1958 Monterrey, Mexico
Elsa Yolanda Benavides
1943
Monterrey Mexico
Interviewed on 2/8/2021
by Camila Toro
La mancha voraz. My friend Lucia Antonia Teran’s older brother, who was already studying in the Tecnologico de Monterrey, had a car and drove all of our friends to the Teatro Elizondo. I must have been 12 or 13, or maybe a few years older, but watching this film made me feel as scared as a little girl.
Since we attended an all-girls boarding school of nuns in Monterrey, we were only allowed to leave campus with permission from our parents once a month. I was ecstatic for this new experience, and even more excited to go to the Teatro Elizondo. Teatro Elizondo was known as the fanciest and classiest movie theater in the entire city. I was surprised by how elegant the theater was; there were big golden dragons carved in the screening room. The theater had six large loudspeakers that made you feel like you were inside the movie with the characters. The seats were not assigned and no one ushered you to them, so that allowed me to walk around the place and see all the elegant people from Monterrey. No one at Teatro Elizondo dressed the way young kids show up wearing sneakers to the movies today. In fact, I remember exactly what I wore that evening. I put on a grey dress with white lines and a pink strap with little flowers that hugged my waist. With it, I wore white flats and a small black purse. I accessorized my look with a pearl necklace and matching earrings and a ring. Everyone looked great–even the men wore dress pants and expensive button-down shirts.
Before the show started, wine-colored velvet curtains that rose meters and meters above the ground covered the screen. The theater sold small baggies of popcorn, not like the large bags that they give out in movie theaters nowadays. We also had the option to purchase a chocolate bar or Coca-Cola. But that’s all–now they sell Tacos, Hot dogs, candies, but back then it was only those three options. Tonita, Leti, and Leti’s sister Rosa Maria and I all got Coca Colas and popcorn, and we sat down to watch the film.
The film really struck me because the main character was a very handsome man, he did a great job. But the movie was scary, there was a small blob that would grow larger and larger and would eat everything in its path. Every time the blob was about to eat a person or a thing, all the girls screamed loudly in the theater. It was a true horror movie, the blob would swallow everything that crossed its path. I’m glad I went because I was able to dress up nicely and watch a very handsome actor on screen.
Unfortunately, two decades later the Governor Alfonso Martinez Dominguez decided to tear down the theater to build the Macroplaza in Monterrey, but I am very glad I was able to visit this beautiful and elegant theater when I was young.
[I looked up photos of the Teatro Elizondo, and found this terrific photograph that displays the golden dragons and the pure elegance my grandmother mentions in the interview.]
