1969 Oxapampa, Peru

Rogelia Gustavson de Betancourt

Born in 1938

Oxapampa, Peru

Interviewed on February 8, 2022

by Dara Albrecht 

[Translated from Spanish] Listen here, Darita, because my life at your age was different, amorcito. Now I go to the movies with your mom and dad sometimes, even though it gives me migraines– I just went last week, actually– but it’s an entire different world from when I went. I can’t even compare the two experiences. 

So, hijita, you know I grew up in Oxapampa my whole life. My family lived on a very small chacra (“small farm” in Andean/Quechuan). I always tended to the chickens and helped in the home and enjoyed nature. Yes, there were movies then too. I was born in 1938, so we had movies. But, we lived in a small house on a very small chacra. We only grew enough to feed ourselves. I had eight other siblings. I would get sad because some of my friends could go but I couldn’t go. We never had enough for that simple luxury. I never watched movies until much later in my life.

When I was growing up, there was a little movie theater in town that was made of wood. This isn’t the theater I’m telling you about, though, because I just told you that we were never able to afford it. I’m just telling you. They closed it down after the new theater, the one I’m going to tell you about, was built. It was just too old. It couldn’t compete. 

In some ways I owe the movies for everything I have in my life. It gave me a living and then later, a purpose. I met your grandpa there, you know. Life was hard when I was younger, Dari. I was a single mother to your aunt Cecilia. I had two jobs – you know women in that day and age weren’t encouraged to work– but I needed the money to raise an infant alone. I was alone. If my family wasn’t known all around town I might even be a pariah. Anyway, I’m getting off track. My job at the new theater, Cine Lido, was my first job ever. The owners of the theater were my first cousins. That’s how I got the job. They offered it to me on the spot, because the administrator was my brother. There at the ticket office, everyone knew each other. 

On Saturday and Sunday, all of the times would be absolutely full. People seemed to come out of the woodworks. They would always bring in really good films, too. We didn’t always get television. Movies were what really connected us to the world of fame. Everyone wanted to be a part of it. The lines out of the door on Saturdays and Sundays would be so long that we would have to turn people away. 

Cine Lido was the newest and hottest theater in all of Pasco (Pasco Region, Peruvian Amazon). It wasn’t like that little old wooden theater. They built a real modern theater with two levels. There were probably three hundred seats all numbered and plated very nicely. It was covered in carpet– in America, I know a lot of things are in carpet, but for us, in our little Amazon town, this was the height of luxury, Darita. The seats were leather and dark rich brown, and, let me say again, plated with numbers! Big, velvet maroon curtains too. You don’t understand how luxurious that was! It was so luxurious. It was huge. People traveled from all over the Amazon to see movies there. I remember Cine Lido very clearly. It was beautiful and modern on the outside. To go in, the whole theater was atop a set of stairs. On the left, where I worked, was the ticket office. Then you’d enter on the right to another set of stairs. On one side was a cafeteria, and on another side was a movie hall. The whole place was very clean, not stinking of popcorn, like American theaters do. Well… people were allowed to smoke inside, though, so we all had to inhale everyone else’s smoke. It just smelled of cigarettes. But most people behaved. People who were mareados (dizzy- the old timey Peruvian way of saying drunk) were always turned away at the door. 

Many people would eat at the cafeteria before watching their movie. It was managed by the wives of the seven owners. They would cook and bake all the food from scratch, so it was really yummy. They sold coffee, chicken and ground beef empanadas, sweets, Coca Cola, and fresh candied coconut. My favorite though, has always been Sublime (a Peruvian chocolate with peanuts). Oh! They also had anise candies! See, there were so many little things I don’t even remember them all!

My job at the theater was a big part of my life. By day, I worked at the post office, and at night, I worked at the ticket office at the theater. I told you, I had to commit to support my daughter. We had three showings: matinee at 3, vermú (hour of vermouth; a Spanish term denoting the time before dinner) at six, and night showings at 9. I worked an hour and a half to two hour shifts. Once the movies started, we were free to go. People were not permitted to enter late. To explain the tickets to you, I guess I have to explain the movie halls. There were two levels – mezzanine and platea (orchestra). At the time, a fancier mezzanine ticket would cost you 5 soles (about 11 US cents adjusted for inflation) and a platea would cost you 2.5 soles (about 6 US cents adjusted for inflation). See, that goes to show how modest my upbringing was. We didn’t have that kind of money to spend when I was little and look at all you have now! Your parents both worked so hard.

