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Excerpts from gensisJesusa RodríguezPublished online: 03 Jun 2008.

To cite this article: Jesusa Rodríguez (2000) Excerpts from gensis , Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, 11:2,175-182, DOI: 10.1080/07407700008571339

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EXCERPTS FROM GENSIS1

Jesusa RodríguezTranslated by Roselyn Costantino

Inspired by the expulsion of the triumphant beast,Giordano Bruno.

In the beginning the earth was without form;Nothing could be seen in the darkness;There was only chaos.The Spirit of God played squash in the void...

Interlocutors: GOD and MOTHER NATURE

First DialogueGOD: Since, if in body, substance, and being nothing existed but

men and women, varieties and vicissitudes, nothing would begood, nothing convenient, nothing delightful, nothing delicious.

MOTHER NATURE: Very well, Eternal Father, but why, if youare my Creator, did you make those "rare ones," the ones theycall "queers?" Why, Origin of Origins, did you make beings thatgo against nature? I can accept that there are bastards, eunuchs,madmen, mindless people, but why queers, my Father?

Women C Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, Issue 22,11:2© 2000 Women & Performance Project, Inc.

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176 WOMEN & PERFORMANCEGOD: We simply see that all pleasure derives from certain

difference, course, and movement. Given that it is tedious andsad if the only people to exist are ones with two testicles, and itis unpleasant and tiresome if the only ones to exist have twoovaries, then, that which gives us pleasure is the passing fromone state to another with all its intersexual ambiguities. Thestate of venereal ardour torments us, the state of steaming lustafflicts us, therefore that which calms us is the passing from oneto the other; in no absolute condition can pleasure be found.Fatigue is not pleasant, but it becomes so after rest.

MOTHER NATURE: If it is such, if in movement there isparticipation in that which is pleasurable as well as that which isbothersome, then there is no pleasure without a mixture ofsadness.

GOD: And so it is. He who does not know the efficiency of pantsand who then puts on a skirt, does not enjoy the breeze betweenhis legs. In the same way, I, GOD, on certain occasions,becoming bored with my condition of being GOD, take avacation and buy myself some Chanel and put it on. In the sameway the cowboys find themselves a whore and distractthemselves. To he who has lain down or sat, it is pleasurable towalk; to he who has walked, it is a relief to sit down. He who hasspent much time locked in a closet finds pleasure on the balcony;and he who is fed up with stripping naked becomes a nun.Frequently eating a delicacy, as delicious as it may be, ends upcausing nausea. And so it is satisfying to experience the mutationof one opposite into the other through activity, and themovement of one opposite to the other through its middle; andfinally we see so much familiarity of the opposites amongstthemselves that they become more comfortable amongthemselves than with their own kind. And so, "a straight whogoes with another straight" is also homosexual.

MOTHER NATURE: And so it appears to me, since justice is notapplied in the act but wherever the error lies, harmony existsonly where there is contrariness; that which is spheric does notrest in the spheric but only touches on one point; but theconcave, yes, rests on the convex.

Morally, then, why are there gays and lesbians if the arrogantcannot harmonize with the arrogant, the poor with the poor, themiserly with the miserly; but one finds pleasure with thehumble, the other with the rich, another with the splendid.

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JESUSA RODRIGUEZ 177However, men find pleasure with men, women with women, andstraights with straights. Therefore, all that you have professed isvery true, but I would like to know, my GOD, why, for what endhave you pronounced it to be so?

GOD: What I want to infer is that the beginning, the middle, andthe end, birth, development, and the perfection we see all existbeginning with the diverse (queer), through, in and for thediverse (queer). And where there is difference there is action andreaction, movement, multiplicity, order, levels, succession, andvicissitude. Because no one who reasons soundly would everknock down or exalt his spirit for being and owning the here andnow, even though in comparison with other habits and fortunesit seems to him good or bad, better or worse. In that way, I, withmy divine object which is RIGHT ON, so long fugitive, occult,depressed, and submerged, by edict of destiny, I have judgedthat term as the principle of my return, apparition, exaltation,and magnificence; which will be even greater as the ways ofsexing become evermore different.

MOTHER NATURE: And so it happens with he who desires toelevate himself on Earth, leaping nobly, that he must first bendover. He who plans to jump efficiently over a pit, at timesmeasures the impulse, stepping back eight or nine paces.

GOD: We do not see that all pleasure consists of transit, course,and movement. Given that the state of man is bothersome andsad, the state of woman unpleasant and heavy, then that whichgives us pleasure is the passage from one state to another. Thestate of venereal burning torments us, the state of unbridled lustafflicts us, then that which gives us peace is the movement fromone to the other.

In no present condition is there pleasure, if the previous onedid not come to annoy us. Sexual identity is not pleasurableexcept when doubt appears; in rest there is no pleasure.

