Rodolfo Usigli

Vocation

Mexican playwright, called the "playwright of the Mexican Revolution," and known for the representation of strong women in his plays. His 1937 book, The Gesticulating Demagogues, attacked the social issues ravaging Mexico, such as misuse of power that the bureaucracy had got from the Revolution of 1910. The play was subsequently banned, raising Usigli's reputation. His 1938 play El gesticulador was perhaps the only play ever to be censored by the Mexican government for political reasons. Usigli experimented with crime fiction in the novel, Ensayo de un crimen (Rehearsal for a Crime), which in 1955 was adapted into a film, The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, by Luis Buñuel. Usigli also wrote several essays on history, art and theatre. He was also an occasional poet, writing modest but interesting poems. The award-winning Usigli believed the objective of theatre was to tell the truth about society. He died on 18 June 1979, aged 73, in Mexico City. Link to Wikipedia biography