Everything But The Weed

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Linda Maze, a Wedding photography Gainesville FL in Gainesville Florida

Playwright Juan Antonio Ramos grew tired of watching productions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, growing up in rural Mexico he felt little connection with the characters, he says “I found them too ‘English pudding’ for my tastes” so he imagined what the situation would have been like in his town back in the 19^th century. This idea evolved into his own play A Mexican Christmas Carol about the culture in which he was raised that will premier on the main stage of the Western Stage Theater at Hartnell College, Salinas, California.

The playis set in an poor pueblo in central Mexico in the 1800s, it follows the basic premise of Dickens’ novel except that the main characters including, including those representing 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 character that is based on Ebenezer Scrooge is Dona Avaricia, that’s lady avarice in English, who is wealth and aristocratic. She is the landowner for the whole town and wields 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 others who live in the town, including the character who reflects the original Bob Cratchit; the housekeeper Amparo.

When Dona Avaricia is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, all with 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.