Although it’s not a prominent role, Academy Award nominee Yalitza Aparicio appears in a short musical clip shot as a promotional video for a community band in her hometown of Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca.
The indigenous actress who made her acting debut in Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma was approached last summer by José Manuel Cruz Velasco, director of the musical group Raíces de Tlaxiaco.
Cruz said he had known Aparicio and her sister Edith since they were young girls and that they always joined the workshops organized by the local House of Culture. “For that reason I wanted to invite her, and she supported us by appearing in the videoclip.”
At the time, Aparicio had just finished shooting Roma. Cruz recalled that Aparicio spoke about about her experience but “back then we had no idea of the impact she would have.”
Cruz’s project was to film a musical clip for his group’s Pulque Bendito song, which shifts between the band members — all children and teenagers — and scenes of a ceremony in honor of the maguey in which citizens of Tlaxiaco enjoy pulque, an ancestral beverage obtained through the fermentation of the plant’s sap.
Aparicio herself only appears near the beginning of the video as part of the maguey ceremony. Cruz explained that she had to leave soon after to travel to Mexico City where she received the news that Roma would premiere on August 30 at the Venice International Film Festival.
The Pulque Bendito video was posted to Raíces de Tlaxiaco’s YouTube channel on October 15, where it has earned close to 10,000 views.
Tlaxiaco is a city and municipality in the Mixteca region of the state, about 100 kilometers northwest of Oaxaca city.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
