I've watched this video a bunch of times. When Pablo Picasso watched La Lupe perform for the first time, he said, "One word: genius." This clip comes from a mid sixties PuertoRican television program. I can't help but imagine my grandmother and all her friends behind their Roman Catholic lace veils, utterly horrified at what La Lupe was doing on Prime Time. Rosaries and penances for sure.
This woman is dancing around—wrestling with some serious angels. She scared the hell out of the PuertoRicans, Cuba's newborn dream couldn't care less about apostates like her and Mexico just wasn't enough to sustain this brilliant artist of the twentieth century, amazing though she was.
Had she made it to the Buena Vista age, she would have possibly had a new audience. Like a rare and beautiful Ibrahim Ferrer, a black pearl from a deep deep forgotten treasure.
Who knows?
Hi Quixie,
ReplyDeleteIn case you're interested, I've completed another couple of posts on Detering and the Dutch Radicals:
http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2009/07/dutch-radical-criticism-part-iiia-paul.html
http://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2009/07/dutch-radical-criticism-part-iiib-paul.html