“La India María” (born María Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress María Elena Velasco. The character frequently endures situations of racial discrimination, classism, and corruption, although in all of these turmoils, María undoubtedly resolves them with hilarious acts of good-nature and morality. She has represented the poor indigenous, the migrant worker, the forsaken woman, and even free-spirited nuns for over 30 years.
María Elena Velasco Fragoso (17 December 1940 – 1 May 2015) was a Mexican actress, comedian, singer-songwriter and dancer. She is best known for creating and portraying La India María, a comical character based on indigenous Mexican women.
Early life Velasco was born in Puebla, to Tomás Velasco Saavedra, a railway mechanic, and María Elena Fragoso Peón. She had three siblings, Gloria, Tomás and Susana.
After the death of Tomás Velasco, the family moved to Mexico City, where she worked as a dancer at the Teatro Tívoli.
Playing an illiterate, poor, indigenous woman in Mexican cinema creates controversy. Author Seraina Rohrer (University of Texas Press) provides a scholarly study of the “La India Maria” architype.
La India María—a humble and stubborn indigenous Mexican woman—is one of the most popular characters of the Mexican stage, television, and film. Created and portrayed by María Elena Velasco, La India María has delighted audiences since the late 1960s with slapstick humor that slyly critiques discrimination and the powerful.
At the same time, however, many critics have derided the iconic figure as a racist depiction of a negative stereotype and dismissed the India María films as exploitation cinema unworthy of serious attention. By contrast, La India María builds a convincing case for María Elena Velasco as an artist whose work as a director and producer—rare for women in Mexican cinema—has been widely and unjustly overlooked.
Drawing on extensive interviews with Velasco, her family, and film industry professionals, as well as on archival research, Seraina Rohrer offers the first full account of Velasco’s life; her portrayal of La India María in vaudeville, television, and sixteen feature film comedies, including Ni de aquí, ni de allá [Neither here, nor there]; and her controversial reception in Mexico and the United States. Rohrer traces the films’ financing, production, and distribution, as well as censorship practices of the period, and compares them to other Mexploitation films produced at the same time. Adding a new chapter to the history of a much-understudied period of Mexican cinema commonly referred to as “la crisis,” this pioneering research enriches our appreciation of Mexploitation films.
India Maria decides to go live with a cousin in the capital of Mexico to find a good job, but all kinds of complications arise. – IMDB
La India Maria portrays a poor but honorable woman who causes a stir around town when she decides to become a witch doctor.
– IMDB
On a Sunday morning, an attorney arrives at a small convent to bring bad news. The property, which was given by the Jovellanos family forty-seven years before, has been recollected as the inheritance was not done with the proper legal procedure, and the actual heir plans to sell it off to build a shopping mall there. However, due to this mishap, the nuns are given a right to buy the property, which is worth 400,000 pesos. At the same time, a letter with the news of a new arrival is received by the convent.
Soon the new arrival is on her way. Her name is Sor María Nicolasa, and in the train Sor María is traveling in she befriends the children there. – Wikipedia
An indigenous potter becomes the first female municipal president of Chipitongo el Alto. – IMDB
A maid and her boss’s dog are the inheritors of a large fortune of money, properties and mansions. However, the boss’s furious relatives scheme several unsuccessful plans to get rid of them. – IMDB
Sor María Nicolasa, an indigenous nun nicknamed “Sor Tequila,” seems to get herself in funny situations while she travels around helping people. – IMDB
Street taco girl Nicolasa sells outside a movie studio, and her popularity puts the studio’s own restaurant in jeopardy.
An indigenous woman who works as a maid brings her homeless family to live at the house where she works at after the owners get divorced and leave to Spain. – IMDB
An indigenous woman helps a wounded pilot when he crashes his plane.
After mistakenly going to jail, Maria makes friends with a woman whose kids live in the streets and Maria gets the idea to help them. – IMDB
An old potter and his granddaughter are invited to an archaeological convention in Acapulco where they are hired to create a copy of a well-known Mexica artifact in order to protect the original. – IMDB
A poor woman goes to Mexico City to find her mother and sister but later sees that her sister is a rich actress and does not believe her. – IMDB
La India Maria goes to the United States to work to earn money for her grandfather but causes mischief and is chased down by secret agents who want her to go back to Mexico – IMDB
La India Maria raises a kidnapped newborn and is chased down by criminals who want the boy.
The committee of a female presidential candidate searches for her twin sister when she becomes incapacitated in a fireworks accident. – IMDB
At the request of her ancestor, emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, La India María must find and destroy Tezcatlipoca’s magical black mirror to prevent the destruction of Mexico. – IMDB
Obituary for Maria Elena Velasco Fragoso
WHO WAS SHE?
Maria Elena Velasco Fragoso.
-Born in Puebla on December 17, 1940.
-At almost 15 years old she worked as a second soprano at the Tívoli theater and as a dancer in the ballets of Ricardo Luna and José Luis Hurtado.
She stood out in university theatre by acting in productions such as The Seventh Seal, by Ingmar Bergman (1970), Two Old Panics , by Virgilio Piñera (1972), and Inmaculada, by Héctor Azar (1972).
She studied drama with Dimitrio Sarrás and Carlos Ancira; film direction with Ludwig Marules and screenwriting with Xavier Robles and Raúl Figueroa.
[…]
India María, who was known for being cheerful, witty and noble, held different jobs and tasks throughout her filmography, such as a wrestler, bullfighter, motorcyclist and even municipal president.
Despite the comedic tone, the popular character also exposed various problems of today’s society, such as racism, discrimination, poverty, sexism, crime, bureaucratic corruption and even kidnapping.
Her clothing closely resembled that of a Mazahua woman, but the ethnic group to which she belonged varied according to the character’s different films.
So, María Elena Velasco, the actress who played La India Maria, was in a college production of The Seventh Seal, by Ingmar Bergman. We can only imagine this with the help of Elder G.
