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It’S My (National) Stage Too: Sabina Berman And Jesusa Rodríguez As Public Intellectuals, Stuart A. Day

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Based on interviews with Sabina Berman and Jesusa Rodríguez, this article offers a view of artists as public intellectuals in Mexico. These two prominent figures, in addition to staging biting commentaries on Mexican politics, have reached beyond the traditional theater to take on the role of public intellectuals (artists, activists, professors, performers, writers, among others, who speak truth to power) on the national stage, Berman through a book on the 2006 elections and her television program, Shalalá, and Rodríguez as the stage director for the massive public demonstrations of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Both artists see the importance of reaching …