By Alain Castillo
LatinaLista

This summer, a local Dallas, Texas theatre company will step into the national immigration debate with a hard look at an immigrants’ experience south of the US border.

The production, “The Dreamers: Part One” created by the Cara Mia Theatre ensemble and led by local director and writer David Lozano, explores the lives of three women fleeing El Salvador’s economic, social and political instability following its 1980-92 civil war, where its affects are still felt today.

Scene from The Dreamers: Part 1 (Photo: Fabian Aguirre)

Through their journey to the United States, these women run into corrupt immigration officials and thieves who threaten them with violence, kidnappers who hold victims for ransom and drug cartels who force women into prostitution all taking place south of the US border, says Lozano.

“People are experiencing this story and we wanted to show the community what Latinos are going through to reach this country,” said Lozano, 37, a University of Texas at Dallas Arts and Humanities graduate, who has worked for Cara Mia since 2002.

“After hearing about the stories of immigrants passing through Mexico in the current era of drug violence, we felt a moral responsibility to tell this story,” he said, noting that The Dreamers is a general title for all immigrants.

Lozano said that many of Cara Mia’s members know of immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador who have lived similar experiences as these characters. They investigated and interviewed their own parents, neighbors and members in the Dallas area.

They especially highlighted immigrants from El Salvador in the production, because of its growing population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, estimated to be at least 43,400, according to 2008 figures of the Immigration Information Source.

“These are the tribulations that immigrants have to overcome to reach our border,” said Lozano.

“This production was not made for entertainment, but to share a cultural experience of a story that needs to be told. The story is not just around the world, but just next door to the US.”

In the production, a character named Alicia, played by Frida Espinosa Müller, is one of the Salvadoran women who experiences difficulties.

Alicia, married with young children, lives through a troubling economic and social situation. In the play, she is battered once by her husband because of the pressures of being unemployed and she is holding a job as a factory worker.

She then decides to change her life and takes her children to live with their grandmother in San Salvador before traveling through Mexico on her way to the U.S. However, she runs into trouble.

Through it all, Alicia feels guilty for not taking her children and fears not seeing them again.

“There are many mothers who have this sorrow because they leave their children behind,” said Müller, in Spanish.

“In this production we will show a lot of messages, but it’s very complex,” she said.

“There is a diversity that exists between human beings with drug cartels and sex trafficking and also, solidarity that people can give you along the journey,” she said.

“We want to show the diversity of this journey.”

Lozano also said that the production will explore why some call these countries “broken.”

“We want people to see what takes place in our neighboring countries and to see what happens in Mexico, in El Salvador and how the US is involved in the history of these countries,” he said.

Latina Lista contributor Alain Castillo is a Dallas-based freelance journalist.

LatinaLista — The hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. is the time of day when kids, who have no adult supervision, are most at risk for getting into trouble. Ideally, these kids should be enrolled in programs that don’t just keep them busy but teach them new lessons, challenge them to build new skills and grow as a person.

Programs like that can cost parents but a new arts non-profit in Holland, Michigan wants to make the very best art, dance and music instructors available to low-income kids who otherwise would never have the opportunity to know what it feels like to be taught by a professional.

CultureWorks presents classes ranging from digital art and ceramics instruction to hip hop dance and fine arts. Phasing in their programming, CultureWorks is beginning by offering free after-school arts classes to middle school students who qualify for reduced or free lunches in their schools.

The next phase targets high schoolers and the final phase will be to create classes for adults, with the goal of making them fee-based.

Because they are a new non-profit, CultureWorks has a “wish list” of office supplies and volunteer opportunities.

LatinaLista — Jesus Salvador Treviño (no relation to Latina Lista btw) is well known in Hollywood for being a trailblazing Latino filmmaker — he was one of the first to document the Chicano movement in Los Angeles in the 1960s; he directed the first cable TV show targeting the Latino market, Showtime’s “Resurrection Blvd.”; and he continues to be a force in filmmaking. Now, he can add Internet entrepreneur as well.

In 2008, I met Treviño at the 21st Centurty Chicano Activist Convention in Dallas, Texas. At the time, Treviño talked to me about creating a site where the average person could go to learn about Latino culture, food, history, music, etc. It would be a site that empowered Latinos and educated non-Latinos.

He called his site Latinopia.

