Pueblerina
Emilio 'Indio' Fernandez, one of the best-known filmmakers of the golden age of Mexican cinema, makes a typical ranchero film genre, considered one of the best. The storyline of Pueblerina (1948) is similar to most of the films in the genre. A lovely señorita, Paloma (that means dove), was raped by the owner of the lands, she had a child and lives alone with her guilt. While in most of the films, as Allá en el rancho grande (Out of the great ranch, 1936) and others, the girl is saved from being raped by the hero in the climax of the film, in this case, the hero was defeated, and sent to jail. The film starts when the hero, Aurelio, returns to the village and tries to recover Paloma's love and take care of the bastard boy. Only a real macho would do that, they say. The village can be understood as an allegory of the country. The Mexican revolution is finished, and the village is ruled by capitalists who speculate with the corn prices, the delegado or sheriff (with a great resemblance to the Mexican President of that time, Miguel Alemán) can't do anything about it, and the people have fear, and they just obey the rich men. Only Aurelio will be capable of fighting them. The hero's task is to recover the love of the girl, forget her shame, and defeat the ruling class and their past humiliation. The film shows a great S. Eisenstein influence, in the cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa, and the Mexican landscape painters such as Dr. Atl. Just like regular ranchero comedies, it has songs, mariachi, and dances, but in this case, it's sad and bitter. Emilio Fernandez, the director, does a great job showing the other side of the genre, where there is no permanent fiesta, the peasants are not happy, and the rulers are not good fathers for them but parasites that must be killed.