Anyway, as part of my job, we got free tickets to the movies every week. I’m sure that’s why you thought I loved the movies! But, remember how I told you I couldn’t afford the money as a kid? I couldn’t afford the time either. I had a baby daughter and two jobs as a single mother. I could never spare the time, not even with a free ticket, to indulge in a movie when I knew I had a baby at home. So, for some time, I spent time close to the movies but not in front of them, if you know what I mean. Sometimes, I would bring Cecilia (her first daughter) to the matinee showing while I worked. One time, it got really busy and lost her. They found her in between the big film machines playing with no shoes. She lost her shoes, and I could never find those shoes! I don’t know what she could have done with them. After that I would leave her at home with my aunt because she was too mischievous. I would always go walking alone to my job at Cine Lido on foot. The place I was living at the time was one…no… one, two, three blocks from Cine Lido! It wasn’t even a ten minute walk. I lived very close. The walk was what you’d think of as a small town walk. I would always run into everyone I knew. Who didn’t know each other in Oxapampa? We were all family. Now that I’m older I don’t know that many people anymore. 

Now, I bet, here is the romantic story you have been waiting for! This is where I fell in love with your grandpa. Cine Lido the place where everyone gave their lover a first kiss! There’s just something romantic about the movies. I don’t know when I first met him, but I noticed he was handsome and seemed to like me. You’d think he was a film critic if you didn’t know any better by how much time he spent at the movies! He magically seemed to appear every time I was selling tickets. He’d buy a ticket, flirt with me, and go inside to watch the movie. He seemed to hang around to see if he could get a spare minute or two with me, too. And everyone knew him! You see, he’d always have a boxer dog with him. That’s why we love that breed so much in our family. He’d bring his dog and always buy his dog a ticket for the movies as well. It made me laugh every time. Then, as the movie started, the dog would go to sleep and start to snore! It was so loud and reverberated through the theater. Everyone in Oxapampa knew the handsome, single Argentinian guy who wasted his money by buying his dog a ticket just to snore at the movies! Sometimes the snores would be louder than the movie and they would have to kick the dog out! And then we fell in love. When we married, I quit my jobs at the theater and post office. 

Every Sunday at the matinee showing, your grandpa and I would have a standing date night. Now here is one of the movies I can clearly remember. I was 32. This seems old, but remember that I never had the time or money when I was younger! I was finally married and had enough time and money for the simple luxury of a movie. We brought the kids along to watch “El oro de Mackenna” (Mackenna’s Gold). I remember how exciting the plot was. Gregory Peck was the sheriff in the story. Omar Sharif was in it too. I remember they found a map that belonged to indigenous people where they could find gold. But it was cursed! It wasn’t their money. Many weird things would happen to these guys, trying to take all this money that belonged to other people. I loved the movie because it was a good drama to watch. There was a romantic part, I think. But the real star was Gregory Peck. He was my favorite actor just because he was so nice to look at. I always bothered your grandpa that if I met Gregory Peck in real life I would snatch him right up! He’s the only man I would be unfaithful for. He died recently, actually. I heard he was a noble and kind man. He helped a lot of people with his money and inspired more with his acting. I watched a lot of his movies. Don’t forget about Omar Sharif! He was handsome too. But anyways, I really liked this movie. It had the right blend of Western, drama, and romance. I don’t normally like some of those dramas. I don’t like violence, I don’t like romance or drama, or watching kids suffer or getting kidnapped. Watching the movie was so nice, too. The kids loved it. I liked to return to Cine Lido with your grandpa together for dates. When he held my hand, I would think about how we fell in love at that very place years before during the movie! 

Well, life went on, Darita. Cine Lido was sold and demolished bit by bit. It is so sad. It was such a lovely movie theater. It was a cultural establishment. It was the place that gave my life a catalyst! Now it’s just a broken down building. But that’s what happened to Oxampampa’s other old buildings as well. Our convents, our social clubs, our municipal buildings were built over and replaced. You know what the end of the theater was? The owners –my cousins– took good care of it. But then, they rented it to a family from La Merced (another province in Peru) who was not from our family. They didn’t take care of it like they should have. First, they rented it to a Christian church. Then, they turned it into a discotheque. That’s when they ripped out all those seats I was telling you about. Those seats got cast out into the street. I remember seeing them. The wooden ceiling and the seats got rotted from all the rain – don’t forget we are from the jungle, Darita! And then they closed it during Peru’s Shining Path terrorism. They never opened it again. 

But I don’t need a building to remember the movies. I always walk by or watch from the car and vividly remember those times. They were such beautiful and different times. Of course I feel nostalgia. They were years where I was working really hard. It was difficult to work that hard but it was special, too. I was making my own money.  I entered my job at the movies years before as a single mother with two jobs and an infant at home and left as a woman in love with a family to raise! I will never forget your grandpa and his dog and the flirting every week, the smell of the cafeteria, the lines and the business and the excited talking at the theater. It was more than the building. It was a feeling!