Sophie Treadwell and the Centaur of the North :: Sophie Treadwell Essays

Sophie Treadwell and the Centaur of the North In August 1921, an extraordinary meeting took place between two very(prenominal) different peck which would result in a brief and incredible friendship. For four days at an isolated and picturesque ranch called Canutillo scraggy Rosario in northern Mexico, the infamous Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco Pancho Villa play host to an intrepid American newspaper correspondent and playwright named Sophie Treadwell. The resulting oblige that ran on the front page of the New York Tribune on Sunday, August 28, 1921 authorise A Visit to Villa, A Bad Man Not So Bad earned Treadwell international notoriety. Recognized for her expertise on the people and politics of Mexico, she would go on to write a series of articles on the topic of Mexican affairs. At that quantify Mexico was still reeling from a bally(a) Revolution that saw the ousting of the progressive but tyrannical governance of Porfirio Diaz and three more successive reg imes. Treadwells sympathetic treatment of Mexican affairs allowed her to access people and information that were unavailable to most. As a result, Sophie Treadwell brought to her readership enhance understanding of important people and events in Mexico most notably that of Francisco Villa. That an American woman received so overmuch respect and was able to process so much in a country which at the time was generally resentful of Americans as well as totally young-begetting(prenominal) dominated attests to the ambitiousness and cultural sensitivity of this noteworthy writer of accompaniment and fiction. Born October 3, 1885 in Stockton California, Sophie Anita Treadwells ancestry was a mixture of Mexican, English, German, and Scot. The daughter of a judge, she described herself as a Californian, a mixture of the old 49er and the legitimate Mexican(Wynn 1). Her family life was marred by the marked absence of her father, of whom she say The first thing I remember of my fa ther is that he wasnt at that place (Wynn 4). Despite this, it was her father, a theater fan, who introduced Sophie to the theater. Though she would until very recently abide an under-appreciated and unknown playwright, the theater was to become the main focus of her endeavor for much of her life. Upon her graduation from high school in 1901, Treadwell intended to pursue a career in stage acting.