Modern Languages Commons^™

Staging The Self, Staging Empowerment: An Overview Of Latina Theater And Performance, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

The origins of U.S. Latina¹ theater and performance can be situated in the Southwest during the time this geographical region was still under Spanish colonial domination.² Historically, Latinas have contributed to all the creative and technical components of U.S. theater and performance from its incipiency. I begin this chapter with a brief overview starting in the twentieth century and offer an example of an early type of performance, and then I proceed to focus, primarily, on the works created since 1980, briefly analyzing three Latina plays. Anglo American theater has slowly begun to recognize and incorporate theatrical cultural …