsivais, Luis Prieto, her,
and another group of people...

00:08:36.666 --> 00:08:41.500
a very strong movement against homophobia
and close-mindedness in the Party.

00:08:41.916 --> 00:08:45.333
Even though the whole world knew,

00:08:45.333 --> 00:08:50.958
Nancy was careful because she could have
been removed from the Communist Party.

00:08:50.958 --> 00:08:53.375
She did it out of prudency, not cowardice,

00:08:53.375 --> 00:08:56.041
and also because she was committed
to the Communist Party.

00:08:56.041 --> 00:08:58.708
She believed in communism, and
had faith in the party,

00:08:58.708 --> 00:09:02.750
so out of strategic motives
she chose not to come out.

00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:12.791
Her restlessness was representative,
in a positive way,

00:09:12.791 --> 00:09:20.875
of the intuitive impulses of her generation,

00:09:20.875 --> 00:09:26.541
and of the paths that were opened
for future generations

00:09:26.541 --> 00:09:37.416
who became more openly
manifest in the 60's,

00:09:37.416 --> 00:09:41.333
when the youth became disinhibited.

00:09:41.791 --> 00:09:44.500
She streamed many series on Radio UNAM.

00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:48.791
She was a pioneer of the
cultural university television,

00:09:48.791 --> 00:09:53.041
in which she became known
as the University Girl.

00:09:53.041 --> 00:09:57.666
She immediately showed her acting skills

00:09:58.458 --> 00:10:02.166
with a huge advantage given that
she was already working

00:10:02.166 --> 00:10:05.875
in many areas of the profession.

00:10:06.375 --> 00:10:11.875
And just like that, newly arrived Nancy
found a new occupation.

00:10:12.958 --> 00:10:18.541
Let's begin by looking back
at a radio commercial,

00:10:18.541 --> 00:10:21.166
written by author Salvador Novo,

00:10:21.166 --> 00:10:25.000
for which you used your marvelous voice.

00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:30.041
Right. Rinse, wring and hang.

00:10:30.583 --> 00:10:36.750
It was Salvador Novo's wisdom
that open the way

00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:41.000
for the introduction of detergents

00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:43.625
in the late 40's, early 50's.

00:10:43.625 --> 00:10:48.125
They were a modern and
different type of resource.

00:10:48.125 --> 00:10:51.125
But I had recently moved from the North

00:10:51.125 --> 00:10:54.250
and still had a strong Northern accent.

00:10:55.250 --> 00:11:00.333
So, the production company
trained me for the commercial.

00:11:00.333 --> 00:11:05.833
This training lasted 3 or 4 months.

00:11:05.833 --> 00:11:09.583
The voices of the voiceovers
advertising the products

00:11:09.583 --> 00:11:13.000
was more important than
those of the actors.

00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.416
Therefore, this was a very
special formation for me.

00:11:16.416 --> 00:11:20.750
Recordings were in their early stages.

00:11:20.750 --> 00:11:27.333
The programs were done live,
and we would all get very nervous.

00:11:27.333 --> 00:11:31.625
It was a difficult job because
we had to do it live

00:11:31.625 --> 00:11:35.583
and for national radio on XEW Station.

00:11:35.916 --> 00:11:38.208
Being a voiceover was an experience
that vitalized me very much.

00:11:38.208 --> 00:11:39.875
But, more than anything,

00:11:39.875 --> 00:11:44.583
it allowed me to sustain myself
during my first two years of college.

00:11:47.083 --> 00:11:49.083
(Music)

00:11:57.666 --> 00:12:03.166
You studied drama and you wanted to
be a director, a writer, an actress...

00:12:13.791 --> 00:12:21.125
She was interested in everything
and was a go-getter.

00:12:21.125 --> 00:12:23.666
She had that gift.

00:12:23.666 --> 00:12:28.125
Then, I witnessed how she,

00:12:28.125 --> 00:12:32.583
insistent on studying while also preparing

00:12:32.583 --> 00:12:38.166
to become a writer and actress,

00:12:38.166 --> 00:12:42.125
was active in all aspects of theater.

00:12:42.125 --> 00:12:46.500
Being beside her motivated and agitated me.

00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:54.291
And it wasn't just that; she catalyzed
what was inside of me, which was a lot.

00:12:54.583 --> 00:12:58.875
Nancy Cardenas belongs to a generation

00:12:58.875 --> 00:13:01.833
that developed at the Autonomous
Nacional University of Mexico,

00:13:01.833 --> 00:13:07.958
a generation of directors and escenic
creators, actors, and playwriters.

00:13:07.958 --> 00:13:15.458
Specifically, Nancy belongs to the first
generation based at the university's campus.

00:13:15.458 --> 00:13:19.916
This is a moment of transition in Mexico City,

00:13:19.916 --> 00:13:26.916
in which the University that has a long history
of being located in downtown Mexico City,

00:13:26.916 --> 00:13:35.625
moves to this new campus that project an image
of modernity and a different Mexico.

00:13:35.625 --> 00:13:41.500
Nancy and I lived very close to
each other, a few blocks away,

00:13:41.500 --> 00:13:47.375
in the same neighborhood, in Narvarte.

00:13:47.375 --> 00:13:50.250
So I would visit often...

00:13:50.250 --> 00:13:55.958
Well, we would almost always
commute to campus together.

00:13:55.958 --> 00:14:01.416
This also coincides with a movement
that would become Spoken Word,

00:14:01.416 --> 00:14:03.208
which is not a movement but a group.

00:14:03.208 --> 00:14:10.333
But it started with this group led
by Jose Arreola and Octavio Paz,

00:14:10.333 --> 00:14:16.500
and it also includes other artists
like Juan Soriano in stage design,

00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:19.000
and Leonora Carrington also joins.

00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.916
Ultimately, this group will spark a movement

00:14:22.916 --> 00:14:27.458
that will lay the foundations
of the new stage language.

00:14:27.458 --> 00:14:36.583
All of us there realized that we
were joined by a common desire.

00:14:36.583 --> 00:14:40.708
We didn't want to do literature.
We didn't want to do recitals.

00:14:40.708 --> 00:14:45.916
We didn't want to do any
of the things new groups do,

00:14:45.916 --> 00:14:48.041
because we didn't know how.

00:14:48.041 --> 00:14:54.083
Theater, in particular, was something
we all really wanted to do,

00:14:54.083 --> 00:14:59.250
in different aspects and to different
degrees, but we didn't know how.

00:14:59.250 --> 00:15:05.291
I tell you this because that is when
Nancy came in who, in contrast,

00:15:05.291 --> 00:15:10.625
was learning theater through
study and application.

00:15:10.916 --> 00:15:19.708
And it was very impressive to see how poetry
was turned into theatrical performances.

00:15:20.958 --> 00:15:28.666
And she really got people moving.
Even poets and speakers were inspired.

00:15:28.666 --> 00:15:35.125
They would recite their own poems but
they would also read other classic poems

00:15:35.125 --> 00:15:39.958
from Mexican modernism,
such as Juan de Dios Peza.

00:15:39.958 --> 00:15:43.458
"Wring the neck of the lying featured swan..."

00:15:43.458 --> 00:15:50.500
I remember Juan Arreola would say:
"Wring the neck of the lying feathered swan".

00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:55.291
It was incredible, and Cardenas
would shine also there

00:15:55.291 --> 00:15:59.250
for she had an extraordinary
voice for reciting.

00:15:59.250 --> 00:16:02.625
That trajectory alone made
Nancy Cardenas very important.

00:16:02.625 --> 00:16:07.250
Not only that; she was the only
woman in that university theater

00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:11.041
and the only female director.

00:16:11.041 --> 00:16:19.166
So it was like a seed was planted
on very fertile Mexican land

00:16:19.166 --> 00:16:27.500
where little effort was needed
for the soil to produce crops.

