Teatro Chicana: A collective memoir and selected plays
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Tea t r o C h i c a n a : A c o l l e c t i v e me m o i r a n d se l ec t ed play s Laura E. Garcia, Sandra M. Gutierrez and Felicitas Nun˜ez (eds.). Forward by Yolanda Broyles-Gonza´lez. University of Texas Press, Austin, US, 2008, 302pp., $45.00 (hardcover illustrated edition), $27.95 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0292717435 (hardcover illustrated edition), 978-0292717442 (paperback) Latino Studies (2009) 7, 393–396. doi:10.1057/lst.2009.19
As its title makes clear, Teatro Chicana is a twopart collection comprised of memoir and drama. In part one, 17 Chicanas – including members who founded the Teatro in 1971 while undergraduates at San Diego State University, and those who continued the troupe well beyond its formative years – provide personal essays that recount their various roles in what was originally named the Teatro de las Chicanas (1971) and then evolved into Teatro Laboral (1975) and Teatro Raı´ces (1979). Following their collective recuerdo, part two presents seven scripts selected from the numerous actos they created for diverse audiences, from their debut, Chicana Goes to College, for a gathering of their own mothers, to public performances at Movimiento Estudantil Chicano de Aztla´n (MEChA) events, theater festivals such as Teatros Nacionales de Aztla´n (TENAZ) and celebrations of International Women’s Week. Interwoven throughout the collection are photographs, reproduced posters, flyers, newspaper articles and other ephemera. The volume also offers a time line that spans from 1955 (the year of Rosa Parks’ performative act of resistance that provided a catalyst for a modern civil rights movement) to 1983 (Teatro
Raı´ces’ last public performance, Challenge to Learn, at Sweetwater High School). The volume concludes with two important addenda: their mission statement and bylaws. That both were written nearly a decade after the inception of the Teatro demonstrates the women’s sense of responsibility to documenting change and serving the long reach of history. While such materials contribute to the building of an archive, they also provide an inspiring blueprint for activism and community outreach, specifically how to organize, energize and sustain a group over time, from college years to beyond. Their thrice renaming of the troupe can be viewed as a concrete example of the members’ commitment to working as a collective and meeting the shifting political urgencies of the communities to which they have devoted their work. In her foreword to the volume, noted Chicana scholar and theater historian Yolanda BroylesGonza´lez contextualizes both the memoirs and plays within the history of Chicana/o teatro and El Movimiento politics. She describes the volume as ‘‘a Movimiento women’s tapestry’’ (ix) and ‘‘a Chicana feminist panorama’’ (x), affirming it as ‘‘the single most powerful Chicana women’s
r 2009 Palgrave Macmillan 1476-3435 Latino Studies www.palgrave-journals.com/lst/
Vol. 7, 3, 393–396
Book Review
collective document’’ (ix) from its era of civil rights activism. She details the historical significance
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