The Story of Rosita Alvírez

    Many corridos trace their roots back to medieval times, particularly corridos with universal folkloric themes such as incest, adultery and other social taboos.  These are themes that find resonance regardless of the time period.  The corrido of Rosita Alvírez is an example of these in which the stain of dishonor can only be washed away with blood.  It seems that this corrido was seen in several incarnations from the 19th century to the 1930s.  Originally, it told the story of a good, but headstrong girl who meets an undeserved and unfortunate death after refusing to dance with an older man named Hipólito at a dance.
    The filmmakers jacked up this rather thin plot changing Rosita from a simple but stubborn girl who turns down the wrong man at the wrong time, to a cold-blooded, heartless seductress.  This Rosita has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever and is played to a smoldering, kittenish fare-thee-well by María Luisa Zea.
    In the film, Rosita arrives in a new town with her widowed mother after the death of her drunken, philandering father to live with relatives. In very short order, she manages to break up her cousin's engagement, and she sets two best friends, Hipólito and Marcos (who was engaged to her cousin), against each other over her favors. Meanwhile, as if she hasn't caused enough trouble, Rosita agrees to marry with a wealthy older man, telling him that when she attends the dance, Hipólito and Marcos will kill each other, freeing her to marry the older landowner who promises to give her everything her heart desires. She also tells him, "Oh, by the way, I plan to continue fooling around with the local cowboys," and the old man accepts this.
     At the climatic dance, Hipólito and Marcos shoot each other up, but neither is fatally wounded, and, during the melée, Hipólito, turns his gun on Rosita and kills her.  The film ends with Hipólito and Marcos in jail, Hipólito awaiting execution and Marcos awaiting a very uncertain future trying to patch up his life and broken engagement.  As they sit in the jail, morose but perfectly coifed, shaved and dressed, Pedro Vargas and his band sing the final stanzas of the corrido, admonishing women to be virtuous and men not to kill for love.
    This is a interesting and lively motion picture and well worth watching.  It set a box-office record in Mexico City, and enraged a writer whose foto-novela or comic-book style graphic novella of this story was the purported inspiration to the script (Yañez 19).  The film is filled with lively music, dancing, beautiful scenery, steamy (for the day) love scenes as well as lots and lots of horsemanship and rodeo-like events.
    What can be said when such a blatant and sexist twist is added to a classic corrido by changing the title character into a totally unsympathetic and evil Jezebel?  That is hard to assess, though it is a strong commentary on an overt fear in traditional Mexican society of a women's sexuality.  It certainly makes a more interesting movie, and gave Miss Zea an unbelievable opportunity to purr, pout, bat her lashes, spew invective and screech insults.  Not a stick of scenery on the set was left without her teeth marks on it, and she is such a conniving tramp that she makes Scarlet O'Hara look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.  The most violent scene is between Hipólito and Marcos who have a five minute knock-down, drag-out fight scene, while Hipólito, drunk and furious, keeps trying to say, "¡Rosita es una… ! ¡Rosita es una… !"
     "Puta" is the only word that he could have possibly meant.

Click here to see a film clip from
Yo Maté a Rosita Alvirez