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Fronteras: ‘Victims of Sin,’ a treasure of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, showcases music, strong female protagonist

Films like Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (1950) and Emilio Fernández’s Maria Candelaria (1944) shaped Mexican identity during the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

One of the many genres that grew out of the age — which spanned a quarter century from the 1930s to the 1950s — was the rumbera. 

Rumberas were rich with Afro-Carribean beats and followed the stories of long-suffering women of loose morals who bravely face the exploitations of society.

The 1951 film Victimas del Pecado, Victims of Sin, was a blend of noir, melodrama, and musical.

It was recently restored and reissued by the acclaimed Criterion Collection.

Cuban-born actress Ninón Sevilla stars as Violeta, a nightclub dancer who rescues the abandoned infant of a fellow dancer, and tries to protect him from his gangster father, who is also Violeta’s pimp.

Victims of Sin is a major rediscovery of Mexican cinema's Epoca de Oro.
Courtesy of the Criterion Collection
Victims of Sin is a major rediscovery of Mexico's Golden Age of Cinema. The film blends noir, melodrama, and musical.

Jacqueline Avila, associate professor of musicology at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music, is author of Cinesonidos: Film Music and National Identity in Mexico’s Época de Oro.

She told Nathan Cone, Texas Public Radio’s Vice President of Cultural and Community Engagement and fellow cinephile, that the film highlights a shift in the era’s portrayal of the female protagonist, who often were presented as victims and met a tragic fate.

“You start to see this assertiveness with a lot of women characters, especially within the genre,” she said. “You can see that not just by the way that they present themselves around other men, but also by the way that they engage with any of the other characters on screen (and) the way they dance.”

Musical performance and dance were also integral parts of the film.

Avila said it helped deliver the character’s messages and even of Mexican popular culture during the time.

“You have these musical numbers that are played in entirety,” she said. “It has the orchestra in the scene and you have the rumbera, or the central dance figure, engaging with the music. It became a big spectacle.”

Victims of Sin will be screened as part of TPR Cinema Tuesday on July 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Santikos Norhwst Theater in San Antonio.

Click here for reservation information.

Watch a trailer of the film below:

Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter at @NormDog1