'Las Marthas' Will Make You Think Twice About the Border, Latinas and Class Aura Bogado - Colorlines
go to original February 14, 2014

In this excerpt from the Independent Lens documentary Las Marthas, debutantes Laurita and Rosario discuss their different paths to the Martha Washington Ball as they participate in the fall rehearsal, a few months before the big event. (IndependentLens)

At first glance, the Society of Martha Washington’s debutante ball looks like any other: teenage girls in elaborate dresses preparing to make their first appearance before their city’s elite. But just beneath the surface, this massive event is one that captures the contradictions of tradition, duty, class and nationality.

The ball takes place in Laredo, Tex., right on the border with Mexico. The original event, started 75 years ago, was spurred by a group of white elites who wanted to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. They belonged to The Improved Order of Red Men - a secret society that identified with the American Revolution and played Indian, complete with war bonnets, while reenacting the Boston Tea Party. The Order, however, faced a unique racial reality upon arrival in Laredo. The city had already been part of Mexico before being taken by the United States, and had its own landed elite descended from Spanish colonizers.

Today, the Society of Martha Washington remains a haut monde affair that celebrates George and Martha Washington, along with other historical figures, such as Eli Whitney and Pocahontas - people who may or may not have been alive during the American Revolution. But it’s not just the elites. For an entire month each year, the entire city of Laredo participates in various Washington-related celebrations. As a film, “Las Marthas,” produced and directed by Cristina Ibarra and produced by Erin Ploss-Campoamor, illustrates how an economically fluid reality, defined by new money sometimes from just over the border in Nuevo Laredo, Tex., pushes up against a significant - though often imagined - elite past. It also problematizes what being Latina can actually mean, especially on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the rest at Colorlines

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