"Voces del Teatro: Let Our Voices Be Heard"

by Liane Schirmer and Minerva Garcia 

[The article below, subtitled “The untold history of the Latinx theatre movement in modern Los Angeles,” appeared in American Theatre, the monthly magazine of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), on 2 August 2023 (posted on the website at AMERICAN THEATRE | Voces del Teatro: Let Our Voices Be Heard).  Voces del Teatro (Voices of the theater) is a project of Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles.]

Voces del Teatro Oral History Archive is an ongoing project whose ultimate goal is to research and fully document the collective history of professional Latinx theatre in contemporary Los Angeles, from the late 1960s through the present. As our research is evolving, this article does not claim to be a definitive analysis of this subject and period.

Los Angeles, March 2020. The unthinkable happened. In a matter of hours, the devastating realities of COVID-19 impacted every aspect of normal life. Theatres were hit especially hard, shutting their doors, as actors and other theatre professionals all over the city wondered when they’d open again. Particularly vulnerable to the resulting economic fallout were our Latinx theatres, most of which work in spaces with 99 seats or less and struggle to find audiences even in the best of times.

Weeks later, our community was dealt a second blow: Diane Rodriguez, a Renaissance artist, actress, playwright, director, and producer died suddenly [10 April 2020 at 68]. One of Diane’s many legacies was her untiring advocacy for Latinx theatre, not only in Los Angeles, but on a national level. Defying the odds of a segregated field, she made her mark as the associate artistic director of Center Theatre Group (CTG [Los Angeles]), one of the most influential nonprofit theatre companies in the nation. 

Diane had been the keynote speaker at the first convening of the Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles (LTA/LA), an organization formed in 2012 to advocate for and empower the L.A. Latinx artistic community. In her speech, she made us recognize the importance of our theatrical legacy, reminding us that our theatres served not only as a creative outlet but as a vital community forum.

Diane’s passing came as a wake-up call. We were in the entertainment capital of the world, yet the media had all but erased us from the cultural narrative, largely excluding us from mainstream venues. Despite the last 50-plus years of producing theatre in L.A., only a small segment of the city knew our story. 

It was up to us to record, preserve, and champion this story, because no one else would. We had to do it now, or we’d risk losing the voices of the people who made it happen. It would take a formal archive, and the resulting scholarship, to establish Latinx theatre as a genre in itself. So LTA/LA made the decision to create and sponsor the Voces del Teatro Oral History Archive. 

This is the first formal attempt to chronicle the history of Latinx theatre in contemporary Los Angeles from the late 1960s to the present. To date, we’ve completed two phases totaling 40 hour-long interviews with the key theatremakers who pioneered this genre. Interviewees were selected based on age as well as length and breadth of career. What follows is a brief chronicle of how L.A. Latinx theatre came into being, and how it grew and developed into the largest Latinx theatre scene in the country.

1960s 

In the 1960s, the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, inspired by the gains of the Black Civil Rights Movement, came into its own. A grassroots effort by U.S.-born Mexican Americans, this new generation fought for social and political empowerment and championed Black-Brown unity. In Los Angeles in 1968, thousands of Mexican American high school students, protesting inferior education, staged the East L.A. Chicano Student Walkouts, the first major mass protest against racism by Mexican-Americans in U.S. history.

In California, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta fought for the rights of migrant farm workers. Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino [The farmworker’s theater], founded in Northern California in 1965, arose to educate and inspire workers to organize. This groundbreaking company performed “actos,” short, comedic sketches, in the fields, illustrating the cause of the farmworkers and advocating for unionization. Within 10 years, Teatro Campesino had almost single-handedly fostered a national theatre movement. 

Luis Valdez inspired poet and activist Guadalupe Saavedra de Saavedra to co-found Teatro Chicano along with David Saucedo, in East Los Angeles in 1968. Later, Saavedra, working with Latino student activist groups at Cal State Long Beach in 1969, founded Teatro Popular de la Vida y Muerte (Popular Theatre of Life and Death), focusing on intercultural and political themes.

