by José Villalobos Romero
Horses, sombreros and guitars: Mexican clichés and each one an everyday item for the mariachi Jaime García. The fulltime charro – a Mexican cowboy of sorts – passionately loves music, women and the wilder side of life. He exhausts himself with jokes and banter during his evening performances, and always surrounds himself with beautiful women. However, that is just one side of his life in which not everything is as it used to be. His daughter and her mother crave fatherly attention and an HIV diagnosis gradually saps the last of his energy. EL CHARRO DE TOLUQUILLA is the extraordinary and entertaining portrait of a complex man who battles to live a life between tradition and modernity.