An artistic program which showcased the vast richness of Mexican culture helped to make the Face of  the World Festival 2008 in Los Angeles, California a resounding success. This important festival of multiculturalism and art was inaugurated by the play Íntimamente Rosario de Chiapas, written and performed by renowned actress Ofelia Medina.

The event also featured another play written, directed and performed by Ofelia Mediana, Cada quien su Frida. Both performances took place at the Los Ángeles Theatre Center (LATC).

The first performance was an intimate, poetic and musical spectacle based on the play by Rosario Castellanos, one of the most important Mexican writers in the Spanish language.  Íntimamente Rosario de Chiapas is a monologue spoken by Ofelia Medina, with musical accompaniment by Jimena Giménez Cacho.

This play, which was performed with subtitles in Spanish, is a portrait of loneliness, death and the pain of love, which are equated with injustices experienced by common people.

In the play Cada quien su Frida, Ofelia took the role of Frida Kahlo, one of the most well known and evocative Mexican painters. The show portrayed three Fridas: a young woman, a woman at death's door and Frida after death.

The face and the work of Frida Kahlo have appeared in works of art by Chicanos and Hispanics, as well as in films, poster art and even runway shows. The life and work of this painter, who was married to Diego Rivera, is known worldwide and has made its way to Los Angeles through this show.

“Like Rosario, Frida is a feminine life force with whom I feel an almost blood relation,” said Ofelia Medina, during the inauguration of the Face of  the World Festival 2008. She also expressed her conviction that culture is the best way for humans to reach out to one another.

See video:
Interview Ofelia Medina

Further information:
http://www.thenewlatc.com