Jesusa Rodríguez presents a version of Cabaret prehispánico at the Guggenheim Museum as part of The Aztec Empire, an exhibition that included performances by both Rodríguez and Guillermo Gomez-Peña.

Synopsis

'Prehispanic Cabaret' is an act of protest against multinational agricultural biotechnology corporations (such as Monsanto) whose introduction of genetically-modified corn into Mexican agriculture severely threatens the country's intangible cultural heritage by all but eliminating natural corn. 'We are corn people,' says writer, director and performer Jesusa Rodríguez, who has been politically active in in the uphill battle against the government-backed corporations. This cabaret, unlike most of Jesusa and Liliana's work at El Hábito, is largely non-verbal; it is Liliana's mordant lyrics that give voice to Jesusa's symbolic body onstage as she becomes an indigenous woman, a character in a codex, a peasant, and finally the figure of Death.