Puppet Museum Rosete Aranda

The origin and the reason that this national museum of the puppet is in the city of Huamantla, Tlaxcala, dates back to the 30s of the XIX century, when the Italian puppet master, Margarito Aquino, teaches his art huamantlecos four young brothers, Julian, Hermenegildo, Ventura and Maria de la Luz Aranda, who founded in 1835, the National Automata with beautiful puppets made by them. At death Julian and Hermenegildo, continued to function Ventura, Maria de la Luz and her husband, Antonio Rosete, first in a yard and then in the first theater that existed in Huamantla. Over time, more characters were created, resulting in his famous runs, which gave circus performances, clowns, tightrope walkers, acrobats on horseback, his track and even the spectators also had the arena, with fighting cocks spread their wings and feathers of the neck stand on end, with the judge, the mooring, the bookmakers, the loudmouth, musicians, singers and audience, or your evenings bulls, with its square, stands, his chopper, bulls and bullfighters which were handled with true mastery.

When Antonio died Rosete and Maria de la Luz Aranda, took the reins of the company his eldest son, Leandro Rosete Aranda, who along with his brothers, Adrian, Philip, Thomas and Mary Mecedonia, and his aunt Ventura, moved to the Mexico City in 1880, offering six courses, three in the afternoon to eleven at night in the American Theater.

In the Official Gazette on 28 November 1880, the famous poet Ignacio Manuel Altamirano wrote:

"The puppets, do you hear? The puppets ... but not the puppets that are used to seeing, but a marvel of puppets, as just equal the barracks have been traveling to Italy, England and smoked Teatrito shops fair de France ... Leandro Puppets Rosete Aranda " .

In 1883, Leandro Huamantla married to Maria de la Luz Resendez Velez, with whom she had several children, one of them, Francisco, later continue the family tradition Rosete Aranda. From that same year, the company made several successful tours of the interior of the Republic, the United States and Central America.

By 1894, had their own press in the city of Huamantla to print their propaganda and printed leaflets in which some of the literary pieces that were part of their acts, which were sold at 6 cents, as the "Speech of the Vale Coyote, who inspired character in Mario Moreno to create his character from "Cantinflas", and "Don Simon Verses", which became final phrase popularly used to denote the debauchery of modern times: "Oh what time, Don Simon! ".

Back in Mexico City in 1900 with his show inaugurated the Teatro Variedades the street from City Hall, where he later founded the radio station XEW and where he remains to date. Don Leandro Rosete Aranda died in October of 1909, leaving the company at the forefront of his widow Maria de la Luz, who continues to function throughout the country. In early 1912, taking a brief break in Huamantla to repair the puppets, the sets, props and rehearsing new acts.

The Rosete Aranda came to form a collection of 3,000 puppets, each 60 cm high and their faces were virtuously ayacahuite timber and their bodies were carved wooden Bunting, also called Zompantla or patol; his clothes were also worthy of admiration. Some of his characters have reached up to 19 threads to imitate as perfectly as possible human movements. The puppeteers had to practice for two years for manipulating a puppet, with the classical perfection of the Rosete Aranda. Created in more than a century of existence over 100 different acts, some of them of great complexity, like the sinking of a ship, where the fierce wind broke the mast, the sails were torn off, the rudder came through the air, the waves swept the deck, until it finally sank the boat and looked like the remains came to the seabed. Countless are also popular characters that made the delight of young and old.

In February 1941 the Company closed its doors Brothers puppets Rosete Aranda 3,000 puppets were saved by Francisco Rosete Aranda Huamantla his mansion and then sold almost entirely to a museum of dolls U.S. retaining only five of them, which today can be admired in the museum that bears his name with justice in the city of Huamantla, which was founded in 1991.

At its inauguration, the master puppeteer Javier Villafane, renowned poet and short story writer, including children, said it was the most beautiful museum of the puppet that he had ever seen, while the teacher Concha de la Casa, director of the Center Information and Documentation of the Puppets in Bilbao, Spain, said it's one of the few in its kind in the world.

The museum, which occupies part of the nineteenth century house that belonged to the family Barrientos Carvajal, not only contains the characters surviving company Rosete Aranda has also articulated pre-Hispanic pieces, found in the area and Xochitécatl Cacaxtla, besides puppets from India, Indonesia, Italy, England, Germany and Spain. Also, the golden age of Mexican puppet theater also has a place in this museum, considered as unique in its specialty in Latin America.

Visits: Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 18:00 hours. Sunday 10:00 to 14:00 hours. Information: (01-247) 472-1033.

Via http://www.tlaxcala.gob.mx