In Hollywood, a female-led company, Seis Actores (Six Actors), was co-founded by Cuban director Margarita Galbán. She cast the legendary Mexican American actress Carmen Zapata in her first Spanish-language play. This collaboration would lead them years later to co-found the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts (see below).

1970s

On Aug. 29, 1970, between 20,000 and 30,000 demonstrators formed the National Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, marching through East L.A. to protest the disproportionate number of Mexican American troops drafted, killed, or injured. This peaceful demonstration erupted into violence when the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department arrived, injuring and killing three individuals, including L.A. Times journalist Rubén Salazar.

This decade saw a proliferation of teatros, beginning in 1970 when Vibiana Aparicio Chamberlin, responding to the dearth of creative opportunities for Chicano youth, founded Teatro de los Niños. It was the first Chicano children’s theatre in the U.S. in which children not only wrote and performed their own plays but were compensated for their performances. Their work addressed cultural identity, immigration, and the threat of deportation.

By the early 1970s, Chicano theatre had established itself as a movement. In 1971, El Teatro Nacional de Aztlán (TENAZ), a group of nine Chicano-identified theatres led by El Teatro Campesino, held its first conference. “Fiesta de los Teatros” took place at L.A.’s Inner City Theatre (home of the Inner City Cultural Center). These gatherings continued until 1990, at which point no similar national convenings took place until the advent of the Latinx Theatre Commons in 2012.

In response to prejudice and stereotypical casting in the media, the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts (BFA) was co-founded by Carmen Zapata, Margarita Galbán, and Estela Scarlata in 1973. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, BFA’s mission is to foster cultural pride through the performance of classic Spanish theatre, from the Golden Age of Cervantes to Lorca, to contemporary original Latin American works. Plays are performed, alternately in Spanish and English versions, with a single cast. Many Latino actors began their professional careers here.

Teatro Urbano, a Chicano-focused group founded by Rene Rodriguez and his wife, Rosemary Soto Rodriguez, in 1974, tackled police brutality, deportation, workers’ rights, women’s issues, and lack of political education. Silver Dollar, their signature work, documenting the murder of journalist Rubén Salazar, opened in 1976 and was last performed in 2022, making it the longest-running Chicano play in Los Angeles.

In 1978, the Los Angeles Actors Theater (LAAT) housed El Teatro de la Unidad [The theater of unity]. Founded by Argentine theatremaker Jaime Jaimes, it was an integral part of LAAT’s mission, which was to “provide education and the theatre experience to low-income populations,” with a particular focus on the city’s marginalized cultural groups. Unidad produced more than 20 critically acclaimed plays in Spanish and English until 1983.

Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in 1978. For the first time in its 11-year history, Center Theatre Group presented a play written by a Chicano playwright and performed by Latinx actors. Thanks to its box-office success, the CTG bought the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, where the show ran for a year and a half to sold-out houses. [Zoot Suit played on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1979.]

1980s

The 1980s, despite being proclaimed the “Decade of the Hispanic,” continued to see under-representation of Latino creatives in mainstream media. The L.A. Summer Olympics in 1984 led to a crackdown on crime and gangs that severely targeted Black and Latino youth. By the mid-’80s, the HIV/AIDS crisis had hit the Latino community hard. Though only 18.5 percent of the U.S. population, Latinos constituted 25 percent of people with HIV. The mass migration of Central Americans, fleeing U.S.-backed wars, transformed the neighborhoods of Pico/Union and the Westlake District. The decade was marked by gang violence, the crack epidemic, and poverty in the Latino community, which destroyed a generation.

One company, Stage of the Arts, chose to work in the economically challenged neighborhoods of Echo Park, the Westlake District, and East L.A. (at the Teatro Estudio Jorge Negrete). Founded in 1982 by Cuban director Jorge Luis Rodríguez, the company’s original focus was on producing absurdist theatre in Spanish. Though the company’s trajectory evolved, Rodriguez consistently sought to develop multicultural awareness and provide artists a space in which to work.

