A Look at the Soul, a Vision of Life

In 1992, after three years of choreographing his dream dance piece--to the strains of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 --Francisco Martinez still had no title for his work and that was holding him back.

Then he read about Raphael Cordero, a man with AIDS who had developed a friendship with Times reporter Michael Quintanilla. Quintanilla chronicled Cordero’s last six months of life in a diary that was later published in The Times (“I Took a Look at My Soul the Other Day,” View, July 5, 1992).

Martinez now had his title.

“When I opened the paper, the headline caught my eye and something inside of me clicked,” he said. “As I continued reading, I kept hearing the last movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. I felt passion, a human being caring for another human being. I was ready to move forward, to finish my work.”

On Friday and Saturday, 13 dancers with the Francisco Martinez Dancetheater will perform “I Took a Look at My Soul the Other Day” at the Keck Theater at Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles. (Tickets are $15 and $12. Call [213] 259-2922 for reservations.)

Martinez, whose dance company has been headquartered at Plaza de la Raza, a cultural center in East Los Angeles, since 1988, said that in addition to giving him a title, the article inspired him to seek funding for his production, which he eventually got from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the California Arts Council. Committed to seeing his vision realized, Martinez also has contributed $10,000 of his own money.

“I’ve lived through more than a decade of sorrow, losing friends to AIDS and other terminal illnesses,” he said. “Their gift of friendship gave me the idea to do this tribute and honor their memory.” And Cordero’s story, he said, “became an important element that played into my vision.”