Layera, Ramon

Diplomat, translator, historian, drama critic, but above all playwright Rodolfo Usigli can be described as one of the founders of modern Mexican drama. He was born in Mexico City in 1905, the son of immigrant parents. Forced to leave school to work after his father's death, Usigli was largely self-educated. In 1935 he received a Rockefeller scholarship to study drama direction and composition at Yale University. Returning to Mexico he taught drama at the university level and worked for the Institute of Fine Arts, reviewed plays, translated poetry and drama from both English and French, and wrote his own plays, including his signature piece El gesticulador (The Impostor). Unable to establish himself as a dramatist and encountering political opposition, Usigli entered the diplomatic corps and served for over two decades in France, Lebanon and Norway. During this diplomatic exile, he continued to write essays and drama, completing his great trilogy of Mexican history, the Corona plays (Corona de sombra, Corona de luz and Corona de fuego). He was interested in the theater from a very early age, working his first acting job at age 11. By the time he was 30, he had published two books about Mexican theater and one three act play, published poems, essays and literary and dramatic criticism, served as director of the Radiophonic Theatre of the Ministry of Education, in charge of the Press Bureau of the Presidency of Mexico and worked in the Radio Office of the Ministry of Education. Usigli was a product of the Mexican Revolution. In common with most members of the artistic and intellectual community who lived through that tumultuous period, Usigli was a reformist. Usigli dedicated his life and considerable talent to a project of cultural and artistic renovation and transformation which concentrated almost exclusively on the dramatic arts. Recognized as the "apostle of Mexican drama" for his unswerving dedication to the establishment of an authentic national theatre company, he acted, directed, and wrote theatre reviews and a manual of dramatic theory and composition. He helped establish Mexico's most representative and best-known drama classics. As early as 1932, Usigli began plans for a Mexican national theater. In 1943 with Amalia Castillo Ledon, Enrique Uhthoff and Seki Sano, Usigli formed the Asociacion del Teatro del Nuevo Mundo (Theater of the New World Association) which was to support the development of Mexican theater, to build a theater complex in the nation's capital, and found a school to train actors, playwrights, and those involved in theater production. Although Usigli did not receive the financial support he sought to build a theater, he was able, for several months in 1948, to open a theater school in a Mexico City apartment that contained a fifty seat theater. The Archive contains items relating to Usigli's vision for a national theater, including letters about the project, letters to the government (including to the President) and others soliciting financial support, access to a specific downtown site where to build, designs for theater construction, and information about courses to be offered. He worked at the Mexican embassy in Paris from 1944-1946 during which time he met Octavio Paz. They remained friends until 1968 when they separated due to political views. From 1959-1962 he served as Mexican Ambassador in Lebanon. From there he went to Norway where he served as Mexican Ambassador from 1962-1971. In 1972 he received the "Premio Nacional de Letras de Mexico."

From the guide to the Rodlofo Usigli Archive: Papers, 1911-2005, (Miami University)