THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: THE ABOUT PRODUCTIONS PLAY, THEY SHOOT MEXICANS DON’T THEY? ABEL SALAS ON POET LAUREATE JUAN FELIPE HERRERA AND LOUIE PÉREZ ON “LA BAMBA.”
Hola mi gente! This week we have two new videos. In teatro, we visit with About Productions and their current play at the San Gabriel Mission Theater Playhouse, “They Shoot Mexicans Don’t They?” This play, written by Theresa Chavez and Rose Portillo and directed by Theresa Chavez is a movable feast–a play that takes the audience from one venue at the Mission Theater Playhouse to another. The play is set in the 1920s and centers on the conflict that arises when an entrepreneur movie maker offers to make a movie from a play which has been performed traditionally at the Mission Playhouse foe years. Check out this excerpt from the play which features actress Melinna Bobadilla and actor Gilbert Saldivar, Jr.
Also this week, poet and social activist Abel Salas reads a poem that he wrote dedicated to his mentor and friend, Juan Felípe Herrera. President Obama named Herrera poet laureate of the United States in 2015. Watch for the mix of Spanish and English in this thoroughly Chicano poem.
And don’t miss Louie Perez, founding member of Los Lobos, as he talks about how the group rendered the song La Bamba into one of the hottest records in Latino music history.
Enjoy your week on Latinopia!
Tia Tenopia