00:16:27.500 --> 00:16:34.250
That is how it happened and it was an intense
moment, as productive as it was brief.

00:16:37.916 --> 00:16:40.916
(Music)

00:16:46.375 --> 00:16:50.541
Soon after Nancy Cardenas
graduated from her career,

00:16:50.541 --> 00:16:53.333
in the School of Philosophy and Letters,

00:16:53.333 --> 00:16:58.000
she began working on
important theater activity.

00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:00.250
But then she suddenly stopped.

00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:06.208
It is thought that she had
a strong disagreement

00:17:06.208 --> 00:17:11.291
with the then coordinator
of UNAM theater,

00:17:11.291 --> 00:17:14.833
Hector Azar,

00:17:14.833 --> 00:17:20.708
and this happened during a very strange
moment in cultural history,

00:17:20.708 --> 00:17:25.250
given that he was not only the
coordinator at UNAM theater,

00:17:25.250 --> 00:17:26.750
but also the director of the
National Institute of Fine Arts.

00:17:27.166 --> 00:17:30.958
So they had a confrontation at some point.
They had a major disagreement.

00:17:31.458 --> 00:17:35.000
Nancy ends up leaving theater.

00:17:35.375 --> 00:17:39.583
Somewhere she stated that she left willingly

00:17:39.583 --> 00:17:42.875
as a way to protest against the power

00:17:42.875 --> 00:17:49.208
exerted by Hector Azar in Mexico City theater.

00:17:50.291 --> 00:17:52.083
So Nancy Cardenas distanced
herself from theater

00:17:52.083 --> 00:17:55.083
and became a lot more involved in film,

00:17:55.083 --> 00:17:58.250
which is something she was also
interested in, along with radio.

00:17:58.458 --> 00:18:05.375
Meanwhile, as we were approaching
the end of the decade,

00:18:05.375 --> 00:18:13.333
she would tell me that she was deciding
not only to move to the United States,

00:18:13.333 --> 00:18:19.708
but also to apply to study film in Poland.

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.791
So Nancy couldn't stay the three years
there, she only endured one year,

00:18:24.791 --> 00:18:29.333
because the cold was truly impossible.

00:18:29.333 --> 00:18:35.333
So when she came back after 1 year and
a half later, she went back for her dog,

00:18:35.333 --> 00:18:41.166
but the dog became so used
to her friend's house.

00:18:41.166 --> 00:18:44.333
Well, that hurt Nancy a lot,
and she didn't take her.

00:18:44.333 --> 00:18:48.833
When she came back sooner
than expected, I told her:

00:18:48.833 --> 00:18:55.250
"Nancy, look at how ideologies
change with the weather".

00:18:55.250 --> 00:19:00.291
But I was evidently joking with her,
she wasn't surrendering to anything.

00:19:00.291 --> 00:19:04.458
Instead, she went on and on, with
the passion that distinguished her,

00:19:04.458 --> 00:19:10.208
but now ever more focused

00:19:10.208 --> 00:19:15.541
on the ideas that mattered to her
in relation to this country.

00:19:15.958 --> 00:19:20.000
At six years of age, before reading,
before knowing how to read,

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.208
I saw my first movie,

00:19:22.208 --> 00:19:24.166
in my state's capital, in Saltillo.

00:19:24.166 --> 00:19:25.541
Which was it?

00:19:25.541 --> 00:19:32.208
It was an English movie, where the
British Empire subdued the Hindus.

00:19:32.208 --> 00:19:35.666
And I felt as part of the those in salakots

00:19:35.666 --> 00:19:37.875
who were fighting the ones in turbans,

00:19:37.875 --> 00:19:40.583
despite the fact that having my skin color,

00:19:40.583 --> 00:19:43.458
and being from Parras,
and from this continent,

00:19:43.458 --> 00:19:47.583
I could have identified my fight more
accurately those with the turbans.

00:19:48.208 --> 00:19:54.833
As the years went by, I realized
that we were victims, in many ways,

00:19:54.833 --> 00:20:00.750
of ideological contents disguised as emotions

00:20:00.750 --> 00:20:03.875
that seemed to not have a political root.

00:20:03.875 --> 00:20:11.291
So when I warned about this,
I decided to denounce it.

00:20:11.291 --> 00:20:16.500
So I spend some ten or
fifteen years of my life

00:20:16.500 --> 00:20:18.958
focused on the critique of cinema

00:20:18.958 --> 00:20:25.333
and to the promotion of cinema
as an act, as cultural spectacle.

00:20:26.291 --> 00:20:30.916
This career culminated with the opportunity

00:20:30.916 --> 00:20:34.541
that Pecime and Conacine gave me

00:20:34.541 --> 00:20:39.416
to make a historical tape,
an anthological tape

00:20:39.416 --> 00:20:41.541
with the history of Mexican cinema,

00:20:41.541 --> 00:20:49.416
in which I summarized my
experience as a girl, as a cinephile,

00:20:49.416 --> 00:20:54.041
even having watched some 120 movies,

00:20:54.041 --> 00:21:00.125
from which I chose 90 fragments
to make this montage.

00:21:00.750 --> 00:21:05.750
And there were many wonderful
interviewees, like Sara Garcia.

00:21:05.750 --> 00:21:10.916
And Nancy would make wonderful
jokes that no one would imagine.

00:21:10.916 --> 00:21:14.750
For example, while interviewing Sara Garcia,

00:21:14.750 --> 00:21:20.583
who during this time was working in the
Fabregas theater on The Red Riding Hood,

00:21:20.583 --> 00:21:23.666
we interviewed her and she
talked about Pedro Infante,

00:21:23.666 --> 00:21:34.208
but Nancy sat her lifelong female
lover, Rosarito, behind her.

00:21:34.208 --> 00:21:38.291
As director of theater,

00:21:38.291 --> 00:21:46.000
let's say its the 70's when Nancy started
her career as a professional director,

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:52.666
what she did in the 60's were like first trials,

00:21:52.666 --> 00:21:56.333
and in the 70's her professional career begins,

00:21:56.333 --> 00:22:01.125
that's going to continue for
the whole decade and the next.

00:22:01.291 --> 00:22:07.416
Ever since my high school teacher
taught me that history is never complete,

00:22:07.416 --> 00:22:10.958
and that I could make history,

00:22:10.958 --> 00:22:17.000
I've dedicated myself to use
that right and that obligation.

00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.666
And I have participated in
many national events.

00:22:21.666 --> 00:22:25.375
But after The Movement of '68,

00:22:25.375 --> 00:22:29.583
having come out alive from what happened
at the Square of Three Cultures,

00:22:29.583 --> 00:22:35.541
I decided to change my technique
and tactics of fighting,

00:22:35.541 --> 00:22:38.333
and chose the stage.

00:22:38.333 --> 00:22:41.541
After a year and a half of
being depressed, I got better.

00:22:41.541 --> 00:22:45.208
That's why I consider myself
part of the generation '68,

00:22:45.208 --> 00:22:49.250
because I stepped in the
floors of hell that year,

00:22:49.250 --> 00:22:53.166
and because of the distrust I had
in my country's direction

00:22:53.166 --> 00:22:56.583
and in my own inability to communicate.

00:22:56.583 --> 00:23:00.916
After that, after that blow in which
my perception of the country changed,

00:23:00.916 --> 00:23:03.208
the image I had of myself changed,

00:23:03.208 --> 00:23:10.625
I started to shoot plays like
others shoot machine gun bullets.

00:23:11.083 --> 00:23:18.458
I can remember among the most important works
was Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

00:23:18.458 --> 00:23:26.416
We first saw the movie and we became fascinated
with German cinema and Fassbinder's prowess.

