A solid home

By Elena Garro
 
She was one of most important artistic figures of Mexico in the 20th Century. She was born on December 11th, 1916 in the state of Puebla. Since she was a child she showed a hyperactive personality and a precocious intellect that later led her to become a writer, narrator, screenwriter, choreographer and journalist.

She traveled to Mexico City to study literature, choreography and theater in the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). She met Octavio Paz, who she married later and with whom she conceived a daughter; it was precisely under the impulse of this famous character that she started writing.

She divorced Paz and had to leave the country because she was accused by the governments of Díaz Ordaz and Luis Echeverría of participating in the student movement of 1968. Due to this imminent exile, Garro had to live for a long period in France with her daughter Helena. The impossibility of maintaining an acceptable standard of living with a few pesos from the sales of her books forced her to return to Mexico, accompanied by her first-born.

Her days ended in the city of Cuernavaca, beside her daughter Helena and her 14 cats. Among her plays figure the following: FELIPE ÁNGELES, DOÑA BLANCA’S PILLARS, THE WISE MAN, TO BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH, VENTURA ALLENDE, THE SPELL, MIXED SHACK, THE DOGS, THE TREE, THE SILLY LADY, THE TRACE, BENITO FÉRNANDEZ, THE RELOCATION, SAN ÁNGEL STOP, and THE LADY IN HER BALCONY.

SYNOPSIS OF THE PLAY “A SOLID HOME”

“A Solid Home” recreates the story of a family that, from the crypt, waits impatiently for the arrival of Lidia, the last member of the family who is still alive. From an entertaining underground world, the characters will tell their stories, old impossible loves; meanwhile up there life goes on.