Three years after that conversation, and a visit to the newly launched Latinopia site, it’s no wonder it took Treviño a while to unveil it. Given his film and social justice background, the site is video-centric covering a wide range of topics celebrating Latino talent, art and history.

Whether it’s featuring a trailer from a yet-to-be-released documentary or interviews with film and television pros or showcasing social justice songwriters or defining Chicano art, Latinopia is a site that is recording the Latino culture for posterity via video.

Treviño has also included an upcoming section on the site for teachers to download curriculum guides to help them share the history, accomplishments and pride that are found in the Latino culture — and need to be passed on to a new generation.

LatinaLista — For anyone who has ever experienced the thrill of being on the receiving end of an audience’s appreciative applause, it’s an experience unlike others. Unfortunately, the rate of Latinos who achieve that kind of stage success is low and so that’s why the mission of R. Evolucion Latina is particularly meaningful.

R. Evolucion Latina is an arts and educational nonprofit founded by dancer/choreographer Luis Salgado of “In the Heights” and co-directed by dancer/actress Gabriela Garcia of “Chicago The Musical.” Salgado and Garcia knew that the best way to improve the odds of Latino and Latina artistic success was to create a way to inspire growth within the greater Latino community.

So, together with their Latino/a professional theater friends, Salgado and Garcia collaborate in creating special events to showcase Latino talent, raising money for their nonprofit and providing unique opportunities for underserved Latino youth through their youth programs like the free children’s performing arts camp.

This unique and FREE camp puts R.Evolución Latina’s circle effect into action. The circle effect presents the idea that through giving to others, one will experience their own growth and personal inspiration. RL not only provides free classes for children, it also provides free training to members of the Latino artistic community in multiple areas of the performing arts. These artists then in turn, give back to the community and share their inspiration through youth programs such as the D2GB Children’s Performing Arts Camp.

In the ultimate example of “paying it forward,” R. Evolución Latina has adopted the mission statement of “Dare to go beyond.” What that has meant for members of R. Evolución Latina is using their performing talents so that others may experience that same thrill of an audience applause.

LatinaLista — It was only a matter of time that Latino comics would work up a sketch featuring (almost) everyone’s favorite Supreme Court Justice-to-be, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Hugo Perez plays Judge Sonia Sotomayor in a video tribute to the judge.
Hugo Perez and Adrian Martinez have created their own irreverent version of a homage to Sotomayor and have had it posted on Funny or Die (Will Ferrell’s comic video website.)
In the video, Perez is pitching a movie idea to Steven Spielberg about, what else, the life of Sonia Sotomayor.
Viva Sonia Sotomayor! is on the frontpage of the site today and it’s up to the viewers to how long it stays there.

The more people that watch it, the longer it stays on the frontpage, so Hugo and Adrian ask that everyone please watch it and tell your friends to watch it!

We were going to embed the video but then that would defeat the purpose of what these guys are trying to do — keep Sotomayor in the forefront of the American people.
So, in case you missed the links earlier in the post, here it is again — Viva Sonia Sotomayor!

LatinaLista — Though there’s not too much reason to laugh these days — bad economy, insecure job market, swine flu, rising temperatures, suicide bombers — we should never give up on taking a few moments to laugh.

This Friday, May 1, Comedy Central will air at 11 p.m. the world premiere of Paul Rodriguez & Friends: Comedy Rehab.
The “world premiere” is a little misleading since the Rehab tour actually took place last year but only in Santa Fe, New Mexico where the live performances were filmed, we’re assuming for this broadcast.
At any rate, Paul is joined by fellow comediennes: Gene Pompa, Shayla Rivera and Manny Maldonado.
Whether you catch the show before you hit the clubs or the pillow, it’s worth watching for the good mood it promises to put us all in.

LatinaLista — Once upon a time there was a woman who when she wasn’t busy being a wife and mother of two young children, she dreamed of what it would be like to be a playwright. So she read books on how to write a play but there was no book to tell her how to create a story.
So every day, before anyone in the house was awake, she would drag herself out of bed, go sit at the kitchen table before an old typewriter. The minute she put paper into the typewriter, the most wonderful thing happened — stories began to take shape in her mind and she couldn’t type fast enough to get the words on paper.