00:23:26.416 --> 00:23:31.125
Nancy made the adaptation and
it was played here in El Granero,

00:23:31.125 --> 00:23:34.583
with Beatriz Sheridan, and
the play took all the awards.

00:23:34.583 --> 00:23:37.916
On top of directing, Nancy also acted,

00:23:37.916 --> 00:23:42.083
and, well, I was always there
supporting her with everything.

00:23:42.083 --> 00:23:47.333
Let's say that Nancy's theater
can be divided in two big interests.

00:23:47.333 --> 00:23:57.083
On one side, there is her interest
as a feminist and as a lesbian.

00:23:57.083 --> 00:24:03.125
to make her position present before life.

00:24:03.125 --> 00:24:08.625
And on the other hand, there is
a very strong position

00:24:08.625 --> 00:24:13.833
of making the theater a means,

00:24:13.833 --> 00:24:17.833
an activity that can be economically profitable.

00:24:17.833 --> 00:24:19.750
And that was hard. It was hard.

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.541
First, because she didn't want her reputation
to be associated with the work she did

00:24:27.541 --> 00:24:31.500
and end up cornered in a
niche as a lesbian creator.

00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:39.500
She was a creator, a women that made plays,
that wrote poetry, that made politics.

00:24:40.208 --> 00:24:45.458
And the coming out and saying
I am a gay or I am a lesbian,

00:24:45.458 --> 00:24:52.333
was like attracting the stigma not only
to the person, but to the play.

00:24:52.958 --> 00:24:55.875
If you check out Nancy's curriculum,

00:24:56.500 --> 00:25:04.250
the plays that she made at her own risk,
and that she brought from England,

00:25:04.250 --> 00:25:08.333
were plays that turned England itself on its head.

00:25:09.166 --> 00:25:15.625
She would pick the best plays, in the best
venues, with the best productions.

00:25:15.625 --> 00:25:20.666
Just opening the stage curtains
made people applaud.

00:25:20.666 --> 00:25:23.375
Such was the quality of the production.

00:25:23.375 --> 00:25:28.208
At the end of the play, the audience
would give standing ovations

00:25:28.208 --> 00:25:34.375
as a form of gratitude for the gift of
the play, for the play changed them.

00:25:34.375 --> 00:25:39.166
Her plays were cathartic,
important, and intelligent.

00:25:39.500 --> 00:25:44.125
They are plays that Mexico wouldn't have
known if she hadn't brought them.

00:25:44.125 --> 00:25:50.833
In fact, some of them were rejected
for their daring ideology.

00:25:50.833 --> 00:25:55.625
or for their lurid reputation.

00:25:56.916 --> 00:25:58.416
(Music)

00:26:00.125 --> 00:26:03.958
1968 changed you and boosted your activism.

00:26:05.166 --> 00:26:11.375
I remember a dinner in 1969 where we
talked about what happened in New York,

00:26:11.375 --> 00:26:14.583
in Greenwich Village, in Stonewall bar.

00:26:14.583 --> 00:26:17.875
The police tried another of their raids

00:26:17.875 --> 00:26:24.333
but with a truly historic resolve the
gays and lesbians didn't succumb.

00:26:24.333 --> 00:26:29.833
The gay liberation movement was
surging and you were excited.

00:26:33.708 --> 00:26:41.791
In 1970, after the blunt of the movement of
gay liberation in New York and in London,

00:26:41.791 --> 00:26:53.541
Carlos Monsivais was a lecturer at
the University of Sussex, near London.

00:26:53.541 --> 00:27:02.875
And in that university, he came in contact
with the Gay Liberation Front of England.

00:27:02.875 --> 00:27:10.791
Well, Nancy Cardenas started
to make a web of information

00:27:10.791 --> 00:27:17.708
with the movements that were being
generated in the United States, in London,

00:27:17.708 --> 00:27:21.125
in different parts of the world,
and also in Latin America,

00:27:21.125 --> 00:27:28.916
about the strategies that the gay movements
around the world were applying

00:27:28.916 --> 00:27:35.041
to unite as a front and demand human rights.

00:27:35.041 --> 00:27:40.750
There was an incident that we are not
sure it was real or an urban myth.

00:27:40.750 --> 00:27:47.250
There was an unjustified termination
of an acquaintance in Sears,

00:27:47.250 --> 00:27:49.791
they fired him for being gay.

00:27:49.791 --> 00:27:55.125
So Nancy met with him, and he tells her,

00:27:55.125 --> 00:27:59.291
and indignation surges.

00:27:59.291 --> 00:28:07.875
She was energized mostly by this spirit of that time
that was already there for gay liberation.

00:28:07.875 --> 00:28:17.291
And then, in that moment, a
package comes from London

00:28:17.291 --> 00:28:22.625
with information and flyers from
the Gay Liberation Front of England.

00:28:22.625 --> 00:28:27.916
It was fascinating to read
these types of documents

00:28:27.916 --> 00:28:32.750
and have that type of materials
on topics of dignity,

00:28:32.750 --> 00:28:40.000
about dignity, the liberation
of gays and lesbians.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.083
In that moment, that binomial
was all that was thought of.

00:28:44.083 --> 00:28:49.750
So a decision is made: to form a front
for gay liberation in Mexico.

00:28:49.750 --> 00:28:52.291
And the seed is planted by Nancy.

00:28:54.708 --> 00:28:56.750
(Music)

00:29:03.500 --> 00:29:12.000
And so Nancy is then turned in type
focal point for all the documentation,

00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:17.666
which will then be used to
replicate the strategies

00:29:17.666 --> 00:29:23.583
that were being applied
in other places

00:29:23.583 --> 00:29:28.583
for the purposes of the
gay movement in Mexico.

00:29:37.666 --> 00:29:44.541
The first location that was used for the
meetings was Emma Almada's apartment.

00:29:44.541 --> 00:29:47.583
Emma Almada lived in the
streets of San Francisco,

00:29:47.583 --> 00:29:53.416
a block away from Popocatepetl
avenue, in La Colonia del Valle,

00:29:53.416 --> 00:29:56.500
and she offered her house because
she was Nancy's friend.

00:29:56.500 --> 00:30:00.958
Nancy was very acquainted with a
very well-positioned lesbian group,

00:30:00.958 --> 00:30:04.333
and Emma was sister to
the Hermanos Almada,

00:30:04.333 --> 00:30:08.875
who made Westerns, the
Mexican Chili Westerns.

00:30:08.875 --> 00:30:12.875
But she was very generous with her space.

00:30:12.875 --> 00:30:15.875
She would open the space for us and,
we would meet there every Sunday.

00:30:16.291 --> 00:30:20.208
A lot of people would go; youth and adults.

00:30:20.208 --> 00:30:23.416
Luis Prieto and Carlos Monsivais were there;

00:30:23.416 --> 00:30:26.583
actors and all sorts of people.

00:30:26.583 --> 00:30:33.000
The Liberation Front of New York
and London manuscripts were read.

00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:38.750
The movement never left these
circles of study and discussion.

00:30:40.666 --> 00:30:45.041
It never transcends to the public realm

00:30:45.041 --> 00:30:48.583
because of 2 very important events
that were heavily felt in Mexico.

00:30:48.583 --> 00:30:54.125
The first one was in 1968, and the second one
was in 1971, with the Halconazo massacre.

00:30:54.125 --> 00:31:02.458
So there was a very justified paranoia from
the most seasoned militants, the most mature,

00:31:02.458 --> 00:31:08.458
who would warns us not to come out, to not
provoke, because we could be reprimanded.

00:31:08.458 --> 00:31:13.916
And also because there were
terrible publication laws.

00:31:13.916 --> 00:31:19.458
Anything that we could publish was
promotion of vices or corruption of minors.

