From the Power of Silence, Chapter “The Last Seduction of Nagual Julian”
“He joined a theatrical troupe in the provinces, away from his familiar circle of friends and acquaintances”
“His health lasted through one theatrical tour of the northern states. Then two things happened in the city of Durango: his life came to an end and the spirit knocked on his door. Both his death and the spirit's knock came at the same time - in broad daylight in the bushes.”
Was Julian part of a Zarzuela?
There is a journal article titled “The Beginning of Theatre in Sonora”, by Rosemary Gipson, published in Journal of the Southwest, Volume 9, number 4, pp 349-364, Winter 1967.
Professor Rosemary mentions Estrella Dramatic Company from Mexico City touring Hermosillo to perform their repertory of Spanish Dramas - in the early part of 1860. In the late 1860’s and 1870’s the Sainz Dramatic Company toured the major Sonoran towns.
The theatrical troupe mentioned in the last seduction of the nagual Julian, had been traveling through the northern states, which includes Durango, which is the state just south of Chihuahua, which is the state bordering Sonora.
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Wow 🤯 Just wow 🤯
Made a good post on facebook.
But both won't fit on instagram's tiny posts.
i was curious and searched for a better quality picture. gif:
picture is from an article. "Verde, blanco y encarnado: los retratos de Ángela Peralta durante el Segundo Imperio Mexicano" by Gustavo Amézaga Heiras:
https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0185-12762020000200009
There are many, many publications, especially in Spanish, about Ángela Peralta. She is seen as a force stirring Mexico's development of national identity during the 19th century. Her life was cut short by disease - the entire troupe traveling with her to Mazatlan caught yellow fever, and only three or four out of 80 survived. She was not one of the survivors.
"three or four out of 80 survived" - wow, these were other times.
i just searched for the interview with isabel haza peralta and found the pdf.
fem., Publicacion feminista bimestral, Año 9, Nõ. 42, Octubre-Noviembre 1985:
https://archivos-feministas.cieg.unam.mx/ejemplares/fem/Anio_9_n_42_Octubre_Noviembre_1985.pdf
other magazine issues where i found no 42: https://archivos-feministas.cieg.unam.mx/publicaciones/fem.html
maybe the name julian was also inspired by her life:
".. While in Mexico, she began a love affair with her manager, Julián Montiel y Duarte, a well-known entrepreneur and lawyer. ...
... Three days later, at the age of 38, Peralta and nearly all of her touring opera company died from yellow fever. On her deathbed, she married Montiel y Duarte, so ill that she could only nod her agreement to the vows. ..."
from https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/who-was-angela-peralta-the-mexican-nightingale/
during my search i stumbled across a text from the wanderling where he writes about a theatre play from which the surname of elias ulloa could originate (and don juan is also a protagonist in the play).
from "El Burlador de Sevilla y Convidado de Piedra" by Tirso de Molina:
"..he is discovered by the woman's father, Commander of the order of Calatrava, Don Gonzalo d'Ulloa, the Commander of Ulloa. In the processs of escaping, Don Juan stabs her father to death and disappears .."
from https://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/ulloa.html
see https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_burlador_de_Sevilla_y_convidado_de_piedra
i tried a short search to find confirmation about the age of isabel (in the 1985 fem interview it says she was 83 years old).
she goes under the name isabel haza peralta in the interview. that would mean her father would have had the name haza and her mother the name peralta and she would have been born around 1902 +- 1 year.
i found a genealogy website which maybe nonsense or about other people with a similar name, but in the category "Parents and Siblings" there is a "María Serafina Margarita Ysabel Haza Peralta" 1903-1987.
see https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/9MZV-T2W/manuel-constantino-haza-peralta-1900-1971
screenshot:
Wow! That’s what I suspected, that she might not be alive anymore. I have to reach out to a chilango acquaintance who might know their way around that place. I think we’ve reached a dead end.
i don't think it's important for this thread, but i enjoyed the story of maria callas visiting isabel haza peralta in 1950.
https://www.milenio.com/cultura/callas-en-bellas-artes-del-infortunio-a-la-gloria
or https://musicaenmexico.com.mx/maria-callas-en-mexico/
i wanted to add this info from the books which may be useful for a future search:
from The Power of Silence, chapter 4 "The Last Seduction of Nagual Julian", page 27:
".. He said that the story had really begun years earlier, when his benefactor had been a handsome adolescent from a good family in Mexico City. He was wealthy, educated, charming, and had a charismatic personality. Women fell in love with him at first sight. But he was already self-indulgent and undisciplined, lazy about anything that did not give him immediate gratification. Don Juan said that with that personality and his type of upbringing - he was the only son of a wealthy widow who, together with his four adoring sisters, doted on him - he could only behave one way. He indulged in every impropriety he could think of. Even among his equally self-indulgent friends, he was seen as a moral delinquent who lived to do anything that the world considered morally wrong.
..
His sensual habits, however, could not be changed, and they forced him to seek work in the only place he felt comfortable: the theater. His qualifications were that he was a born ham and had spent most of his adult life in the company of actresses. He joined a theatrical troupe in the provinces, away from his familiar circle of friends and acquaintances, and became a very intense actor, the consumptive hero in religious and morality plays.
Don Juan commented on the strange irony that had always marked his benefactor's life. There he was, a perfect reprobate, dying as a result of his dissolute ways and playing the roles of saints and mystics. He even played Jesus in the Passion Play during Holy Week. .."
from Magical Passes, Introduction:
".. At the age of twenty, he came in contact with a master sorcerer. His name was Julian Osorio. He introduced don Juan into a lineage of sorcerers that was purported to be twenty-five generations long. He was not an Indian at all, but the son of European immigrants to Mexico. Don Juan related to me that the nagual Julian had been an actor, and that he was a dashing person—a raconteur, a mime, adored by everybody, influential, commanding. In one of his theatrical tours to the provinces, the actor Julian Osorio fell under the influence of another nagual, Elias Ulloa, who transmitted to him the knowledge of his lineage of sorcerers. .."
the books say that don juan was born in 1891. it would follow that he met julian around 1911 (when he was 20).
Don Juan was 20 years old when he met the nagual Julian, according to this excerpt from the book Power of Silence, Chapter 1 The Manifestations Of The Spirit: The First Abstract Core, page 11.
Don Juan’s exact birthday is unclear; there are references that he was born sometime in the late 1890’s; however, in the book ‘Separate Reality’, Don Juan describes how he saw his mom murdered by mexican soldiers when he was 6 or 7 years old.
all this little info bits are spread over the books. maybe this can be of help in the search for julian.
from Magical Passes, Introduction:
".. Don Juan Matus was an Indian who was born in Yuma, Arizona. His father was a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico, and his mother was presumably a Yuma Indian from Arizona. Don Juan lived in Arizona until he was ten years old. He was then taken by his father to Sonora, Mexico, where they were caught in the endemic Yaqui wars against the Mexicans. His father was killed, and as a ten-year-old child don Juan ended up in Southern Mexico, where he grew up with relatives. .."
from The Teachings of Don Juan, Introduction:
".. All he said was that he had been born in the Southwest in 1891; that he had spent nearly all his life in Mexico; that in 1900 his family was exiled by the Mexican government to central Mexico along with thousands of other Sonoran Indians; and that he had lived in central and southern Mexico until 1940. Thus, as don Juan had traveled a great deal, his knowledge may have been the product of many influences. .."
Wow! I missed that detail; lines up with the events described in the books.
🤷🏻♀️