TEARTO REFORMA HARKENS TO MAXIMILIAN-CARLOTA REIGN

By Juan Montoya
MATAMOROS — Alfredo Sifuentes says that when he tells tourists about the history behind the Teatro Reforma, most of them are amazed they are standing in front of such an iconic structure.
Sifuentes, a self-styled tourist guide who has learned his English on the border and through television cartoons with his children, says even he was amazed when he started inquiring into the building after he was asked by tourists about its history.

“I’ve always known it as el Reforma since I was a kid in school,” said the wizened 49-year-old. “I never knew just how old it was.”

Research at Casa Mata indicates the building that now houses the theater in the heart of Matamoros (at the east end of the peatonal) was started in 1861 as a project that was meant to duplicate the Theater of Opera in Paris, France. At the time the city was occupied by the infamous general Tomás Mejía and a group of European soldiers who sided with the empire of Maximilian.

The theater was inaugurated Nov. 8, 1865, while the city was being defended against the imperialistic forces against the constitutional forces of Maximilian. The name the facility bore then was the Teatro Imperial, and was changed to Teatro Reforma in honor of Benito Juarez’s Leyes de Reforma.

Before Maximilian and Carlota usurped the head of the Mexican government, the Mexican Constitutionalists and the Conservatives had fought a three-year-long war over the laws passed to separate the church and state.

Soon, the theater was the center the city’s cultural center with appearances by performers such as Jaime Nunó, the composer of the Mexican National Anthem, Plácido Domingo and Pepita Envil (parents of the Plácido Domingo).

The theater is located at the corner of Abasolo and Calle Sexta in downtown Matamoros.

Matamoros and Brownsville residents had the opportunity to enjoy opera, vaudeville, comedy, theater, as well as some of the finest dances in the area. Mexican president Venustiano Carranza attended one such dance.

Besides these public performances, the most important school graduations, movies and boxing matches were held, as well as conferences, civic festivities and public officials took their oaths of service.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the theater was in full use by the city, and when movies took hold in about 1917, it was rented to a private individual who named it the Cine Anteo.

In 1956 Matamoros awarded a contract to the Longoria Family to demolish the ancient theater structure and to build a modern movie theater. The Longorias completely tore it down, citing the incompatibility of the structure and its design, and the need for more space for traffic to move around the city. However, public opinion dictated that the theater should remain and in 1986, Municipal Presidente Jesús Roberto Guerra Velasco handed over control of the project to a citizens’ committee who under whose guidance the movie theater front was torn down and the construction begin to take the structure back and build it to the same specifications as the old theater.

Within five years, the committee finished the project and it fell to Presidente Jorge Cárdenas to finish the major part of the project. However, since then, other mayors have undertaken the refurbishing of the structure.

The 1991 remodeling did not take into consideration some aspects such as lighting and theater equipments and props. During 2000, the city government, and the state government — through the Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes— and the national Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes through its Programa de Apoyo a la Infraestructura Cultural de los Estados, provided the funding to equip the facility with state-of-the-art theatrical amenities, including intercommunication equipment.

The facility now can hold 697 spectators and approximately 200 events are held each year. Theater, festivals, concerts, contests, educational seminars and musical performances grace its refurbished interior.

Today, one of the most important functions that take place within its grandiose confines is the October Festival.