María Teresa DePaoli

From The Real of Fortune to Devil Between the Legs: The Importance of Colloquialism in Paz Alicia Garciadiego’s Writing Process

Kansas State University, USA

Arturo Ripstein and Paz Alicia Garciadiego´s independent cinema is cast by characters who represent a devaluation of personal and rational growth. These characters are usually immersed in disastrous situations. Both Ripstein and Garciadiego have repeatedly stated that what they seek to represent in their work is the cruelty of reality, and not disguise it with successful or focused-minded protagonists. Their aesthetic vision emphasizes a sense of defeat accentuated by rich and complex language, photography, and acting. In all her screenplays, Garciadiego has focused on the colloquial aspect of her characters´ language. This is one of the most distinctive aspects of her work since El imperio de la fortuna (The Realm of Fortune)—the first screenplay that she wrote for Ripstein. In her most recent collaboration with the director, El diablo entre las piernas (Devil Between the legs.) Garciadiego crafts crude and colloquial dialogues punctuated by black humor. Her screenplay highlights elderliness but not in the way that senility has been represented in traditional Mexican cinema through classic melodrama. Instead of benevolence and passivity, her characters express intense feelings and emotions, such as sexual desire, jealousy, bitterness, loneliness, and infidelity. According to Garciadiego, “colloquialism is sap, it is like the blood transfusion to dialogue.” Her narrative has been compared to writers such as Juan Rulfo and Elena Garro because of the distinctive nature of the language constructed in her screenplays. In my paper, I illustrate the importance of colloquialism in Garciadiego’s screenwriting by examining The Realm of Fortune (1985), Such Is Life (2000) and Devil Between the Legs (2019). My analysis focuses on language construction and linguistic nuances, neologisms, dialogue, monologue, rhythm, rhetorical figures, and other literary devices employed in her writing process.

Dr. María Teresa DePaoli is Professor of Spanish at Kansas State University. She received her
doctorate degree in Spanish Literature and Culture from Purdue University in 2001. Her
research focuses on Latin American & Latina/o/x Literature and Culture, Mexican film, women
writing and screenwriting studies. Her peer-reviewed publications have appeared in Letras
Femeninas, Inter-Disciplinary Press, and Palgrave Macmillan, among others. Her monograph,
The Mexican Screenplay: A Study of the Invisible Genre, and Interviews with Women
Screenwriters (2014) was published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers. She is coeditor—with Laura Kanost—of Las guionistas: A Bilingual Anthology of Mexican Women
Screenwriters (2017). Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe. Arizona State University Press. DePaoli is
also co-editor with Floyd Merrell of the second edition of Las culturas y civilizaciones
latinoamericanas (2017). University Press of America. Her current monograph in progress is
expected to be published in 2026 and studies the creative process of the prominent Mexican
screenwriter, Paz Alicia Garciadiego.