MOTHER NATURE: If it is so, if in the participation of bothpleasures movement exists, the participation of both that whichbrings pleasure and that which disturbs, then no pleasure existswithout a mixture of sadness.

GOD:And so it is. Homophobia is closeting.MOTHER NATURE: And so my Lord, must I admit that those

"anti-natures," the queers, the different ones are mycomplement?

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178 WOMEN & PERFORMANCEGOD: You yourself have said it: the Merms (persons with testicles

who display other sexual female characteristics), the Herms (inwhom appear at the same time a testicle and an ovary), and theFerms, (persons with ovaries but with masculine sexualcharacteristics) are the mirror, MOTHER NATURE, whereyou are reflected into infinity

MOTHER NATURE: If to be nature I must be unnatural, thennot believing in You should, once in a while, be my dogma offaith?

GOD: How do I know, Mother Nature! I made you so you woulddoubt my existence. If God were man, I would be a woman, ifGod were queer, he would be a topic of feminist debate.I am what I am, I am God and God is queer in order to keep onenjoying being God.

From Barbie: The Revenge of the Devil2

The Devil, played by Jesusa Rodriguez, nude, with large wings, awhite painted face, and two small white horns, sits on a smallsquare box/ pedestal reading The New York Times. The blackstage floor is littered with white water cooler cones, a smallchemical lab table, and, behind the seated Devil, a tree-likestructure covered with large, sweeping cobwebs. The Devil issobbing, in agony, as she reads.

Aye!!!!! How can human beings be so evil!!!Homicide, robbery, rape, torture, missing people!!I can't believe this!A touch of evil.. .a human perversion!

(The Devil first moves into a Rodin's Thinker pose, and thenstands up to proclaim:)

This is too much, I will punish you!All my anger will fall between your eyes,on your children. (Pointing to the white cones)Look at them! They are the world!There will be a terrible poison!Ya! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!!!

(The Devil's laughs. Throughout the piece, jfesusa's laugh recallsthose evil laughs of early Hollywood horror films. She jumps offthe box/pedestal and goes over to the lab table. Dry ice is boilingover.)

Double, double, toil and trouble, fire and burn, etc., etc.!

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JESUSA RODRIGUEZ 179(On the table she has a pile of white cones, resembling KKKhoods with black painted eyes.)

These are the souls of those who already belong to me:Reagan, Thatcher, Khomeini, Oliver North, Pinochet, Viola,Videla... There are thousands! (pointing to the caps on the floor)Those are the few pure souls that live on the face of the earth...theywill the victims of my curse!!

(Into a glass beaker she concocts a mixture that includes largeplastic insects, some of which she throws at the audience. Theconcoction bubbles over. She takes a drink.)

Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug!It should be acid, like rain.What kind of poison should it be?Oh God! Enlighten me!!!

(A spot light encases the Devil. Naked except for wings andhorns, Jesusa moves toward the audience, picks up a microphone,and begins to move sensuously to a cumbia rhythm and sings inSpanish:)

It must be a fine poisonIt must be something very specialthat will madden all the little girls of the worldand their mom and dads.It has to be a subtle poison.With hair and vinyl.Something gossipy, meddling, flirtatiousthat everyone adores-a fetish!Like this (imitating penetration with her hands) it will penetrate theworld!Like that, it will penetrate the whole world!!The poison and its double.Its rage and ecstasy will reign supreme over Man.The vortex of buying happiness for the innocent.Imperious amongst men.A fetish!!Like this it will penetrate the whole world!

(The Devil moves back to the table.)Eureka!! I've got it now!

(Mixes up another potion and smells it, then takes a drink.)Aye! Ohhh!! Ughhh!It smells like Catsup!Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug! Glug!

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180 WOMEN & PERFORMANCEUghhhhhhh!

(She rubs her stomach as she grimaces. She's about to vomit. Shewalks over to the pedestal, and lifts up the top, converting it into atoilet. She sits and strains as she attempts to relieve herself. Noluck, so she gets up, pops a cigarette into her mouth and walks tothe edge of the stage, asking for a light from an audience member.With her lighted cigarette, she returns to the pedestal-toilet, takesoff her wings. Sitting, again she strains and groans, and,eventually, is successful. She stands up, looks into the toilet andscreams. She runs to the lab table, picks up some tongs, and tries tofish something out of the obviously smelly toilet. Finally, from thetoilet she removes the basin bubbling over with dry ice, takes it tothe lab table, and fishes something out. It is a naked Barbie doll.She takes a cone, fills it with the poisonous liquid andceremoniously baptizes Barbie.)

I pronounce you Barbie as a tribute to Klaus Barbie! Isn't he mem-orable!

