The Representation of a Traditional Region in Qué lindo es Michoacán (Ismael Rodríguez, 1942)

Abstract

The present paper aims to explore the making and screening of Ismael Rodriguez's opera prima ¡Qué lindo es Michoacán!/El paraíso de México (1942); a film shot along Félix Ireta Viveros' state ruling. Ireta being a military man and politician formerly affiliated with Partido Nacional Revolucionario and then to Partido de la Revolución Mexicana. The right interiors settings in the aformentioned film ran under Ramón Rodríguez Granada's supervision and were shot in México Films studios, located in the nation's capital. But the outstanding role played by a landscape studded with lakes and mountains including Quinta Tzipécua, owned by Francisco J. Múgica, and Quinta Eréndira, both located in Pátzcuaro, the latter a property of General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, born in Michoacán and former Mexican President, complements the atmospheres created by the gifted Michoacan cameraman José Ortiz Ramos. And from a dramatic point of view, the newcomer director deploys in his film different kinds of antagonism: city vs. country; french cuisine opposing mexican; the dispute between two sawmill workers for the female protagonist's love; the quarrel among local women for the male protagonist's love; the contrasting vision of the rich landlady and the poor man; etc., all framed by the region's music creating a space where modernity and tradition fuse in fine sceneries which lenghten the folklore on its own terms; beginning and end of most films financed by the mexican film industry during its classic era.