00:31:19.875 --> 00:31:22.833
She made herself famous at a national level

00:31:22.833 --> 00:31:26.291
because in one of Jacobo Zabludovsky's shows,

00:31:26.291 --> 00:31:30.250
they took on her sexual preference.

00:31:30.250 --> 00:31:33.958
If someone now would say that she is
lesbian, it wouldn't scare anyone,

00:31:33.958 --> 00:31:38.250
but in the 70's, saying it would
be like an atomic bomb.

00:31:38.458 --> 00:31:44.333
In the beginnings of 1974, the
Homosexual Liberation Front started,

00:31:44.333 --> 00:31:51.625
In 1975, Jacobo Zabludovsky invited her
to his show, 24 Horas, for the topic.

00:31:51.625 --> 00:31:56.166
It was a bit dangerous because
it was called "apology of a vice"

00:31:56.166 --> 00:32:01.791
if someone would say before
the camera that they were gay.

00:32:02.750 --> 00:32:06.500
>Nevertheless, Nancy dared,
and at 39 years of age,

00:32:06.500 --> 00:32:09.791
said before the cameras
and eyes of all of Mexico

00:32:09.791 --> 00:32:14.291
that she was lesbian
and that she was happy,

00:32:14.291 --> 00:32:19.791
and that women could get as far as
she had gotten, that it was possible.

00:32:20.208 --> 00:32:24.375
I knew her when she was still
going out with Tina Galindo,

00:32:24.375 --> 00:32:28.333
and it was vox populi; the whole world
knew that they were partners.

00:32:30.250 --> 00:32:34.375
And Tina was very friendly,
very fun all the time,

00:32:34.375 --> 00:32:37.500
not only in scene, but outside
the scene as well.

00:32:37.500 --> 00:32:42.416
And then, well, Nancy had
long partners, durable, stable,

00:32:44.375 --> 00:32:47.583
the complete opposite of
what people would think,

00:32:47.583 --> 00:32:50.791
that she would go out with
every women in the movement.

00:32:50.791 --> 00:32:54.791
No. She was super respectful
of her own life.

00:32:54.791 --> 00:32:58.875
The control of ethics,
her ethics to herself,

00:32:58.875 --> 00:33:02.083
and everyone else, she
was always very clear.

00:33:02.625 --> 00:33:07.083
Being in the Liberation Front's meetings,

00:33:07.083 --> 00:33:11.208
all of the sudden, one day,
she grabbed a small wire

00:33:12.208 --> 00:33:16.375
and she put it on my
finger and told me:

00:33:16.375 --> 00:33:19.083
"With this ring, I marry you".

00:33:19.083 --> 00:33:24.041
I was startled, and said:
"What? Excuse me?".

00:33:24.041 --> 00:33:29.500
Monsivais lent us his
bungalow that he had

00:33:29.500 --> 00:33:34.625
at the Casino de La Selva
Hotel in Cuernavaca,

00:33:34.625 --> 00:33:37.166
and Nancy told me: "I invite
you to eat at Cuernavaca".

00:33:37.166 --> 00:33:41.375
So we got there and ate delicious food.

00:33:41.375 --> 00:33:48.375
After that, she took my hand,
we started talking of other things

00:33:49.500 --> 00:33:51.666
and it was there that the romance arose.

00:33:51.958 --> 00:33:55.583
She maintained relationships with
her partners and ex-partners

00:33:55.583 --> 00:33:59.541
well beyond the term of
relationships properly stated.

00:33:59.541 --> 00:34:05.416
For instance, she would affectionately
call Isabel Minjares "musiquita",

00:34:05.416 --> 00:34:11.625
Nancy transition between many people,
but Isabel was always there, present.

00:34:11.625 --> 00:34:16.458
She met Emma Ceballos, a
woman who had a lot of success

00:34:16.458 --> 00:34:20.208
with some businesses she had in Yucatan,

00:34:20.208 --> 00:34:24.666
and one day she said: "Nancy,
do you want to travel to Europe

00:34:24.666 --> 00:34:27.333
or do you want me to
produce a play for you?".

00:34:27.333 --> 00:34:31.583
And Nancy had no doubt and
said: "Produce the play".

00:34:31.583 --> 00:34:35.625
Which? "The Effects of Gamma Rays
on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds".

00:34:36.916 --> 00:34:41.041
(Music)

00:34:45.083 --> 00:34:49.208
In 1970, "The Effects of Gamma Rays
on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds"

00:34:49.208 --> 00:34:53.250
was her first professional play,

00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:58.208
that's how she saw it, and
it had a lot of success.

00:34:58.208 --> 00:35:05.583
This is a play that falls more in line

00:35:05.583 --> 00:35:08.583
with psychological realism.

00:35:08.583 --> 00:35:17.375
Nancy organizes a very interesting line-up,

00:35:17.375 --> 00:35:21.166
spearhead by Carmen Montejo,
who is also the producer

00:35:21.166 --> 00:35:26.666
and someone who is supporting
her return to directing.

00:35:26.666 --> 00:35:30.916
The two of them study the possibility
of moving the plays they are making,

00:35:30.916 --> 00:35:33.791
for they were not their first plays,

00:35:33.791 --> 00:35:36.833
and they want these plays
to generate money

00:35:36.833 --> 00:35:39.833
and not be merely pieces of drama.

00:35:40.708 --> 00:35:47.416
Then, in 1974, Nancy makes a montage

00:35:48.500 --> 00:35:53.625
about a group of gay men called
"The Boys in the Band".

00:35:53.625 --> 00:36:02.416
This montage landed her on
the newspapers for a while

00:36:02.416 --> 00:36:11.541
because efforts were made to stop
the premiere of the play in Mexico City.

00:36:11.541 --> 00:36:17.125
And Nancy, with that activist spirit of hers,

00:36:17.125 --> 00:36:23.708
led a movement to stop censorship
and get her montage a premiere.

00:36:27.583 --> 00:36:29.916
(Music)

00:37:04.958 --> 00:37:07.833
This was very controversial because
it was the first time

00:37:07.833 --> 00:37:10.083
that the topic of gays
was spoken of in Mexico.

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:13.916
Some politicians responded,

00:37:13.916 --> 00:37:16.625
and they did not want to
allow the play to premiere,

00:37:16.625 --> 00:37:22.416
such as Delfin Sanchez Juarez, the mayor
of the borough of Cuauhtemoc,

00:37:23.750 --> 00:37:28.416
who was a closeted gay man,
but also anti-gay.

00:37:28.416 --> 00:37:33.125
He said he did not want
the play to be allowed.

00:37:33.125 --> 00:37:38.458
Nancy gave the Mayor a strong fight.
She exposed and ridiculed him.

00:37:38.458 --> 00:37:41.041
He denied permission for the play,
but she went to another borough,

00:37:41.041 --> 00:37:42.833
borough of Benito Juarez,

00:37:42.833 --> 00:37:47.250
where she held the play
at Insurgentes Theater.

00:37:47.250 --> 00:37:50.333
Officials from Mexico City,
with police and everything,

00:37:50.333 --> 00:37:53.375
went to close that theater.

00:37:53.375 --> 00:37:56.291
And she always showed
a lot of gratitude for that.

00:37:56.291 --> 00:38:03.708
It's like she got a lot of publicity
from the media for this censorship.

00:38:03.708 --> 00:38:07.250
She would say: ”Thanks to this, I was able
to buy my house in Cuernavaca".

00:38:07.250 --> 00:38:10.541
"Thanks to the Mexico City's
government banning my play".

00:38:10.541 --> 00:38:15.958
The people's fascination for the play,
you know, it filled the theaters.

