Once upon a time…a history of puppets

Direction, production and script: J. Martín Almaraz

DVD (Documentary Studies and Consultation Works Collection)
INBA-CITRU-National Coordination of Theater / Channel 22-Theater Program for Children and Youngsters
México, 2009

Following in the footsteps of the legendary puppets, which under a registered name of Rosete Aranda surged in a Tlaxcalan town in the middle of the last century, and whose enterprises – founded by Antonio Rosete Aranda and by Carlos V. Espinal in 1913 – toured the country to entertain with its various repetoires to generations of Mexicans, the documentary Once Upon a Time…a History of Puppets registers the testimonies of Gerzon Orozco García and Alfonso Hernández Castillo, cultural functionaries in Huamantla, Tlaxcala; Armando and Ma. Elena Rosete Rivera and Rosa Ma. García Espinal, descendents of the puppeteers; the experts and restorers Sergio Montero Alarcón, Claudia del Río and Lourdes González; Lucía García Noriega, Director of the National Conservation Center and Register of Movable Artistic Heritage; Rodolfo Obregón, Director of CITRU; as well of those of Marisa Giménez Cacho and Francisca Miranda, authors of the investigation that guides this documentary and that is published in the two CDs that complete this collection. The oral history incursions in the family trees and personalities of the entrepreneur-puppeteers of this history; it centres upon the distinct techniques of elaborating the puppets, the various repertoires, represented with puppets elaborated artesanally by themselves, with original scripts that include traditional tales, religious drawings, historic dramas, dance acts, circus, and even carpa people and tent characters with sketches of political and social critiques.

As extras, it includes the recreation using puppets of a monologue of the character Vale Coyote, interpreted by the group Malintzin, and of a bullfight, by the group La Bruja; also in this way, the musical piece “Puppeteer”, interpreted by the group Floresta.