Affective Archives and Queer Space: Bertolt Brecht, Nacha Guevara, and Tito Vasconcelos’s teatro-cabaret

Abstract

As the title of Tito Vasconcelos’s 2022 teatro-cabaret piece suggests, ¿La ópera… o la Nacha? draws inspiration from both Bertolt Brecht’s La ópera de tres centavos and Nacha Guevara’s musical repertoire. The question mark gestures toward the seeming incongruity of these influences—Brecht and Guevara, figures from vastly different cultural and political traditions. Yet, by weaving them together, Vasconcelos constructs a rich tapestry of queer sociality, spatiality, creativity, and persecution in 1970s Mexico City, particularly within La Zona Rosa. These themes are underscored by the venue itself: Teatro Varsovia, located just off Paseo de la Reforma at the heart of the city’s historic queer district. As a performed autobiography, ¿La ópera… o la Nacha? exemplifies what Fiona Buckland calls a “theater of memory,” through which Vasconcelos activates both an archaeology of erased spaces and an archive of feelings. Focusing on music as a vehicle for memory, this essay draws on geography and urban studies to analyze how Vasconcelos uses Brecht to recall La Zona Rosa’s erotic and subversive geographies—now largely vanished—and how, through Guevara’s iconic songs, he mobilizes queer archives to express affective attachments, mourning, and resilience.