00:38:16.166 --> 00:38:21.333
"The Boys in the Band" was also transcendent
because it was the first play

00:38:21.333 --> 00:38:27.041
that spoke freely about the
existence of homosexuals,

00:38:27.041 --> 00:38:30.041
who were part of everyday life,

00:38:30.041 --> 00:38:33.875
and of them living a life just
like any other human being.

00:38:33.875 --> 00:38:35.458
They were not different.

00:38:35.458 --> 00:38:38.333
We are talking about the 70's,

00:38:38.333 --> 00:38:44.750
a moment in time where attitudes
against homosexuality were very severe,

00:38:44.750 --> 00:38:50.583
where there was no liberty, and a series
of controversies were occurring

00:38:50.583 --> 00:38:57.583
like in other parts of the world where
homosexuality was treated as an illness,

00:38:57.583 --> 00:39:01.500
as something that could be
cured or grown out of.

00:39:01.500 --> 00:39:06.375
In this context, "The Boys in the Band"
contributed to the discourse

00:39:06.375 --> 00:39:11.041
against this close-minded thinking.

00:39:11.541 --> 00:39:14.708
Nancy had many problems coming
from death threats.

00:39:14.708 --> 00:39:18.000
Her car was scratched and
her tires were punctured.

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.458
And she would get threats
in her house in Insurgentes,

00:39:21.458 --> 00:39:27.583
at the Guadalupe Inn, near Insurgentes,
on a nearby street, at her condominium.

00:39:27.583 --> 00:39:33.666
Her car would be vandalized by morning.

00:39:33.666 --> 00:39:37.833
In other words, homophobia was very bad,
and lesbophobia was even worse,

00:39:37.833 --> 00:39:43.833
because she was a woman…
a woman, and lesbian who was speaking,

00:39:43.833 --> 00:39:48.750
and she was producing plays
and bringing scholarship material.

00:39:48.750 --> 00:39:51.791
We had some terrible experiences.

00:39:51.791 --> 00:39:58.625
For example, we never knew why someone
unscrewed the wheels off of her Mustang

00:39:58.625 --> 00:40:03.250
on one occasion when we were
about to get into the highway.

00:40:03.250 --> 00:40:08.125
Suddenly, the tire almost came off and,
if it did, it would have been the end,

00:40:08.125 --> 00:40:10.416
but it did not happen.

00:40:10.416 --> 00:40:16.041
Luckily, we noticed the tire
was missing some screws.

00:40:16.041 --> 00:40:20.458
Things like that happened. She would
say: "Someone wants to kill me".

00:40:22.208 --> 00:40:26.333
She was not paranoid, but her car wheels
were actually missing screws.

00:40:28.708 --> 00:40:32.500
She did have enough enemies
to have that thought.

00:40:32.875 --> 00:40:38.083
There is a play that’s hardly talked about
called "El Marques de Sade",

00:40:39.625 --> 00:40:44.083
and it is a great monologue
with Regina Torné,

00:40:44.083 --> 00:40:46.250
who acts as the Marques of Sade.

00:40:46.250 --> 00:40:48.458
It was directed by Nancy,

00:40:48.458 --> 00:40:52.250
and it was on for a very short time
because it was censured.

00:40:52.250 --> 00:40:57.250
Then things didn’t go well for Regina Torné
and she needed to exit the country.

00:40:57.250 --> 00:41:01.625
She started receiving death threats
and was stalked a lot.

00:41:01.625 --> 00:41:04.916
She exited Televisa and was
kicked out from films.

00:41:04.916 --> 00:41:06.750
She suffered a lot.

00:41:06.750 --> 00:41:10.291
In other words, these women
who dared to do things,

00:41:10.291 --> 00:41:12.583
who are a little older than I am,

00:41:13.833 --> 00:41:15.208
had bad experiences.

00:41:15.208 --> 00:41:18.208
But not so much for Nancy.
She would say:

00:41:18.208 --> 00:41:21.458
"Well, this can happen but
I will not let it bring me down".

00:41:21.458 --> 00:41:28.291
"Breaking my car's tires or breaking my
windshield will does not ruin my day".

00:41:28.291 --> 00:41:30.041
It was very aggressive, really.

00:41:30.041 --> 00:41:38.958
You needed certain coherence and maturity
to not retaliate with violence.

00:41:39.041 --> 00:41:41.958
She was physically harassed

00:41:41.958 --> 00:41:44.500
at the feminist congress of 1975,

00:41:44.500 --> 00:41:47.291
where some women who were
PRI supporters launched at her,

00:41:47.291 --> 00:41:49.333
but, luckily, did not strike her.

00:41:49.333 --> 00:41:56.666
But they did push her for she was
known as a lesbian feminist,

00:41:56.666 --> 00:41:59.833
and these were the spaces
where she could speak.

00:42:00.458 --> 00:42:05.250
For the first time, there was a session

00:42:05.250 --> 00:42:11.000
within the International Women's Year
for homosexual groups

00:42:11.875 --> 00:42:14.750
at the Social Security Convention Center.

00:42:15.583 --> 00:42:17.916
There were 4 women:

00:42:17.916 --> 00:42:21.625
an Australian, an Englishwoman,
an American, and Nancy.

00:42:23.250 --> 00:42:27.416
Then they took away the venue
and only gave us 45 minutes.

00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:30.208
Many people attended...

00:42:31.333 --> 00:42:35.416
and there were presentations.

00:42:35.416 --> 00:42:39.958
The presenters made very important points
about what was going on in other places.

00:42:39.958 --> 00:42:42.541
They spoke of Mexico, about
how it was in a state of infancy.

00:42:46.000 --> 00:42:49.041
(Music)

00:43:10.083 --> 00:43:13.875
It is very important to mention that
Nancy Cardenas was the first woman,

00:43:14.625 --> 00:43:18.708
in the Americas, surely...

00:43:19.208 --> 00:43:24.291
who stood up in the International
Women's Year and said:

00:43:24.291 --> 00:43:31.458
"I am lesbian, and there are no rights here
for women who love other women".

00:43:32.125 --> 00:43:37.125
There was absolute silence and nobody
said anything for or against that.

00:43:37.125 --> 00:43:39.416
I think it was powerful to hear her there,

00:43:39.416 --> 00:43:46.500
where the majority of feminists
in the world were gathered.

00:43:47.291 --> 00:43:53.625
There was a lot of commotion at the exit.
Women were being carried out,

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:57.750
women in aprons,

00:43:57.750 --> 00:44:01.333
who would come from their homes
or from their work at the market,

00:44:01.333 --> 00:44:04.875
carrying signs that said:

00:44:04.875 --> 00:44:12.083
"Death to lesbians", "Leave Mexico Nancy
Cardenas", and things of that sort.

00:44:13.041 --> 00:44:16.791
From there, we went to eat.

00:44:16.791 --> 00:44:20.291
And on the weekend Nancy
invited these people

00:44:20.291 --> 00:44:25.333
and a large group of feminists
to her house in Cuernavaca.

00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.583
Her house was filled with women.

00:44:29.583 --> 00:44:33.291
There was a big feast, and
we prepared coffee ice-cream.

00:44:33.291 --> 00:44:39.750
We added too much coffee so
we ended up having a lot of fun,

00:44:39.750 --> 00:44:44.416
and feeling jittery and happy as can be.

00:44:44.416 --> 00:44:49.083
We placed a microphone and
speakers at the garden,

00:44:49.083 --> 00:44:53.000
and we continued the meeting
that was not finished

00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:55.208
given how little time we were
given at the convention.

00:44:55.208 --> 00:44:59.583
We did speak about many topics, the
whole afternoon and up to the evening,

00:44:59.583 --> 00:45:02.041
and it was unforgettable.

00:45:02.041 --> 00:45:06.541
I was involved in the
feminist movement in Mexico,

00:45:06.541 --> 00:45:10.125
where there was a significant rift.

