Irma Arévalo, the daughter of president Adolfo Ruiz Cortines's head doctor. René Cardona Jr. was hired to do some investigating, found out that Irma was Spanish and made this public; the pageant's organizing committee then tried to hush up the scandal by asking Lorena Velázquez to be the national representative for Miss Universe, but she turned down their offer. This led to the suspension of Miss Mexico contests for a period of 10 years. Stepping off La Nave de los Monstruos, these two beauties were a tremendous shock to the Mexican imaginary, their advanced technology and naughty sensuality pitted against the traditional ideals of Laureano Treviño (Piporro) as the macho northerner. Treviño is dumbfounded by what is going on, but he happily opens the door of his house to the visitors and, along with them, to progress, as long as it comes in such a dazzlingly alluring package. The Venusians amaze Treviño. He is surprised by their cheek and their careless way of showing off their bodies in shiny, revealing, skin-tight suits made by one of the greatest fashion designers of Mexican cinema, Julio Chávez. The aliens can of course afford these voluptuous creature comforts, unaware as they are of the boringly chaste aesthetic of Allá en el Rancho Grande (Over at the Big Ranch) or the guilty, harrowed sexuality of Salón México. They are shameless in their sensuality and sexuality and may have no desire for marriage or procreation, but this does not intimidate Treviño, since they do not bear reference to any woman ever seen on Mexican movie screens. For them, archetypes are obsolete: they are neither grandmothers, mothers, daughters or sisters to be worshiped, nor are they chaste girlfriends, faithful 382
wives or sinful mistresses. They are alien divas, and pose as such for Héctor García aboard their spaceship. However, the Venusians are not the only ones with charm, and they are hopelessly seduced by the handsome example of Mexican manhood. The aliens find Piporro to be the “most beautiful specimen on Earth” and try to take him to their planet where every last man has died after a nuclear war. Love then appears as a pretext to cover up the alien female's victory over the Mexican male. In the end, Ana Bertha Lepe's character decides to stay and live by Treviño's side in Chihuahua, sharing with him this traditional Mexican paradise. She sends the ship back to Venus with a message aborting the mission.
La Nave de los Monstruos premiered on January 22, 1960 at the Palacio Chino movie theater in Mexico City and was a great success; it will be shown again as part of the El Futuro + Acá festival (November, 2003) at the Museo del Chopo. Lorena Velázquez and Piporro will be present at the screening. 1 Excerpt of a conversation between Gerardo de la Torre and José María Fernández Unsaín, screenwriter of La Nave de los Monstruos (Rogelio A. González, 1957), taken from Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz's book Los Confines: Crónica de la ciencia ficción mexicana, Vid, 1999. Translated by Zaidee Stavely
PARIS BY NIGHT José Natividad Rosales There is a night in this world that is “more night” than what we commonly understand as such. Pardon the exaggeration, but it is because we are more sinful, cry, pray, see wounds open, hear words of wisdom, singing and moaning in this kind of night. This night has few shadows. Artificial light has turned it into day [...]. The world’s “nightest” night is that of Paris. A population of eight million that will reach twelve by 1975. A city as big as a state where sleeping is a luxury. Indeed. Because life at its most intense takes place at night. By day? Oh la la. Those who live by day are... workers, teachers and children. But what adult possessed of a half an imagination could possibly sleep in Paris? Unless... [...] That Parisian, for instance, wearing a badly-mended overcoat
bearing strange designs, what is he doing? And what’s on his head? It is a kind of human radar. It scans the horizon and looks like it is listening to stars’ distant voices. Paris la nuit observes him with indifference. Paris! Besides him, the city has seen real life rajahs, Balkan princes, enthroned and dethroned kings. Paris la nuit: Charlemagne, Chilperic, Saint Louis, Louis XV and Napoleon. That short, rather pudgy man by the name of Nicolás Lenín, did he not, in a pensive, melancholy state, roam around Paris by night? And Chopin? And Balzac and Victor Hugo? And Blue Beard? [...] Night comes over the Meudon hills. It’s always damp. There is no transition between light and shadow since—as Apollinaire used to say—both day and night are gray in Paris. Minou Drouet claimed that a sort of holy, pearl-