Another Cuban theatremaker, José Armand, founded the Latino Ensemble in 1984 as a nonprofit pan-Latin American company. They produced experimental Latino plays in various locations around the city,  dealing with class, racism, and homosexuality. By the 2000s, Latino Ensemble had relocated to [Dania Beach,] Florida, where it remains active.

In an effort to increase opportunity and visibility, Orange County’s South Coast Repertory (SCR [Costa Mesa, California]) established the Hispanic Playwrights Project (HPP) in 1985. Under the direction of playwright José Cruz Gonzаlez, HPP focused on developing the canon, and challenging decades of preconception and prejudice. Juliette Carrillo, a writer/director, helmed HPP from 1997 to 2004. During those years, 50 playwriting workshops were held, half of which received full productions at SCR. HPP playwrights included Cherrie Moraga, Josefina López, Luis Alfaro, and Pulitzer winners Nilo Cruz and Quiara Alegría Hudes. 

José Luis Valenzuela arrived in L.A. in 1985, staging the award-winning play Hijos [“Children”] at the Teatro Estudio Jorge Negrete. This led to an invitation to work at the newly formed Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC). There, Valenzuela established the Latino Actors Lab, a collective that produced mostly English-language plays with Chicano/Latino themes.

1985 saw the creation of Havanafama Theatrical Company, co-founded by Cuban theatremakers Juan Roca and Roberto Antinoo Sorí. They produced entertaining, accessible works in Spanish, including cabaret and musicals. In 2005, they relocated to Miami under the banner of Havanafama Theater Company.

Two years later, in 1987, Grupo de Teatro SINERGIA was founded by Anibal Apríle, Yvette Cruise, and José Salgado. Its artistic leadership later passed on to director/playwright Ruben Amavizca Murúa. SINERGIA moved to the Westlake District in 1994 and took up residence in the Frida Kahlo Theater, a space named after their signature play. Dedicated to challenging, original works in both English and Spanish, SINERGIA’s plays focus on historical, political, and social themes affecting the Latinx community. The Frida Kahlo Theater is also home to many itinerant Latinx theatre companies in the city. 

CalArts [California Institute of the Arts, private art university, Santa Clarita, California] alumni co-founded About…Productions in 1988, which later came under the sole artistic direction of Chicana Theresa Chavez. Its mission is “to unearth and illuminate cultural histories of Latin America, the Southwest, California, and L.A.” As an itinerant company, About... brings its multimedia work and youth programs to a variety of audiences around the city.

1990s

By 1990, the Reagan years were in the rearview mirror, and as a one-term president, Bush took the U.S. into the Gulf War. In 1992, Los Angeles exploded in a wave of civil unrest, known thereafter as the L.A. Uprising, following the acquittal of LAPD officers who had savagely beaten a Black motorist, Rodney King, an incident that helped expose decades of police brutality against the Black and Latinx communities. In 1994, Southern California was hit by the 6.7 Northridge earthquake, which caused extensive damage in densely populated neighborhoods, including the Westlake District. The same year saw a ballot initiative in California, Proposition 187, that targeted undocumented people by denying them access to emergency health care, public education, and other services. It backfired on its supporters, though: It was later deemed unconstitutional, and backlash to the law galvanized a new generation of Latinx activists.

1990 saw the advent of a refreshing Latinx comedy troupe, Latins Anonymous, who in an eponymous show at LATC challenged the stereotypes faced by Latinx actors in the media. Co-founded by Luisa Leschin, Armando Molina, Rick Najera, Diane Rodriguez, and Cris Franco (who joined the group in 1992), this popular troupe received critical acclaim and enjoyed box-office success. By 1995, the group had ceased to create and perform together, but its founders have gone on to highly successful careers in film, theatre, and television.

Festival Latino L.A., an arts festival produced by Latino Ensemble in 1990, offered more than 20 productions, with plays from local L.A. Latinx companies as well as work from Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and Chile. The festival, which also included theatre workshops, intended “to build bridges between Anglos, L.A. Latinos, and their counterparts in Spanish-speaking countries.”