00:45:10.125 --> 00:45:15.416
It was the first feminist movement
that split into two groups.

00:45:15.416 --> 00:45:21.666
Heterosexual feminist women
would say that lesbian feminists

00:45:21.666 --> 00:45:26.750
should not identify themselves
within Mexican feminism,

00:45:26.750 --> 00:45:33.375
and specially not in public, because
this would confuse the public,

00:45:33.375 --> 00:45:38.916
who would associate all
feminists as being lesbians.

00:45:38.916 --> 00:45:44.458
So this caused a big divide.
We were about half of them.

00:45:44.458 --> 00:45:47.291
So we left.

00:45:47.291 --> 00:45:51.708
Thanks to this, we organized meetings

00:45:51.708 --> 00:45:56.500
with the heterosexual, bisexual
and lesbian feminists.

00:45:56.500 --> 00:46:02.500
Nancy Cardenas approached us and
lent us her house in Cuernavaca.

00:46:03.041 --> 00:46:07.208
So we organized these big
meetings in Cuernavaca

00:46:07.208 --> 00:46:11.833
among the different feminist groups,

00:46:11.833 --> 00:46:16.458
The heterosexual, lesbian and
bisexual feminist movements,

00:46:16.458 --> 00:46:18.500
all at her house, in the garden.

00:46:18.500 --> 00:46:22.958
This was cohabitation because we ate
breakfast, lunch and dinner together.

00:46:22.958 --> 00:46:27.625
She had a swimming pool at
her house. It was very nice.

00:46:27.625 --> 00:46:31.166
Chavela Vargas was her
neighbor, in Cuernavaca,

00:46:31.166 --> 00:46:35.583
and should would come play and
sing for us in the afternoons.

00:46:35.583 --> 00:46:42.041
But Chavela did not participate
in the liberation groups, ever.

00:46:42.041 --> 00:46:45.250
But she did join the
parties and reunions,

00:46:45.250 --> 00:46:47.666
that would turn into
parties in that house,

00:46:47.666 --> 00:46:50.458
in Nancy's house in Cuernavaca.

00:46:50.458 --> 00:46:55.208
I think that she would hear the music
and then come with her guitar,

00:46:55.208 --> 00:47:02.500
Everyone was emphatic to listen to
Chavela sing at that house at night.

00:47:02.500 --> 00:47:06.916
She wrote a song called "Ahuatepec",

00:47:06.916 --> 00:47:11.416
where she remembers those
reunions and experiences.

00:47:11.416 --> 00:47:17.208
I remember meeting Chavela Vargas
through Nancy, who took us to "El Safari".

00:47:17.208 --> 00:47:22.416
"Come, come, Chavela, Chavela".
Binging with Chavela was something else.

00:47:22.416 --> 00:47:26.583
The bar was called "El Safari".

00:47:28.125 --> 00:47:33.416
At the time, the first few lines
were filled with all lesbians.

00:47:33.416 --> 00:47:37.041
"The generals" is what they called
themselves, or "the truckers".

00:47:37.041 --> 00:47:40.791
"Out of my way. Here I come
with my screws and oil".

00:47:40.791 --> 00:47:45.250
They would joke around on
the topic of strength.

00:47:45.250 --> 00:47:52.083
Chavela's exchange during
the musical dialogue

00:47:52.083 --> 00:47:55.541
with an audience eager to listen
to her was very interesting.

00:47:56.208 --> 00:48:02.166
What happened there? Well, gender
roles were still being followed.

00:48:02.166 --> 00:48:04.666
This is important to note.

00:48:04.666 --> 00:48:08.875
For example, if you were lesbian,
you had to say: "I will be like a man",

00:48:08.875 --> 00:48:10.625
or "I will be like a woman”.

00:48:10.625 --> 00:48:15.583
So you had very masculine
women. This was the role.

00:48:16.375 --> 00:48:20.750
There was an expectation that if you
were a woman attracted to women,

00:48:20.750 --> 00:48:24.291
you would dress like a man
and act like a man.

00:48:24.291 --> 00:48:31.166
So there were groups of women dressed
like men, with pant suits,

00:48:31.166 --> 00:48:37.000
ties, jeans, and plaid shirts, which are
fashionable nowadays, short hair,

00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:39.333
and they would use masculine adjectives
and nouns among each other.

00:48:39.333 --> 00:48:42.541
And there were women who would use
feminine adjectives and nouns

00:48:42.541 --> 00:48:44.166
among each other, and acted very feminine.

00:48:44.166 --> 00:48:47.375
There were a lot of these gender roles.

00:48:47.375 --> 00:48:54.000
This was a topic of discussion in
the study and reflection groups.

00:48:54.458 --> 00:48:59.458
Nancy and Chavela met when
Nancy was very young.

00:48:59.458 --> 00:49:01.291
She was a good friend of Emma Ceballos,

00:49:01.291 --> 00:49:03.958
and Emma Ceballos was
a very good friend of Chavela.

00:49:04.791 --> 00:49:07.666
Chavela was not that famous yet,

00:49:07.666 --> 00:49:09.750
but she was already singing
at some locations

00:49:09.750 --> 00:49:12.500
wearing her embroidered blouse,

00:49:12.500 --> 00:49:18.458
sitting on the floor,
with a bottle or cup,

00:49:18.458 --> 00:49:23.375
she would first take a drink of whisky,
then tequila, and anything else,

00:49:23.375 --> 00:49:26.958
holding her guitar and wearing her poncho.

00:49:27.916 --> 00:49:33.416
Nancy and Emma would go watch her
and they became good friends.

00:49:33.416 --> 00:49:38.750
And that is how we went to buy the house,
and I say we because I went with her,

00:49:38.750 --> 00:49:45.208
to that neighborhood in Ahuatepec,
Morelos, next to Cuernavaca.

00:49:45.208 --> 00:49:50.500
Chavela lived there in a huge house
that had many beautiful hallways,

00:49:50.500 --> 00:49:52.500
and they were always together.

00:49:53.166 --> 00:49:58.000
In one of those tequila moments,

00:49:59.583 --> 00:50:04.416
Chavela was very nice but her personality
would change during her alcoholic phase,

00:50:06.916 --> 00:50:13.708
So, as Chavela would say,
nothing could stop her.

00:50:13.708 --> 00:50:17.750
I did not go to Chavela's house
on this occasion.

00:50:17.750 --> 00:50:22.208
It was really a ladies' reunion.

00:50:23.250 --> 00:50:27.833
They drank some tequila,
talked, and everything,

00:50:27.833 --> 00:50:30.416
and something bothered Chavela,

00:50:30.416 --> 00:50:36.875
who in that moment began to speak
a little more aggressively and intensely.

00:50:36.875 --> 00:50:40.333
As an enemy of violence, Nancy said:

00:50:40.333 --> 00:50:44.208
"You know what, if you don't
act nice, we will leave",

00:50:45.416 --> 00:50:47.208
And they left.

00:50:47.208 --> 00:50:51.458
So at night Chavela goes outside Nancy's
house and begins firing her gun.

00:50:51.458 --> 00:50:55.125
"What'd you say", and "Come out you b***",
boom, boom, boom.

00:50:55.125 --> 00:50:57.041
I said: "Wait here aunt,
I'll go check what's going on".

00:50:57.041 --> 00:51:01.916
"No, no, no, she is crazy, it's Chavela,
why would you, and then you... no".

00:51:02.791 --> 00:51:05.458
So there was Chavela, swearing and shooting,

00:51:05.458 --> 00:51:08.375
I think she fired the 6 or 7 bullets,

00:51:09.375 --> 00:51:11.375
and then left, still mad.

00:51:12.958 --> 00:51:14.666
And the next day,

00:51:15.333 --> 00:51:20.666
Chavela came very lovely,
as if nothing had happened.

