Rosaura Revueltas Sánchez (August 6, 1910 – April 30, 1996) was a Mexican actress of stage and screen whose career was cut short by the entertainment industry blacklist in the 1950s.
[3] After marrying German citizen Frederick Bodenstedt and having a son, Arturo, Rosaura opted for a profession in the arts.
Although she continued to do theatrical work in the early 1950s, such as Edmundo Baez's play Un Alfiler en los Ojos (1952), she mostly turned her attention to film acting, culminating in her best-known film Salt of the Earth (1954).
It was the Mexican remake of the 1931 German film Mädchen in Uniform, which was one of the first screen representations of lesbian romance.
Her willingness to choose pathbreaking projects sometimes caused her to be targeted by politicians and Catholic Church officials.
After the release of Muchachas de Uniforme, the Catholic Church urged a boycott of the film.
She again sought a role that offered a progressive representation of women when she landed the main part in Herbert J. Biberman's Salt of the Earth.
[1] The story was based on the 1951 Empire Zinc strike in Grant County, New Mexico.
Originally his wife Gale Sondergaard was cast, but upon further reflection, Biberman thought the role should be portrayed by a Spanish-speaking actress.
Most of the other roles, including that of her husband Ramon, were played by actual miners, some of whom had taken part in real-life strikes.
For instance, Juan Chacón, who played Ramon Quintero, was the president of a local miners' union.
His Academy Award-winning actress wife Gale Sondergaard supported Biberman throughout this time period, and she was blacklisted as well.
[10] Near the end of filming on February 25, 1953, Revueltas was arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on an alleged passport violation (not having it stamped properly upon entry to the country).
[11] She was taken from the filming location in Silver City, New Mexico and driven 150 miles to El Paso, Texas.
[14] Revueltas was released from custody on March 6, 1953 and could return to Mexico, but she was never allowed to work in American films again.
Due to the political climate, Salt of the Earth was restricted to a very limited U.S. release and garnered almost no publicity.
He called ita strong pro-labor film with a particularly sympathetic interest in the Mexican-Americans with whom it deals.
True, it frankly implies that the mine operators have taken advantage of the Mexican-born or descended laborers, have forced a "speed up" in their mining techniques and given them less respectable homes than provided the so-called "Anglo" laborers.
For example, at a special Los Angeles screening in 1976, L.A. Times reviewer Linda Gross wrote about the movie's cast of professional and non-professional actors: "All perform exceedingly well.
In 1992, nearly 40 years after being suppressed, it was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry of significant U.S.
While in East Germany, she worked with the Berliner Ensemble—the company of the late playwright Bertolt Brecht.
[1] At the 1982 premiere of A Crime to Fit the Punishment—a documentary about the making of Salt of the Earth—she spoke about her blacklisting by the Mexican film industry.
[23] At the 1988 Barcelona Film Festival, she sat on a panel with fellow blacklistees Jules Dassin, John Berry, and Walter Bernstein for a screening of The Front (1976).
[10] When asked during an interview on Radio UNAM if she regretted taking the starring role in Salt of the Earth, she replied:I never cared about making the film to act as the lead actress, because I knew that with that film I would lose my career.
So I made it with the full awareness of doing something for the Mexican people in the United States and to denounce what is still current.
[3]She died in Cuernavaca at age 85 on April 20, 1996, six months after having been diagnosed with lung cancer.
In 1954, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival conferred its Best Actress Award on Revueltas for Salt of the Earth.
Written and directed by Karl Francis, it's a dramatization of Herbert Biberman's blacklist experience, and includes a segment on Salt of the Earth in which Revueltas is portrayed by actress Ángela Molina.
Durango: Dirección General de Culturas Populares Unidad Regional Norte La Laguna, 1997.
Juan Pablos y el Instituto Municipal del Arte y la Cultura eds.