Tempers were heated on the other side of the pond with the role of Spain in the colonies, and yet it did not waver. With the wickers of musical theater, Nacho Cano raised the love story between Malinche and Hernán Cortés in this blockbuster, perhaps his most ambitious project. With its fusion between flamenco, urban rhythms and rock... and with Aztec pyramid included. 12 months have passed since the premiere and, some controversies frightened, this production faces a new season at Ifema, "the next Latin Broadway". And he is preparing to make history: for the first time in Spain, on Saturdays and Fridays there will be representation in English, if at all the first step to disembark in Mexico and the United States. Who said that there is no march in New York?
What balance do we make of this first year putting music and dance to the colonization of America? The balance could not be better. 200,000 people have seen us and we are still here. In the artistic part we have taken the proposal very high, with something unique that had not been seen before on stage: a fusion of styles such as flamenco, rock, rap, tap ... And from the point of view of hospitality, we have managed to create a new concept: that after seeing the show you are fed and drunk cojonudamente in such a unique atmosphere. Ifema, the new Broadway... That's the idea. After the show we have devised the Rogue Temple, where there are performances by DJs, dancers, a stage for rock bands ... Malinche starts very early, but ends very late. Ifema, right now, is a place of reference, and it will be much more so when Formula 1 arrives. Madrid is the third musical capital of the world, behind New York and London, and the goal is to become the second. Let's see if they are going to get us angry on the Gran Vía.This stage measures 35 meters wide by 24 meters deep; it would be impossible to put all this in the Gran Vía. But don't worry, because there's room for everyone, for smaller stories and for larger formats, like this one. In fact, in Gran Vía we are going to open the first hotel Hoy no me puedo levantar. And he now dares to release Malinche in English, something unprecedented in Spain. There will be two performances per week, on Fridays and Saturdays. Have you done a market study to see the viability of such a mess or are you a kamikaze? I'm a kamikaze, but I do market research every day; I live in Plaza de Oriente and I'm seeing the French, the Germans, the English and the Japanese. There is an audience for this. If we are going to see Matilda or The Lion King, why can't they see Malinche? And the next step is to make the leap to Mexico and the United States. Another deadly triple without a net? Yes. If you analyze Spotify's top 100 artists, 17 are Latino, and of those 17, 10 are Mexican. His presence in the United States is brutal, unstoppable, and Malinche is positively narrating the history of America and its roots. If they pay for a performance of Les Misérables, when their plot matters three cojones, imagine if what they are being told on stage is their origins. Said like this it seems like a little walk, but this musical that gets into the ins and outs of miscegenation came at a delicate moment, with a historical review of Spain and its colonies where not all the wind blew in favor. They were on the other side of the pond tearing down statues of Columbus and it occurs to you to bring up the love story between Malinche and Hernán Cortés. Who said fear? Luckily the Spaniards arrived in Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and El Salvador, because if they had been the English, they would not have left one alive. The Indians were killed or enslaved, and with Christianity there was a third way, which was miscegenation and integration thanks to baptism. As we start throwing statues in 500 years, no one is saved, because it is not that we Spaniards are currently doing great wonders. Except in sports or art, where we are spectacular. There's Rosalia, who is wonderful. I met her in a Madrid-Barça match, where by the way her team won 4-1. She is a girl with a brutal talent, whoE is light years away from the next because he knows about music, he knows about production and he doesn't go down the same path as everyone else. Returning to Malinche, has this hostile environment intensified in these months? We would have to ask ourselves why we always focus on the negative. We carry the Charters of Human Rights, we were able to abolish slavery, we are responsible for something as beautiful as miscegenation... If we hadn't discovered America you wouldn't have that iPhone, World War II would have been won by Hitler... And yet, historically we continue to accept that we are sons of bitches. You already said it very clearly a year ago: "Criticism makes me horny"... Nobody likes to be insulted, but it is true that if you are criticized it is because you are in the thick of it, in the ointment and, therefore, in the eye of the hurricane. If there were no criticism, that would mean indifference. Jesus Christ was also criticized. The one that fell with those lands in the Madrid neighborhood of Hortaleza, where you planned to build a pyramid. If you want to put all this scenario that is now in Ifema in the middle of the city, what is the first thing you have to do? Raise a soundproof construction so as not to disturb the neighbors. What happens is that people must have thought that I was going to build a pyramid to climb on top and make human sacrifices... Even protest demonstrations were organized, when what many people do not know is that those lands depended on Ciudadanos, and not the PP, so I decided to get out of the way and bring my concept to the fairgrounds. Confess: some headache has taken ... As an entrepreneur and as an artist I have found that sometimes we are a fucked up country: we love to put the stride to proposals that, like this one, generate many jobs and are good at all levels. Spain white shirt of my hope, sometimes mother, always stepmother, who wrote Don Víctor Manuel.We have seen it with the recent Women's World Cup. We have achieved something impressive and instead of celebrating it as a country, we have been stuck in a loop in a kiss. I understand that he did not do well and we will have to reproach him, but that we only talk about that ... That as a result of raising the glass everything is to give wax to a man who has a family, when sexual predators who have raped are being released and nobody denounces it. I miss a bit of proportion in the reactions. And I don't want to get into an eleven-stick shirt, which I have enough with mine. Well, I was just going to ask him about his unwavering support for Díaz Ayuso. Do you keep it or have you lowered the soufflé? I can only thank Isabel because during the pandemic she was brave. And she deserves our support, because otherwise the brave get tired if they are left alone. I did not bow to an ideology, but to a person who does what he says, something that is very little typical in today's politics. Nor do I hide that later I have joined a friendship with her, and the more I know her, the more I ratify myself. I wish there were more people like her, who don't sell you a motorcycle and then that motorcycle doesn't have wheels. Is it easier today to make the leap to the United States than to Catalonia? The Barcelona that I remember was that international, inclusive city, of the Olympic Games, of avant-garde art, a bit like Madrid is today. Today it is not a favorable destination to take Malinche, as Mexico or Mexico are. Las Vegas. First for a mere matter of artistic industry, because musicals are not working there, and then because the political situation is not favorable: I am carrying a message that speaks of the expansion of Spanish in the world, and I do not know to what extent that message right now will be well received. That said: 30% of my cast is Catalan, I love Barcelona and I will continue to like it. And when Malinche finishes, what? I am preparing a musical that will premiere in May 2024 in Ibiza. It is about the hippies who did not want to fight in the Vietnam War and arrived on the island in the 70s, and where I give free rein to my most spiritual side. The Matutes Barceló family has given me the artistic management of the Pereyra Theatre, which has just been remodeled, and I am going to take this story there.
- Articles Javier Cid