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Niamh Thornton

Café Colón

Posted on October 12, 2011

Media Type: Film

Year: 1958

Who wrote / made it : Benito Alzaraki

Plot summary: Released in 1958, Café Colón tells the story of Monica (María Félix), a nightclub singer working in the eponymous café in México City under siege. Again, she is a woman who “[n]unca jamás nadie puede dominarte”, when General Sebastián Robles (Pedro Armendáriz), a Zapatista, comes into her bar and disrupts her middle class aspirations. She has been taught how to dress, talk and act by the pianist and conductor in the bar in order to improve her opportunities and climb the social ladder. However, her attraction to this macho man is making her re-consider her ambitions. Briefly, Robles is seduced by the high society in which Monica mixes and asks another for advice on how to behave and speak in order to impress her. Gradually, Monica realizes that the Revolution is more important than her aspirations and learns to shoot alongside the other soldaderas in battle. There are other twists to the story which involve stolen jewellery. In the end all is resolved, Robles and Monica marry and they remain faithful to the ideals of the Revolution. This film allies macho culture with the people and, specifically,the figure of the Zapatista Robles. In contrast, a more refined and effete masculinity is associated with the middle and ruling classes.

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