In 1998, the telenovela “La Usurpadora” invaded the screens of the homes of Mexican families with the story of twins who did not know each other, until one usurped the life of the other. It was neither the first nor the last time that this Venezuelan melodrama was told. The most recent version is a Mexican musical comedy that arrives in Tucson on Wednesday, March 22, for a preview screening.
The fact that the screening in Tucson is two weeks before its U.S. theatrical release on April 7 is no coincidence.
Not only have the creators of Cinema Tucsón, which organizes the program, brought a diverse lineup of current Mexican cinema to Fox Tucson Theatre every month for more than a year, but the film’s executive producer, Aaron Rivera-Ashford, is from Southern Arizona.
Rivera-Ashford was born and raised in Nogales, Arizona, and moved to Tucson as a teenager.
“It was in Tucson that I started to love reading and writing stories, so I feel very happy that we will be able to show it (the film) at the Fox Theatre before its premiere in the U.S. and Mexico. It’s something very special to me,” said the son of retired teacher and bilingual writer Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford.
“She was the one who gave me a taste for reading and creating stories,” Rivera-Ashford said of his mother. Aaron and Roni also collaborated on the creation of one of the children’s books derived from the film Coco, “Miguel and the Amazing Alebrijes.”
As a young adult, the Roskruge Bilingual and University High School graduate followed the path of his other love: gastronomy. He worked in restaurants in cities across the country, until he returned to Tucson to study at the University of Arizona “with the passion for writing,” he said, harmoniously mixing English and Spanish. After the UA, he went to the American Film Institute in California and began his career in film and television.
Working for Pantelion Films, Aaron Rivera-Ashford was named executive producer of “La Usurpadora,” directed by Santiago Limón (“Cindy La Regia”) and featuring performances by renowned artists in Mexico such as Jesús Ochoa, Susana Zavaleta, Alejandra Guzmán and Gabriela Spanic, who starred in the 1998 novela. In the film, the main roles are played by Isabella Castillo (“El Señor de los Cielos,” “Malverde”) and Alan Estrada, actor and YouTuber known for his channel “Alan x el Mundo.”
Pantelion was merged by Televisa into its new Vix+ streaming channel, and as part of the move Aaron Rivera-Ashford is now director of content of Vix+ with TelevisaUnivision in Los Angeles.
The musical version of "La Usurpadora" is the film adaptation of the telenovela, which was a success in Mexico. The film is produced by Southern Arizonan Aaron Rivera-Ashford.
A surprise move
“La Usurpadora” tells the story of twin sisters separated at birth. One of them is rich and bad, while the other is poor and good.
The rich twin, seeing that they are identical, proposes to the other to impersonate her for a while. The conflict occurs when one becomes too attached to her new life and the other wants to go back to their old life.
No one would have guessed that 25 years after the television success of the 1998 version that it would appear on billboards in a musical rendition.
“I must confess that at first I didn’t like the idea at all, but then I was thinking about it, and I thought it was genius,” Rivera-Ashford said. For the Nogales native, one element that unites not only Hispanic audiences, but the general audience, is music. The film is full of Latin American hits, with novel adaptations of hits such as “La vida es un carnaval”, “Livin’ La vida loca,” “Con zapatos de tacón,” “Vuelve,” and “Bidi bidi bom bom”, among others.
The story is definitely a soap opera drama, but peppered with humor, Rivera-Ashford said.
“The audience in soap operas cry and get excited, but in this movie they’re also going to laugh and sing and dance,” he said.
Tickets for the show, at 7 p.m. at the Fox, 17 W. Congress, are $6 through foxtucson.com/event/usurpadora/.
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