Dance of the 41: the realities and complexities around oppression – Movie Review
As an orchestra prepares for a performance, in front of the musicians, a large group of men gets ready for the big moment of the night. While some adjust their elegant tailcoats, others adjust the fine jewelry that adorns the dresses they wear with pride. The Dance of the 41(El Baile de los 41) is about to begin. But on this special evening, there is one more guest; a man who, like the rest of the men gathered there, has a lot to lose by just being there. The danger for him and all the rest is imminent, but for a brief moment, none of that matters.
After winning accolades for his acclaimed film The Chosen Ones, Mexican filmmaker David Pablos delves into the heart of one of the most controversial and stigmatized episodes in Mexican history with his movie Dance of the 41. On November 17, 1901, a police raid on Calle de la Paz, (currently Calle Ezequiel Robles, in the Tabacalera neighborhood in Mexico City), ended with a clandestine party where all the men present were arrested for immoral conduct.
The party was hosted by a secret society consisting of many of Mexico’s most powerful gay men, and most famously, 19 of the men arrested were wearing women’s clothing. Officially, only 41 men were arrested and made to sweep the streets in their gowns as punishment before being sent to jail and work camps. But like we said, on this special evening there was one more guest – a 42nd attendee whose name history decided to erase from the record because of his marriage to President Porfirio Díaz’s daughter, Amada Díaz. His name was Ignacio de la Torre y Mier.
While the movie focuses almost entirely on Ignacio’s (Alfonso Herrera) affair with Evaristo Rivas (Emiliano Zurita) and his disastrous marriage to Amada Díaz (Mabel Cadena), the film still manages to build an intense and yet respectful portrait of what was happening behind closed doors at the beginning of the 20th century in Mexico. All these men leading a double life are present and seen, even if the movie doesn’t go too deep into their lives. We believe that it’s the fact that we only get to see them in this clandestine space of freedom that the movie manages to perfectly show the homophobia that permeated and has permeated Mexico since then.
Dance of the 41 is a deeply moving and raw film that shows the reality that many homosexual men (and women) had to face back in that time.
Political gain, power imbalance, and oppression
Dance of the 41 opens with the marriage of Ignacio to Amada. But as the film progresses, we see the tension between the two reach levels that leave the viewer with goosebumps after their interactions. Amada knows that she is being exploited for political gain by Ignacio, who is attempting to kick-start his political career by marrying the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of President Porfirio Díaz (Fernando Becerril) while hiding his involvement in a secret society of homosexual men.
It’s all a tragedy disguised as a game of power. As Amada fights to be recognized by her husband and society at large, Ignacio wants what all men in his position want: freedom. When Amada learns of her husband’s affair with Evaristo, tensions escalate fairly quickly between the two and we see her desperately try to restore traditional order to their marriage by suppressing her husband’s homosexuality and abandoning all attempts to love him for a desperate need to control him to save herself.
Amada is not a conventional woman of high society, and that can be seen from the very beginning when she tells Ignacio, “I may not know how to play the piano, but I bet you don’t know another woman who can clean, load, and fire a rifle.” But it’s through the way that she oversteps traditional lines of power that we are reminded that she is, in fact, no ordinary woman.
Yet, she’s not the villain in this story. She’s just the vessel the filmmaker uses to demonstrate the far-reaching impacts that homophobic attitudes and oppression can have on everyone’s life. Amada, like Ignacio, is fighting to make the most out of her situation. And in this sense, Ignacio contributes a lot to her anger. He oppresses her by reminding her of her inadequacies as a spouse and neglecting her, making it clear to her and everyone around her that he only values her for her connections.
It is a very toxic dynamic that helps remind the viewer that just because you belong to one oppressed group doesn’t mean you can’t oppress another.
Forbidden love, punishments, and loss
Ignacio and Evaristo’s love story is one not destined to survive and not because of a lack of affection between the two. In fact, from the moment they meet, Ignacio and Evaristo become inseparable lovers who sneak away at every chance they get and seem to make each other very happy. And their relationship only gets stronger once Ignacio invites Evaristo into the “Socratic lovers” – the secret society of homosexual men that existed in the highest circles of the Mexican aristocracy.
Evaristo’s “initiation” act, which later turns into an orgy, is the first instance where it is clear to the viewer that what’s happening between the two isn’t merely a lust-driven affair. Their relationship flourishes and develops, to the point that when the long-awaited dance finally takes place, they’re ready to leave everything behind and start a life together. But as y’all might guess, Ignacio and Evaristo’s plan to run away together after the dance is over is abruptly interrupted by the police raid.
In one of the most powerful sequences of the entire movie, we see the aftermath of the event: Ignacio walking back into his home (still wearing a dress), shielded by his privilege, while the other 41 men are sentenced to prison and hard labor in work camps. Dance of the 41 masterfully portrays the devastation that those men faced when their lifestyle was exposed and their ability to live freely was permanently removed.
The sequence of them being beaten on the streets by onlookers while still wearing their party gowns as they sweep the plaza of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City as punishments is devastating, and serves to remind us all of the prices that some people have to pay for discrimination and hate. The final scene of the movie delivers one of the best performances we’ve seen to date by a male actor in a Mexican production, and we can say without spoiling what happens that it is as masterful as it is heartbreaking. Alfonso Herrera’s Ariel Award win for Best Actor was truly well-deserved.
Dance of the 41 emphasizes the realities and complexities around oppression and serves as a reminder that LGBTQ rights have been fought tooth and nail around the world for years. Seeing the way the wealthiest and most privileged people in Mexican society were so cruelly punished makes us wonder about the fates of those who weren’t in such positions of power.
We know that progress has been made across the world, but sadly it hasn’t come equally to all members of our community, and many in Mexico – and other parts of the world – face threats of violence and death simply for existing. As we’ve learned with time, oppression is a system in which unfortunately there are no winners.
Dance of the 41 is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
