1950 Grecia, Costa Rica

Cecilia

1950

Grecia, Costa Rica

Interviewed on February 12th, 2022

By Fernando Trejos

(Translated from Spanish)

Oh, Santa Marta, I don’t remember [the first film I saw in the theater] anymore.

You see, before, they didn’t play movies as vulgar as today, because there was censorship! So the vulgar movies didn’t get made, and movies were very decent, like Little Women. I remember seeing Little Women and Gone With the Wind when I was 14.

I saw Gone With the Wind with my mother. They played it in black and white, and then, when I was a little older, they played it in color. So I saw it twice. Beautiful movie. I remember the characters, but not any of the names. Well, okay, I don’t remember the characters, but the movie was beautiful. Ever since Álvaro died, I lost my memory… I don’t remember anything anymore.

My mom adored going to the theater, so we always went with her at nights. If we went to the matinee at 5 in the afternoon, we went on our own, or with a friend. The movie theater was really nice, it had these big balconies on the sides! it was so nice to go at night, and they had movies for children in the afternoons, too, like Tarzan. We didn’t have popcorn or anything: just peanuts! In little paper bags! It’s because popcorn hadn’t been invented yet! We would peal the peanuts, and spend the whole movie eating and laughing.

The movie theater was the Riggioni Theater, it belonged to Mario, Alín, all the Riggioni brothers here in Grecia. It was the only movie theater we had, so it would get very full. We always went walking: of course everyone walked, there weren’t any cars! Everyone went on foot, and nothing bad happened, because people were very polite back then. People said hi to each other, everyone knew each other, all the families were very polite—not like today! We knew the Riggionis personally. They would put a sign in the park with the movie of that day. It would say: “You haven’t seen this one yet!”, or things like that. They would put some really funny jokes on those signs!

The movie theater was so beautiful. Back then, the buildings were nicer, the schools were nicer. It’s such a shame that everything’s changed. With technology everything is different. Some things were better back then. People had principles; that doesn’t exist anymore. Young girls were raised better, they were more obedient. It was so different. Mothers worried about having kids who were raised well, who studied. Now, kids do whatever they want. Kids kick their parents, and the parents don’t say anything. That’s the modern psychology. I’ll stay with the old way of doing things!

The movies now are just vulgar. On Netflix, they’re so ugly, it’s so hard to find a nice one. I don’t watch any old movies because they don’t pass them on TV, they only play the new movies, because nobody wants to watch the old ones.

People complain that girls get pregnant early. It’s all because of the complete vulgarity in the movies. Mothers used to teach girls to do everything slowly, now they don’t even tell them that it’s wrong. Before, everybody went at the right pace. Now, the young girls have to act like grown-ups. That’s the way it is! I am never wrong.

In the United States, it’s even worse! They meet in the afternoon, and by that night, they’ve slept together. That’s how it is! Don’t tell me no, Fernando! Sometimes, they don’t even know the girl’s name! It’s because they see so many things in the movies now, they think it’s so easy to have a boyfriend. The movies show too much now. They don’t forbid anything; anything goes. Everything should go at its own pace, like my mom used to say. Here in Costa Rica, some things from the Old World still remain. Here, there’s still mothers that tell the girls to wait until they’ve finished college, to wait until they have a boyfriend that really loves them. That still hasn’t been lost here.

I feel so bad, I’ve talked too much. Let’s talk more when you’re here, when you come back to Grecia. Everything changes so much… And with the virus, things are changing faster and faster. Since I’m alone, I have so much time to think. And I think so much about how much the world’s changing. It’s scary! What can we do? It’s true that I’m out of fashion, it’s a shame.