00:51:22.666 --> 00:51:24.458
(Music)

00:51:29.833 --> 00:51:34.958
I saw her being strong in the fight
against the politicians,

00:51:34.958 --> 00:51:39.666
as she was fighting to get
"The Boys in the Band" played,

00:51:39.666 --> 00:51:45.791
and also during the protests
where she would yell "liberty",

00:51:45.791 --> 00:51:52.375
and running to get into a car
before the grenadiers arrived,

00:51:52.375 --> 00:52:01.625
and fighting rigorously for gay rights
against any type of person.

00:52:01.625 --> 00:52:07.083
But in intimate circles, with actors
and with her family,

00:52:07.083 --> 00:52:10.416
she was a very sweet person.

00:52:12.833 --> 00:52:18.500
Nancy was a woman with
a lot of romantic admirers,

00:52:18.500 --> 00:52:23.500
she was always surrounded by women.

00:52:23.500 --> 00:52:26.291
She would say she had many girlfriends.

00:52:26.875 --> 00:52:31.208
She was physically a very beautiful woman.

00:52:31.750 --> 00:52:37.458
And I also think that intelligence is
a seductive quality on people.

00:52:37.458 --> 00:52:41.875
Nancy was a very seductive
woman in that sense.

00:52:41.875 --> 00:52:47.458
Well, seeing her meant witnessing
the spectacle of her intelligence.

00:52:48.208 --> 00:52:49.541
In my times,

00:52:49.541 --> 00:52:52.333
she would receive a large amount of
people who would come looking for her,

00:52:52.333 --> 00:52:57.333
women of all kinds, married women
looking for an experience,

00:52:57.333 --> 00:53:04.208
young women who already knew
about her from tv and her writings.

00:53:04.208 --> 00:53:07.625
They would come to the
theater and cry for her.

00:53:07.625 --> 00:53:11.625
One of them was called "Little tears"
because she would come and cry for her.

00:53:11.833 --> 00:53:19.333
Physically very attractive, and
on top of that, intelligent.

00:53:19.958 --> 00:53:25.416
Like flies on honey, they would
surround and follow her,

00:53:25.416 --> 00:53:30.166
but she was selective, she did not
go out with anybody.

00:53:30.416 --> 00:53:34.041
She was a woman who was very loved,

00:53:34.625 --> 00:53:42.000
but who had heartbreaks.

00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:44.708
It’s hard for me to say this,

00:53:44.708 --> 00:53:53.708
because she was a woman who that
did not let others bring her down.

00:53:53.708 --> 00:53:56.833
Maybe she did suffer, but she
would get back on her feet.

00:53:56.833 --> 00:54:00.791
Her health was good up to a certain point.

00:54:00.791 --> 00:54:04.750
Well, I saw her in good health.

00:54:04.750 --> 00:54:09.041
She had a substantial capacity
for work with a lot of endurance.

00:54:10.333 --> 00:54:14.083
But, suddenly, when we stopped
seeing each other,

00:54:15.833 --> 00:54:18.541
an actress came who was her partner,

00:54:18.541 --> 00:54:25.666
and in that time period a tumor
appeared in her breast.

00:54:25.666 --> 00:54:32.500
When I diagnosed her with lumps

00:54:32.500 --> 00:54:38.750
in her breast and armpit,

00:54:38.750 --> 00:54:46.958
"This is something where you need a doctor
to determine whether it is cancer".

00:54:46.958 --> 00:54:52.541
It ended up being cancer.

00:54:52.541 --> 00:54:59.833
And she was told she needed
surgery in both breasts,

00:54:59.833 --> 00:55:02.250
and that she only had a year to live.

00:55:02.541 --> 00:55:07.625
She went to the United States
with a renown doctor.

00:55:08.583 --> 00:55:13.291
He performed a surgery that did not
require removing the breasts.

00:55:13.291 --> 00:55:15.666
Instead, he only extracted the tumor.

00:55:15.666 --> 00:55:19.416
This was a vanguard procedure
done in a hospital in Boston.

00:55:20.083 --> 00:55:27.041
Nancy took good care of herself.
She was very healthy and ate well.

00:55:27.041 --> 00:55:30.250
She really took care of herself.

00:55:30.250 --> 00:55:38.125
In one of those medical check-ups,
she was informed of having breast cancer.

00:55:39.625 --> 00:55:44.416
She studies the possibilities
she had in Mexico,

00:55:44.416 --> 00:55:49.791
but there was a group of
Americans who invited her

00:55:49.791 --> 00:55:55.541
to undergo alternative medicine.

00:55:55.541 --> 00:56:01.291
So she went to the United States
feeling very excited,

00:56:01.291 --> 00:56:06.708
because she did not have to undergo surgery,
mastectomy or chemotherapy.

00:56:06.708 --> 00:56:18.375
I think this was a mistake because...
the cancer followed its course.

00:56:18.375 --> 00:56:23.750
Well, she thought she had
already beat the cancer.

00:56:24.833 --> 00:56:30.833
She even went on to tell me:

00:56:30.833 --> 00:56:36.166
"You have more cancer than I do
because I am already cured from it".

00:56:36.166 --> 00:56:44.625
I would just say yes, because I could not
argue with her or tell her anything.

00:56:44.916 --> 00:56:50.541
12 years passed in which the doctor
gave her bad information.

00:56:50.541 --> 00:56:51.958
Towards the end, he told her:

00:56:51.958 --> 00:56:56.125
"You do not need to come for your
check-ups. You are perfectly fine".

00:56:56.125 --> 00:56:59.416
She listened to him.

00:56:59.416 --> 00:57:02.791
But then Nancy found out that
the same problem had returned.

00:57:02.791 --> 00:57:06.125
I remember Nancy let my mother
and I borrow her car,

00:57:06.125 --> 00:57:09.375
and we went to Puebla
to a cousin's wedding,

00:57:09.375 --> 00:57:12.000
and taking advantage of this chance,
I gathered all of my uncles and aunts,

00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:15.208
and they all sat on a table
and I said to them:

00:57:15.208 --> 00:57:20.333
"You know what, my aunt doesn't want
to tell you this, that she is not well.

00:57:20.333 --> 00:57:21.375
Nancy is not feeling well.

00:57:21.375 --> 00:57:26.208
I've been with her for 3 or 4 months
and she has lost weight every month,

00:57:26.208 --> 00:57:29.875
and she had a serious back problem
that requires therapy;

00:57:29.875 --> 00:57:35.583
however, it's only massage therapy
so I don't think it's really helping her.

00:57:35.583 --> 00:57:41.541
Now is when I think she really
needs everyone's support".

00:57:41.958 --> 00:57:46.916
We had some friends that helped us admit
her to the National Nutrition Institute.

00:57:46.916 --> 00:57:52.791
I had been staying in Oaxaca at the end
of the year on that occasion.

00:57:52.791 --> 00:57:58.625
When I returned on January 1st,
I asked her:

00:57:58.625 --> 00:58:01.791
"Aunt, what did the lab tests show?".

00:58:01.791 --> 00:58:05.083
She told me: "I have good news
and bad news for you".

00:58:05.083 --> 00:58:08.875
I say: "Ok, tell me". She says: "Which?
The good or the bad?".

00:58:08.875 --> 00:58:12.875
"Give me the bad one first", I said.

00:58:12.875 --> 00:58:17.333
So she says: "I have cancer
and I am going to die".

00:58:17.333 --> 00:58:21.166
Oh...

00:58:21.166 --> 00:58:26.541
"What is the good news?".
After getting the bad news, right?

00:58:26.541 --> 00:58:33.916
She told me: "The Zapatista Movement
has taken over and this country must change”.

00:58:34.291 --> 00:58:40.208
At the time, Dr. Kumate was
the Secretary of Health.