LATC, after several years of fostering ethnic-based and gender-based labs and productions, closed in 1991, leaving many companies, including the Latino Actors Lab, without a home. Fortunately, in the case of the Lab, they were invited to take up residence at the Mark Taper Forum. Following the move, this company changed its name to the Latino Theater Company (LTC), remaining under the artistic direction of José Luis Valenzuela.

Culture Clash also entered the L.A. scene around this time. It had its origins in 1984 in San Francisco, when José Antonio Burciaga recruited performers Monica Palacios, Marga Gómez, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza. In 1991 Montoya, Salinas, and Siguenza relocated to Los Angeles under the name Culture Clash, and created new work for the Huntington, the Getty, the Pasadena Playhouse, and Center Theatre Group. Culture Clash became the most prominent Chicano/Latino performance troupe in the country, satirizing the historical, social, and political issues faced by Latinos in the U.S. Their sharp wit, character work, and comedic skills led to national recognition (and work at theatres from San Diego to Miami). Today, Culture Clash maintains a strong influence on new generations of Latino performers, who continue to stage their plays. 

By the early 1990s, Center Theatre Group, no doubt wanting to tap into this emerging market, formed the Latino Theatre Initiative (LTI) in 1992. Designed to provide аccess to emerging Latinx artists and increase the Latinx audience base by offering culturally relevant programming, it was initially helmed by José Luis Valenzuela. In 1995, leadership passed to Diane Rodriguez and to artist/poet/playwright Luis Alfaro. This progressive duo provided a community-based approach, establishing playwriting workshops that launched several influential artists. In 2005, Gordon Davidson, CTG’s founding artistic director, retired, and his successor, Michael Ritchie, eliminated funding for playwriting programs, effectively ending the LTI. 

A new group arose in 1992. East L.A. Classic Theater was co-founded by Roberto Beltrán, Rubén Sierra, Tony Plana, and Julie Arenal, with the mission of highlighting the talents of classically trained Latino artists in the performance of classic works—i.e., Shakespeare and the American canon, but in culturally specific adaptations. They also developed strong theatre programs for under-served youth, which included performances of the classics. They ceased operations in 2012. 

Starting in 1994 and running through 2014, actor Luis Avalos produced an English-language Latino-themed holiday musical, Paquito’s Christmas, which ran for many years at various venues across the city, including LATC. In 1999, Avalos was invited to stage his play at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre in Washington, D.C. Avalos established the Americas Theatre Arts Foundation in 2000, to support productions based on Latin American themes.

Finally, Teatro Apolo, under the artistic direction of Mexican actor/director Jesús Castaños Chima, was founded in 1998. Apolo produces Spanish-language works and tours them extensively throughout Mexico, Central and South America. Castaños Chima also serves as the coordinator of Latino Theatre Programs at 24th Street Theatre.

2000s

The first decade of the 2000s was marked by war, beginning with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. This led to the Afghanistan War, which dragged on until the U.S. withdrawal in 2021. The Iraq War began in 2003 and lasted until 2011. The decade finished on a dismal note, as the Great Recession of 2008 devastated the economy and severely impacted homeowners of color.

On a positive note, the 2000s welcomed the next generation of L.A. Latinx theatremakers, armed with professional training and political awareness. Globalization brought an influx of young practitioners from all over the U.S. as well as from various Spanish-speaking countries. These newcomers started a slew of companies with a fresh international perspective. The rise of social media in 2004 and its widespread use in theatre marketing had a huge impact on the growth of these companies.

In 2000, two major female-led companies were established. Casa 0101, under the artistic direction of renowned Chicana playwright/screenwriter Josefina López, provides arts programming, playwriting workshops, and classes to the community of Boyle Heights. MACHA Theatre Company (Mujeres [Women] Advancing Culture, History, and Art) was founded by Cuban American playwright/director Odalys Nanín, with the mission “to build social, cultural, and artistic bridges . . . and provide the LGBTQI community a sense of belonging.”

