BY FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ
Ezra and his wife, a couple from St. Louis, Missouri, who did not want to disclose their last name, arrived in Los Cabos a few years ago and were wondering if there was a venue that had live theater or classical music as they were looking for an evening activity other than the bar scene.
They were disappointed to discover Cabo did not have any such type of theater experience.
In Mexico City, the arts are a thriving part of the nation’s capital, at such places as the iconic Bellas Artes cultural center and in other boroughs within its city limits. Nearby Cuernavaca also has a theater and musical buzz that goes back several decades.
Todos Santos, which boasts the absolutely nicest theater in this region, has held theatrical productions over the years, but they have always been in Spanish. And once, an organization made up of local ex-pats living in TS and nearby Cerritos, tried staging a play but their efforts did not attract an audience large enough to fill even a third of the theater. But it was a gallant effort in trying to bring theater to an English-speaking crowd.
In the downtown Cabo San Lucas restaurant district, professor Vico Caballero, director of the Southern California Cultural Institute, held several live jazz performances and live theater productions when he owned and operated his much beloved Macondo Art Cafe and Restaurant Bar on Miguel Hidalgo Street.
It was a shame when Macondo shut its doors because Caballero was such a visionary in trying to bring art to the central Cabo San Lucas area. The upstairs location featured a library filled with hundreds of books, several chess tables, and a constant flow of different genres of music besides the much-appreciated jazz set. Artists also played blues and rhythm and soul and the crowd was always an interesting audience of local lovers of mellow live music and theatrical productions.
In San Jose del Cabo, Antonio Vargas, a long-time local actor has appeared in several low-budget independent films and produced a few plays himself as director, choreographer, and lead actor, but his productions also have been in Spanish.
What would it take for the Los Cabos arts community to stage productions that could be held at the Cultural Pavillion located in the heart of the Marina? Sadly, there are no young English-speaking aspiring actors to deliver performances or the support system at the government cultural center level who would back such a proposal. And sadly, there has never been enough demand from those who visit Cabo to see the type of entertainment that a couple from St. Louis, Missouri and others inquired about.
And when there's no demand, there's no supply.