Peso Mexico Mexican,1

Villancico De La Navidad

Playwright Juan Antonio Ramos grew bored of seeing interpretations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, having grown up a poor immigrant in the US he felt little connection with the characters, he says “I found them too ‘English pudding’ for my tastes” so he imagined life would have been like in his town back in the 19^th century. This developed into his own play A Mexican Christmas Carol, a play about the culture in which he was raised which will premier on the main stage of the Western Stage Theater at Hartnell College, Salinas, California.

The playis set in an impoverished town in central Mexico in the 1800s, it follows the basic premise of Dickens original novel except that the main protagonists including, including Scrooge, the ghosts and Bob Cratchit, are all women.

Ramos says: “This is because, from my experience, Mexican culture is very matriarchal, the women in my family were very strong and resilient. All these women have these characteristics.”

The role which is based on Scrooge is Dona Avaricia, that’s lady avarice in English, who is wealthy and aristocratic. She is the owner of the town and enjoys abusing her power over the indigenous population who live there. There is no ‘dinero facil’ for any of these people and Dona Avaricia squeezes every last peso out of them.

Dona Avaricia is Hispanic and regards herself as superior to the other indigenous characters who live in the town, including the character who reflects the original Bob Cratchit; the housekeeper Amparo.

When Dona Avaricia is haunted by the spirits of Christmases past, present and future they all have particular Mexican cultural significance, the emphasis is less on money but on race and prejudice, although none of the characters would ever qualify for a prestamos personales en efectivo or a prestamos inmediatos the emphasis is on the prejudices that Dona Avaricia is able to leave behind.

Mexican Gold Pesos