''Jalisco Sings in Seville'' (Spanish: ''Jalisco canta en Sevilla'') is a 1949 Mexican-Spanish musical comedy film directed by

Fernando de Fuentes Fernando de Fuentes Carrau (December 13, 1894 – July 4, 1958) was a Mexican film director, considered a pioneer in the film industry worldwide. He is perhaps best known for directing the films ''El prisionero trece'', ''El compadre Mendoza'', a ...

and starring

Jorge Negrete Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno (; 30 November 1911 – 5 December 1953) was a Mexican singer and actor. He specialized in the musical genre of ranchera. His posthumous album "Fiesta Mexicana Volumen II" has been ranked by critics at No. 163 on t ...

Carmen Sevilla María del Carmen García Galisteo (16 October 1930 – 27 June 2023), known professionally as Carmen Sevilla, was a Spanish actress, singer, and dancer. She began her career in the 1940s and became one of the most popular and highest paid star ...

and Jesús Tordesillas. Labanyi & Pavlović p.42 This film represents the first Mexican-Spanish cinematic co-production. The story and musical numbers emphasize the cultural affinities between

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

while warmly celebrating their differences. It was shot at the Chamartín Studios in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and on location in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Sigfrido Burmann.

Plot

The story concerns a handsome ''

charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...

'' from

Jalisco Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...

, and his fat

sidekick A sidekick is a close companion or colleague who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to those whom they accompany. Origins The first recorded use of the term dates from 1896. It is believed to have originated in pickpocket slang of ...

. The charro receives news that he has inherited a fortune from a distant relative in Spain, and so he must travel to

to collect it. A legal technicality impedes the speedy disbursement of his inheritance, so our the two heroes take jobs on a local ranch as farmhands. It turns out that the owner of the ranch was formerly a

bullfighter A bullfighter or matador () is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activ ...

, and has fond memories of Mexico. For this reason he befriends the charro. The charro goes on to win the heart of the ranch owner's daughter, and manages to recover his inheritance with his father-in-law's help.

Cast

as Nacho Mendoza *

as Araceli Vargas * Armando Soto La Marina as Nopal * Jesús Tordesillas as Don Manuel Vargas * Manuel Arbó as José Guseiro * Antonio Almorós as Salvador Hinojares * Leonor María * Ena Sedeño *

Ángel de Andrés Ángel de Andrés Miquel was a Spanish theatre actor and director. Background In 1938, after the Spanish Civil War broke out, the young Andrés worked as an amateur street actor and then as a "galán cómico" in the Salvador Videgain theatre ...

* Arturo Marín * Gabriel Algara * Custodia España * Mercedes Muñoz Sampedro * Francisco Bernal * Casimiro Hurtado * Rufino Inglés * Trío Calaveras

References

Bibliography

* Labanyi, Jo & Pavlović, Tatjana. ''A Companion to Spanish Cinema''. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. * Schroeder, Paul A. ''Latin American Cinema: A Comparative History''. University of California Press, 2016.

External links

* 1949 films 1940s Spanish-language films Films directed by Fernando de Fuentes Mexican black-and-white films Mexican musical comedy films Spanish black-and-white films Spanish musical comedy films 1949 musical comedy films 1940s Mexican films 1940s Spanish films Films set in Seville {{1940s-Mexico-film-stub