Austin theater company works to preserve Latin American culture

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: The Austin, Texas, theater company Proyecto Teatro aims to promote and preserve Latin American culture. And its latest project is helping redefine Latin American history.

Journey Love Taylor of our Student Reporting Labs Academy shares this story as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Journey Love Taylor : At The VORTEX Theater in Austin, Texas, Proyecto Teatro is in the middle of rehearsal “Cabarex 2,” the second installment of a trilogy of stage plays that explore Latin American history, from the times before the arrival of Columbus all the way through to an imagined future.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez is the longtime artistic director for the company.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez, Artistic Director, Proyecto Teatro: We’re wanting to use this show to raise awareness of what we can do as a local community to take back our culture, to take back our art form and our identity.

Journey Love Taylor : But this isn’t just a play. It’s a cabaret, and it’s performed completely in Spanish.

Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez: This type of work, you don’t really see it so much in Spanish, and you don’t see this type of work in the Latino community, because cabaret is derived from European art forms, and so it’s a little odd and a little different and new to see it in the context of our culture.

And so when people saw it, they were just so happy to be able to see their stories, their people, their characters in the lens of cabaret with, like, the musical numbers and the dance sequences and the jazzy music.

Valeria Smeke, Cancer and Performer: My favorite part about being involved in this production specifically, I think, would be the dances.

There’s one with, like, chairs. You have your little, like, chair dance routine. I love that one.

Rachel Rivera, Choreographer, Makeup, Costume, and Hair Artist: Being a part of something so impactful in my community feels like a great responsibility, especially since I feel that I am a leader and someone who creates something for other people to see and other people that are not part of my culture to see, to make sure that what I’m doing always carries that intention that I want it to carry and the intention of respecting and honoring my culture.

Valeria Smeke: I really don’t get a chance to, like, connect with my roots, so being here and, like, Rachel teaching us these indigenous dances, just learning about the history, it’s a really beautiful thing.

Journey Love Taylor : For the “PBS NewsHour” Student Reporting Labs, I’m Journey Love Taylor .