Ultimate Latina Theater Festival
Before she knew it, she had two completed one-act plays. Feeling rather proud that she had finished the goal she had set for herself, she decided the next step was to see if the plays were any good. So she entered them in different play competitions around the country.
At first, the responses were not encouraging but she persisted, always revising her plays along the way. Finally, one day she got a call from a local competition that had told her that her play had been selected as a finalist in their competition. Needless to say, the budding playwright was ecstatic.
She dressed her children in their best clothes, made her husband wear a suit and tie, trucked in extended family members, and the whole family went to the play festival like it was a world premiere — and it was.
There is nothing more empowering for someone than to hear actors make their stories come alive. As my simple (true) story tells, not every playwright has formal training in writing plays but if you want it bad enough, like with everything, you just do it.
Luckily, there are more opportunities for people to try their hands at being a playwright. The latest one is sponsored by Latino Flavored Productions. They have put out a call for submissions but you only have till April 30 to make this deadline.

SEEKING SUBMISSIONS
ULTIMATE LATINAS OUT LOUD: EPISTLES
e·pis·tle
1. a long formal letter that often serves to instruct (formal)
2. a literary work in the form of a letter
The 2009 Ultimate Latina Theater Festival
Nuyorican Poet’s Café – NYC
Event: JUNE 11th – 7pm
SUBMISSION INFO:
What: 3-4 minute performance piece of a letter to someone.
Can be funny, evocative, poetic, etc.
Who: Poets, Actors, Singers.
When: Deadline for submissions: is April 30th 5pm
How: Submit bio and written submission to Linda Nieves-Powell and Jenny Saldana: latinoflavored@aol.com

Award-winning playwright Linda Nieves-Powell creates a business model that promotes awareness of Hispanic voices through theater.

LatinaLista — How does a right-brain, methodical entrepreneur and self-professed lover of numbers reconcile a left-brain, spontaneous creative drive to manipulate language?

Create a multimedia entertainment business, of course.

Playwright and author Linda Nieves-Powell

The talented Latina has also branched out into novel writing and film. Both of which she conquered with the release of her debut novel, “Free Style,” this past spring, and the creation of a short film titled “Mimi’s Portrait” in 2005.

Linda confessed that while she’s taken a few writing classes and an occasional workshop, she’s mostly a self-taught writer. Moreover, she never imagined that her initial motivation to write, so as to show people that “Latinos don’t come in one shape, size or color,” would propel her to where she finds herself today.

She credits joining a local writer’s group to being one of the first steps she took to realize her dream. Unfortunately, it was almost over before it began. The obligatory critique sessions proved tough for Linda, especially when her colleagues’ negativity shredded her writing skills. Yet, she didn’t give up.

It was that persistence, along with, the advice of another member in the group to enter a writer’s contest sponsored by the cable movie channel HBO, that proved to chart a new destiny for Linda.

Though she didn’t win the contest, her writing was judged to be among the top 25 out of 3,000 submissions. It gave her the confidence she needed to pursue her dream even farther.

“When you embark on a dream,” said Linda. “There is a long apprenticeship that follows. It could be a few years or a lifetime. What’s funny is you are the only person who can set the date for your coming out party.”

Luckily for Linda, the road to being a successful playwright can be combined with a day-job. Because of her business background and a knack for being resourceful, Linda soon learned that she really didn’t need to make any financial investment to jumpstart her dream of becoming a playwright.

She found that the Internet and her local public library were the primary tools she needed in refining her craft. When the time came to submit her work to be read, she discovered there were free opportunities everywhere for writers like herself.

Linda grasped those opportunities and created a business model that not only achieves her dream of getting her voice heard, but sets the stage for other Latinas to share their voices with the world.

LatinaLista — There’s a popular saying that goes something like “everybody has at least one good story in them.”
Well, if you’re under 30-years-old, Latino/a and think you can tell your story in about ten pages in script format then the folks at Teatro Bravo want to hear from you.

The Phoenix-based theatre is accepting submissions to their UNDER 30: YOUNG LATINO PLAYWRIGHTS SPEAK OUT play competition.
The plays can be about any issue and written either in English, Spanish or Spanglish.
In addition to discovering new talent and promoting opportunities among young Latino playwrights, the competition is also “to uncover the issues in the minds of younger writers, and portray them on stage.”
The selected submissions will be staged during the Latino Play Festival in 2009.
Deadline is October 1, 2008 and you can either mail or email your submissions to contest officials. There is no entry fee.
So what are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you told that story?
P.S. If you’ve never written a play before, don’t let that stop you. There are books that show you how to write in script format.

