Theatre
Las manos de Dios
Not translated into English
Carlos Solórzano · 1956
Synopsis
In a village that could be any village in Latin America, Beatriz begs the jailer to free her brother, whom the Amo, master of all the land, has had imprisoned for claiming their father's inheritance and calling on his people to rise up. The Devil, in the guise of a stranger whom those who live in fear cannot see, appears to her and persuades her to offer the guard three hundred pesos; to raise the money, she must steal the jewels that adorn the hands of the Eternal Father, a wooden statue in the church.
Context
The play was first staged in 1956 in Mexico, where its author was running the university theatre, after two plays performed in 1952 and 1954. A theatre of ideas rather than of characters, it combines ancient myths, the techniques of the modern stage and images from Mexican popular culture to stage the conflict between revolt and submission. It has become one of the most widely read plays in Latin American literature courses.
Who it is for
A play in Spanish, in three acts, in which the Devil, the Priest and the Sacristan are figures rather than characters.
Prizes and reception
It remained its author's best-known play, read as an allegory of Latin American dictatorships.