Tierra Blanca Arts Center, founded in 2002 by Mexican actress/director Blanca Araceli Soto, fosters pride in Latin American culture through the arts of dance, music, and Spanish-language theatre. That same year, Chicano director/arts administrator, Jesus Reyes, founded East L.A. Rep (ELAR). They originated a summer program for the community, using local artists and staging free Shakespeare plays in neighborhood parks. In 2008, ELAR evolved into a creative, collaborative workspace which was open until 2017.

In 2002, Cuban director Jorge Folguiera organized the Festival Internacional de Teatro Latino (FITLA). Importing plays from Spain and Latin America, as well as staging work by local Latino theatres, FITLA’s events were conducted primarily in Spanish. These included conferences and workshops with leading Latin American theatremakers. This annual festival ceased operations in 2009.

Guatemalan actor/director Emanuel Loarca founded Teatro Akabal in 2005. This itinerant company produces original work written and performed by Central American artists. Their plays, primarily in Spanish, focus on issues relating to the Central American diaspora.

In 2006, the Latino Theatre Company was granted a multi-year lease to operate LATC, marking the first time that a Latinx company was entrusted with such a large performing arts complex. Since then, LTC, still under the direction of José Luis Valenzuela, has continued its exploration of Chicano themes, producing 155 plays, including several by local playwrights. They also rent space to a variety of groups in an effort to “highlight new voices within the Latinx, First Nation, Black, Asian American, Jewish American, and LGBTQ+ communities.”

Another driving force in Latina theatre was established in 2007 in nearby Orange County. Breath of Fire, currently under the artistic direction of Chicana CalArts alum Sara Guerrero, is dedicated to the development of new work covering topical issues that touch the Latina community.

Two years later, in 2009, Mexican writer/director Jorge Duran founded Nirvana Theatre, producing original work in Spanish that focuses on contemporary Latinx life. Eschewing stereotypes as well as border politics, Nirvana has built a solid following in Los Angeles, particularly among young urban adults 

2010s 

The second decade of the millennium posed new challenges to the Latinx community. As the country was trying to emerge from a recession, a renewed wave of anti-immigrant sentiment rose. But the community fought back, and the 2012 passage of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) allowed select undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two year period of “deferred action” from deportation.

Los Angeles saw the birth of two companies in the early teens. Off The Tracks, founded in 2011 by Salvadoran theatremaker and CalArts alum Juan Parada and Mexican actor/director Gerardo Davalos, produced work in Spanish by contemporary Latin American playwrights. Housed for many years in a space in El Sereno, they are now an itinerant company. Teatro Luna, a primarily Latina/Hispana-centered ensemble founded in Chicago in 2000, moved to L.A. in 2013, under the leadership of Alexandra Meda. Rebranded in 2022 as Studio Luna, they are now a creative incubator focusing on artists’ wellness.

Meanwhile, advocacy for Latinx theatre continued to evolve. On a national level, the Latinx Theatre Commons emerged from a meeting in 2012 in Washington, D.C., which addressed the pervasive sense of discrimination against Latinx artists in the American theatre. Today, the Commons advocates for increased Latinx representation to reflect the realities of our ever-changing, multi- and polycultural world. 

This organization led directly to the formation of several regional branches, including the Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles  (LTA/LA), established in 2012. LTA/LA held its first convening in 2013. At the second convening, in 2014, the participants attempted to create a handwritten chronological record of seminal L.A. Latinx theatre events.

The Latino Theater Company hosted two “Encuentros,” in 2014 and 2017. These national festivals, in association with LATC and Latinx Theatre Commons, consisted of full-length productions of contemporary plays. The 2014 Encuentro [meeting] included the following L.A. Latinx theatre companies: Latino Theater Company, Grupo de Teatro SINERGIA, About…Productions, Teatro Luna, and Casa 0101. The second Encuentro, in 2017, included participants from the U.S[.], Canada, and Latin America. Twelve L.A.-based artists presented Patas Arriba (Upside Down), a late-night “micro-theatre festival,” at LATC.