00:58:40.208 --> 00:58:44.750
I think Lily or someone in the family
had sent him a letter to inform him

00:58:44.750 --> 00:58:47.541
about Nancy's complicated state
and what she was going through.

00:58:47.541 --> 00:58:49.500
When he found out,

00:58:49.500 --> 00:58:53.708
he sent a letter to the director of the
National Nutrition Institute saying:

00:58:53.708 --> 00:58:57.916
"Ms. Nancy Cardenas is a prominent
figure in our country's literature.

00:58:57.916 --> 00:59:01.958
She has done things that no other
woman had dared to do.

00:59:01.958 --> 00:59:05.791
I would like you to please give her
the best treatment you can provide

00:59:05.791 --> 00:59:08.375
free of all costs,

00:59:08.375 --> 00:59:11.333
and that she be treated until you
reach the core of the problem",

00:59:11.333 --> 00:59:13.583
is basically what he said.

00:59:13.875 --> 00:59:17.125
I think she gave it her
all against cancer,

00:59:17.125 --> 00:59:22.625
being so strong, honest,
brave and so hedonistic,

00:59:22.625 --> 00:59:28.208
in the sense of loving life,
the senses, and what she did,

00:59:28.208 --> 00:59:31.750
loving her groups, and theater...

00:59:33.208 --> 00:59:36.875
This made her very strong, very kind.

00:59:36.875 --> 00:59:39.458
She was a very sweet woman.

00:59:39.958 --> 00:59:45.375
We were at her house when
she was already very sick.

00:59:45.375 --> 00:59:53.416
She chose to welcome her
past lovers every Thursday.

00:59:53.416 --> 00:59:58.208
So, they would all come
very excited to see her.

00:59:58.208 --> 01:00:04.333
She always kept a good sense of humor
and spoke and talked with intelligence.

01:00:04.958 --> 01:00:12.500
When she entered into a coma state,
I did not leave her side.

01:00:18.625 --> 01:00:23.583
We were following to the cancer's progression
from one day to the next,

01:00:23.583 --> 01:00:27.125
as it became worse.

01:00:27.875 --> 01:00:32.125
Later she had someone
who took care of her.

01:00:32.125 --> 01:00:36.375
That person called me one day
and said: "She has passed away".

01:00:36.375 --> 01:00:40.416
We took her to the Gayosso
funeral home.

01:00:40.416 --> 01:00:43.791
Everyone who loved her was there.

01:00:43.791 --> 01:00:46.708
We found out of her death on the day of.

01:00:46.708 --> 01:00:50.916
There had been three other
deaths that same day.

01:00:50.916 --> 01:00:57.458
We had a colleague with AIDS who
we were helping, and he died that day.

01:00:57.458 --> 01:01:00.125
Nancy died and Colosio is assassinated.

01:01:01.041 --> 01:01:03.708
It was such a tragedy that Colosio's death

01:01:03.708 --> 01:01:06.666
happened on the same day as Nancy's,

01:01:06.666 --> 01:01:10.458
because the whole world
>focused on Colosio's death

01:01:10.458 --> 01:01:16.583
and Nancy's basically went unnoticed.

01:01:18.250 --> 01:01:22.000
(Music)

01:02:02.625 --> 01:02:07.041
The city was empty, and there was
a very tense atmosphere.

01:02:07.041 --> 01:02:12.791
There was a very harsh policy in
Mexico at the time, one of terror.

01:02:12.791 --> 01:02:16.500
Journalists were getting killed.
People were getting killed.

01:02:16.500 --> 01:02:20.000
Well, not much has changed,
almost nothing,

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:21.583
or it may even be worse
now, I don't know.

01:02:21.583 --> 01:02:25.375
But there was a deep silence for
Nancy Cardenas' death,

01:02:25.375 --> 01:02:27.291
which we really felt.

01:02:27.666 --> 01:02:29.291
I thought there would be a lot of people.

01:02:29.291 --> 01:02:32.833
There was a lot, but not as
much as I had expected.

01:02:32.833 --> 01:02:35.333
There were a lot of cultured
people, of course.

01:02:35.333 --> 01:02:40.416
Some from the Communist Party, from
the university, from the movement.

01:02:40.583 --> 01:02:45.583
I actually learned about her death
much later, not on the day it happened.

01:02:45.583 --> 01:02:50.916
And I felt very heartbroken because,

01:02:50.916 --> 01:02:53.833
if I am not mistaken,

01:02:53.833 --> 01:03:01.166
this was the first colleague in theater
and from the University that died.

01:03:01.166 --> 01:03:06.000
I now see it as a premature death.

01:03:06.375 --> 01:03:10.333
It was very strange to not see her
family, but we never saw them.

01:03:10.333 --> 01:03:13.416
So it wasn't strange that
they were not present.

01:03:13.416 --> 01:03:17.000
I don’t know if they came
later. They probably did.

01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:19.000
And they probably also
made it to the burial.

01:03:19.000 --> 01:03:23.166
We didn’t go to it because
we weren't told where it was.

01:03:23.166 --> 01:03:26.583
It seemed like they did not
want a lot of people to go.

01:03:26.708 --> 01:03:29.291
Throughout the whole route to the crematory

01:03:29.291 --> 01:03:33.041
we saw a lot of people

01:03:33.041 --> 01:03:37.708
because they were headed to see
Luis Donaldo Colosio in that direction.

01:03:37.708 --> 01:03:43.291
So all of them would clap at us
thinking it was for Luis Donaldo.

01:03:45.083 --> 01:03:47.208
(Wind sound)

01:03:55.333 --> 01:04:00.583
Nancy wanted her ashes
to be spread in Parras,

01:04:00.583 --> 01:04:06.208
the place that she loved, her roots,
where she grew up as a child.

01:04:06.208 --> 01:04:11.416
Part of the ashes were spread on La Nogalera,
where there were a lot of walnut trees,

01:04:11.416 --> 01:04:16.000
and the other part was in Santo Madero.

01:04:21.708 --> 01:04:24.125
(Wind sound)

01:04:39.250 --> 01:04:43.416
Her house is still there in Cuernavaca,
and it's going to be, I don’t know,

01:04:43.416 --> 01:04:48.833
that property belongs to one of
the cousins who inherited it.

01:04:48.833 --> 01:04:53.416
We know this because Nancy
told all of us publicly.

01:04:53.416 --> 01:04:57.625
She said she was going to give away
all her belongings to the movement,

01:04:57.625 --> 01:05:02.458
specially her house, so that
the meetings could continue.

01:05:02.458 --> 01:05:10.458
We are waiting for her nephew to find
the work of her third poetry book

01:05:10.458 --> 01:05:13.041
that she wrote with Beatriz Bueno.

01:05:13.041 --> 01:05:19.750
Nancy, from her bed, in the
last days she had left of life,

01:05:19.750 --> 01:05:26.958
decided to write the last poems of the book
titled "Notebook of Love and Disgust",

01:05:26.958 --> 01:05:30.083
which should be the third book.

01:05:30.083 --> 01:05:37.333
But it hasn’t been released yet
because of the missing papers

01:05:37.333 --> 01:05:41.791
somewhere in the house
that she used to live in.

01:05:45.333 --> 01:05:50.166
(Music)

01:05:59.291 --> 01:06:03.958
Brave, intelligent, talented, and
with a good sense of humor,

01:06:03.958 --> 01:06:09.375
you were not perfect, but you were always
a leader through your circumstances.

01:06:15.041 --> 01:06:22.458
In the fight against intolerance, illegality,
dehumanization and ignorance,

01:06:22.458 --> 01:06:27.125
despite the obstacles, strives
have been made in your causes.

01:06:27.125 --> 01:06:33.958
You would have considered this the
best way to seek personal continuity.