(Moving toward the caps on the floor)My sweet little Darlings! The hour has come! This is your end!All the perfume in the world will not sweeten this little doll!

(The Devil, still naked, puts on red converse sneakers and beginsto step on and squash all the little white cones on the floor. Sheworks to the rhythm of a harpsichord, destroying all but two. Sheapproaches what she thinks is the last.)

The only soul that I will save! My own!(Black out. When the lights come up the floor is still littered withsmashed cups.)

Look at this! What are you doing? You bastard!The poor little girls! It seems like a street in New York, all that trash!

(She pulls on the edges of the tarp covering the floor, and drags itso that all the cones form a small pile in the center. To completethe task, she walks along the front row of the seated audience, stillnaked.)

Tonight will be the conquest of the universe!Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Sak's, McDonald's, General Motors.Everyone will sell you, starting with me!

(She takes out a small washboard and begins to scrub Barbie'sclothes while singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Sheaddresses Barbie.)

Oh my sweetie, be quiet my lady.You will become the center of the family!

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JESUSA RODRIGUEZ 181(She cuddles the doll, caresses her).

Hello! How are you?(She rests Barbie on her neck and suddenly screams.)

Ohhhh! It's alive! It's alive! Get her off me! Get her off me!(With karate grunts and moves, she pulls Barbie off. The Devilmakes a string of indecipherable guttural sounds. In anger atBarbie's behavior, she places her in a black cage covered with ablack cloth and suspended from above.)

Don't make that face! You will be better off!!!(She goes back to the cage to check on Barbie, pulls off the cloth,and screams.)

Oh my God!!! What have I done!!! She's horrible!!! Mass produc-tion!!!

(The cage is filled with identical Barbie dolls.)This is the end! This is the Plague! This could turn into the BarbieProject!Anyway, they are my daughters and I have to feed them!

(Singing "One little, two little, three little Barbies, four little...",she feeds dollar bills into the cage. She screams again.)

Aye! I lost my right finger! Come here, come here you Barbie! Can-nibal!

(She pulls one of the dolls from the cage and examines her.)A-sexual! Slot-machine! Plastic bitch! I will make you feel good!Remember Siberia?!Let's take a plunge/ (Sheplunges Barbie's head into a container withwater.) Are you feeling alright?

(She takes a butcher knife and mutilates Barbie—cuts off a legthat she picks up from the floor and places in her mouth like acigar. Metal scraping sounds create an agonizing sense of death.)

This is not too bad! I'm starting to enjoy the job! Let's take anotherone...

(She removes another Barbie from the cage.)Wow, you are beautiful! And God made you white.. .how wonderful!

(The Devil removes a black cloth covering a miniature guillotine,places a black hood over her head. She then walks over to a smallblock of wood and with some small sticks, does a drum roll. Shethen proceeds to place the Barbie under the guillotine, release theblade, and, while laughing hysterically, decapitates her. Satisfied,the Devil returns to the original task and, still laughing, onceagain she begins to mix chemicals in the beaker.)Black out.

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182 WOMEN & PERFORMANCEFrom Censorship: the Bald Rat in the Garbage3

"We invite the free spirits to escape from state and ecclesiasticalcensorship as well as from self-censorship.

In the end one becomes embarrassed to express simple andevident things because one's expression has become somethingvulgar and improper.

Against this syphilis of the brain there exists only one remedy:from a position of eccentricity and outside the law, with the freedomof a bird, free of vertigo, to hurl ideas in a totally brutal way."

—Oskar Panizza

1. To think and not be able to express our thoughts is the worst ofall tortures.

2. Don't laugh at the president, he takes care of that himself.3. Don't censor yourself, that's the job of the self-censorship of the

media.4. The more you say, the more you will be able to say; the more you

think, the more you will be able to think.5. All topics can be treated with humor, especially those that are the

most solemn, for example, yourself.6. Don't ever rejoice over receiving threats of censorship or of

death, even when they serve as publicity.7. Freedom of expression is also freedom of the idiot. Who is the

professional idiot? He who assumes the ridiculous.8. If you truly want to laugh at the enemy, defend him.9. When you give in to fear, terror increases; when terror increases,

silence kills.10. In those ultimate situations, like torture, none of us knows what

we will say or do.

Notes1. Originally published as El genesis. In Rara rarezas. debate

feminsta 8.16 (1997): 401-403. Translation by Roselyn Costantino.2. The script was transcribed from a video copy of a 1987 New

York performance generously provided by Jesusa Rodriguez. Themonologue was in English, the song in Spanish. Transcription andtranslation by Roselyn Costantino

3. Originally published as Censura: la rata pelón en la basura indebate feminsta :479. Translation by Roselyn Costantino.

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