ENTREMETIDAS: Women, Humor, Cine and Gendered Mexican Identities.

This paper demonstrates how the compelling humor of María Victoria Cervantes, the cantankerous criada bien criada, Ángelines Fernández Abad, the celebrated bruja del 71 and María Elena Velasco Fragoso, Mexico’s favorite “India María” made explicit aesthetic selections to create nuanced and alternative Mexican female identities. Cervantes, Fernández Abad, and Velasco Fragoso strategically navigate the pleasurable, oppositional, and transformational in and through the unexpected nuances of performance and humor. Even as humor appears to be intransitive and inconsequential, Cervantes, Fernández Abad, and Velasco Fragoso comedically perform and showcase the unspoken and deliver an indictment on hegemonic and oppressive patriarchy. These comedic actors negotiate the boundaries of gender, cultural privilege, and power hierarchies within the context of early to mid-twentieth century Mexican humor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]