By Roxana Urrutia

SPAIN: There are more bars and restaurants per square mile in Spain than in any other country in Europe, and in Madrid there are more mimes and clowns in the streets than in any other city I can think of.

A live doll, otherwise known as a mime, in Madrid
Everyday it feels like a there is a mime/clown convention. It is surprising to see how many people choose being a mime/clown as a career, and even more surprising that there is a market for them.

There are always people who stop to watch them, to see if they blink, or laugh at what they do, and they give them money funding the entire tradition.
From metro sol to Plaza Mayor, I pass an army of mimes. There is a man dressed as a cowboy all painted, including every exposed part of skin, in silver. When someone throws him a coin, he pulls out his guns and acts as if he is shooting.
A little further up, there is another man dressed in a camouflage outfit and all painted in gold. His trick is the machine gun he holds.
As I keep walking, there is a woman dressed as a butterfly that does some silly little movements accompanied by even sillier gestures; a couple all covered in mud who act as statues that move; a transvestite dressed in a tutu who does plies; a man in a witch costume who slaps people with a broom;

a man dressed in a bullfighter’s outfit who shakes his harpoons; two clowns who put on a boxing match act; an Argentinean tango dancer, and right before I reach my doorway, the all-so-revered, traditional white-faced mime who follows people around and manages to irritate me to no end.
I have never liked clowns or mimes, no exceptions. Clown dolls have always scared me, and I find nothing funny about the way they look. Yet clowns are loved worldwide, especially in Spain and I am in the minority.

Recently, some friends invited me to the circus called “El Gran Circo Mundial” and in between trapeze acts and elephants, while the performers mounted and dismounted between numbers; clowns would appear and entertain the public.
I was sitting next to my friend Bernardo and his wife when one of the clowns started plucking volunteers from the audience and came straightt to us.
I looked away to avoid eye contact and he pointed to Bernardo who quickly and almost instinctively grabbed his knee as if he suffered advanced arthritis and simultaneously cringed his face as if in pain.

The clown then grabbed my hand and a big bright spotlight focused on me and the entire circus audience started clapping in unison so that I would get up …I was obligated, like never before, to do something I didn’t want to do.
My friends cheered me on, with Bernardo wickedly grinning, while I followed the clown to the arena — a spotlight following my every move, all the way to the smack center of the arena. Had I been met by hungry lions, I would have felt less a victim.
The clown had selected four other victims which he placed in front of things. The guy who stood to my right and about 30 feet away had a drum in front of him, 30 feet further to his right and curving down the circle stood a gal with three upside-down frying pans set for her to hit with a little stick; 30 feet to her right a little boy with a triangle that rang like a bell, then 30 feet and circling towards me another fellah with a whistle, and another 30 feet further and completing the circle of fools, stood I with a microphone in front of me.
I felt I got the worst part of the deal.
I tried to get both guys to switch with me, but one avoided me as if I didn’t exist and the other shook a definitive “NO” while he inflated his chest with air and held his lips puckered.
The clown came towards me and since clowns don’t speak, he exaggeratedly ran up to my microphone and screamed a scream that rivaled any shower scene at the Bate’s Motel.
I tried to imitate him, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was a weak yelp similar to how a crow sounds in the distance when it is hurt.
The audience laughed, clearly at me; and it was then, at that exact moment, that I took notice that the biggest payasa (clown) in that arena was undoubtedly me.
I felt animosity towards the clown each time he pointed at me with his baton and I had to yelp, I felt indignant each time the audience laughed at me, and had I had a rock I would have thrown it with all my strength and would have rabidly aimed it towards Bernardo’s knee.
It was an awful experience — which will never be repeated because I have adopted Bernardo’s trick as if it were my own.
I grab my knee as if it is predicting rain and distort my face to show anguish.
I have already practiced in front of the mirror a few times and my performance is so true-to-life that I left the mirror — limping.
Learn more about Roxana:
Roxana Urrutia is a first-generation American, born to a Spanish mother and Chilean father.
She grew up between Spain and the United States, knowing what it was like to not speak English and being treated like an immigrant, and then returning to Spain only to be considered “la Americana.”
Since 1999 she has lived in Madrid and makes her living planning events and conferences.

I used to think that I didn’t fit in either country, now I realize they are both my home.