Meanwhile, anti-Latino rhetoric continued to escalate across the country. In 2018, the Trump administration adopted a policy of “zero tolerance,” which criminally charged migrants seeking asylum at the Southern U.S. border, resulting in thousands of children being separated from their parents. In 2019, in El Paso, Texas, a white supremacist opened fire, killing 23 people, most of whom were of Mexican descent, in one of the worst hate crimes against Latinos, as well as one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks in modern U.S. history.

2020 to 2023

By March of 2020, COVID-19 precipitated a worldwide lockdown, separating society into “essential” and “non-essential” workers. The former, mostly Blacks and Latinos, didn’t have the option to work from home and thus faced continual risk of infection. 

Exacerbating an already tenuous situation was the murder of George Floyd in May of that year. Thousands took to the streets to protest police violence against communities of color, spurring a racial reckoning across all sectors of American society. In the aftermath of the protests, BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] theatre artists drafted a collective letter, “We See You, White American Theater,” demanding that the nation’s predominantly white-run institutions “examine, change, and dismantle their harmful and racist practices.” More than 60,000 artists signed their petition.

In response to a surge of anti-Latinx sentiment, Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles held its third convening, “Awake and Activate,” in June of 2020 as a virtual program. This event spoke to the moment, offering tools for artists to combat hatred and prejudice. At the convening, LTA/LA also honored the life of Diane Rodriguez.

Through the pandemic years, virtual performances filled the internet, with many theatres offering play readings, short plays, or monologues as a creative outlet and a way to stay connected. By 2022, most Los Angeles theatres had slowly begun to open, having survived the pandemic and hoping to re-engage audiences.

As of 2023, the temporary arts funding that kept companies afloat dried up. Additional challenges, in the form of legislation such as California Assembly Bill 5, California Senate Bill 3, and the latest Actors Equity 99-seat agreement threaten to make it even harder for smaller theatres to operate. 

In light of these challenges, our story must be told, because Latinx theatre matters. We began as activists and grew into consummate professionals. Against all odds, we took the initiative to build a theatre movement. Now we must honor that legacy and inspire the next generation. 

We hope that the Voces del Teatro Oral History Archive can serve not only to recognize our collective achievements, but to pay tribute to the contribution we’ve made to the arts in Los Angeles and beyond.

Let our “Voces” be heard!

[Liane Schirmer is an actor and director who’s worked extensively in Latinx theater.  An avid L.A. historian, she’s a member of L.A. as Subject, a research alliance dedicated to preserving and improving access to the archival material of Los Angeles history at the University of Southern California (https://laassubject.org/; e-mail: posas@usc.edu), as well as several historical societies.

[Minerva Garcia (she/her) is a professional actor and theater director.  She’s also one of the founding members and a Co-Facilitator of the Latinx Theatre Alliance/Los Angeles (LTA/LA – https://www.lta-la.org/; e-mail: latinoalliancenow@gmail.com).

[Voces del Teatro: An Oral History of Latinx Theatre in Modern Los Angeles (1960s to Present) is a series of 40 video and audio interviews which comprise a groundbreaking formal oral history archive of Latinx theater in Los Angeles.  This archive encompasses the period from the 1960s (the beginning of the Chicano movement and the civil rights movement) to the present.

[The Voces del Teatro oral history archive is attempting to compile the first official chronicle of Latinx theater-makers in Los Angeles in the words of the creators o that history.  These 40 interviews are a living record of the challenges and triumphs experienced by Latinx actors, directors, designers, playwrights, producers, and artistic directors in Southern California.

[The archive is an ongoing project by LTA/LA whose ultimate goal is to research Latinx theater in contemporary LA from the late 1960s through the present.  For all matters concerning Voces del Teatro Oral History Archive, e-mail latinoalliancenow@gmail.com.]