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An image from A Christmas Carol en la Frontera, a play with a similar fronterizo flair to the one found in my work.

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Chicano Theatre is a 20th century theatre movement that saw the rise of theatre companies whose work focused on working-class Chicano issues. The idea of theatre whose focus is centering the voices and stories of marginalized communities, and specifically a community I belong to, have been and continue to be an influence on my work.

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Isaac Gomez is an El Paso-born playwright best known for his play La Ruta, which tells the story of the women in Juarez who are victims of a wave of femicides that began in the '90s, and which persist to this day. Isaac's play is of note to me, as I was born in El Paso and raised in both Juarez and El Paso. I am struck and inspired by Isaac's ability to give voice to the voiceless, and raise awareness in a beautiful and tragic work of modern drama.

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Most of my work is underscored by a deep love and appreciation of la frontera, the borderland where I was born and raised. As a result, most of my work is focused on border issues, and centers border stories. Of course, the voice with which I tell my stories is a decidedly fronterizo voice, informed by a lifetime of experiences in the border.

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An image from La Ruta, Isaac Gomez's renowned play about femicides in Juarez, a city on the border across from El Paso.

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Luis is a a Chicano playwright some may know from his "Greek Trilogy", a collection of three plays (Electricidad, Oedipus el Rey, & Mojada) which are respectively retellings of Electra, Oedipus Rex, and Medea. These reimagined adaptations are set in Los Angeles, and platform the contemporary concerns of Latine communities. I am fascinated and inspired by Luis' way of remixing ancient, decidedly non-Latine drama as a way of exploring modern Latine issues.

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An image from Mojada, Luis Alfaro's retelling of Medea set in modern Los Angeles.

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Teatro de la Esperanza, one of many mid-century Chicano theatre companies.

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El Teatro is a Chicano theatre company founded in 1965 as the "cultural arm" of the UFW and the Chicano movement. Most are likely familiar with them through their founder, playwright Luis Valdez who is most know for Zoot Suit. Of particular influence to me is El Teatro's self-description as the "cultural arm" of a social movement. That idea has influenced how I approach theatre, and the place I think theatre can fill in the world.

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El Teatro pictured performing one of their actos, short one-act propagandist plays.

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As a result of my border roots, I value accessibility of language in my work. It seems ridiculous to me that in a city of migrants where many are bilingual, theatre offerings in Spanish are highly limited. As a result, my plays tend to be bilingual, or outright fully in Spanish, to be accessible to a greater portion of my community.

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Romeo y Julieta at Cara Mia Theatre. This was a bilingual production.

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Theatre is a uniquely communal art, in both consumption and creation. This is why I fell in love with theatre. The communal nature of creating a piece of theatre is a beautiful thing, and collaboration lies at the heart of the communion of theatre. With each other, we can make and do what we never could alone.

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The cast and audiences for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 at Ars Nova, an intimate venue that was conducive to the communal emphasis of the show's staging.

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Collaboration is not simply a lofty ideal to pursue - it's also practical. For the same reason we are not all farmers, we don't usually all do everything in the theatre. We have playwrights, actors, costumers, designer, musicians, and more - and there can be, and often is, overlap, but the specialization of interests and labor enables us to do so much more.

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Rachel Chavkin and Anais Mitchell, the director and writer of Hadestown, respectively. Some writers also direct their own works, but in this case, the division of that labor made for a greater product.

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I'm thankful for the opportunity to study theatre in Austin, but I still aspire to return to my hometown and bring some of my theatrical work to its stages. My theatrical practices and values were forged in the border for a fronterizo audience, so I hope to be able to return to El Paso and Juarez with my work over the coming years.

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McKelligon Canyon, the site of some of El Paso's most renowned theatrical performances. I dream of having some of my theatre pieces performed at McKelligon.

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My work is of the borderland, and while I want for border audiences to be able to access it, I also want to take it to more than just border audiences - to places like, for example, Austin. Austin is not the borderland, but even here there are ears for the border stories my work centers, and I want to spread those stories far from the border.

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An image from a performance at the Cohen New Works Festival here at UT. A possible place/audience I could bring my work to.