Latinx Theatre Commons Wallace Planning Grant Concept Paper for Archiving Latine Theatre

Highlights from the Concept Paper

Focus on Community and Connection

At every LTC convening I have attended, a question recurs: how does Latinidad unite us, and will it be enough to unite us in the future? We are comprised of such different histories and experiences; the move to focus on one or a few as representative is compelling because of its ease. The authors wished to steer the conversation toward what unites us, with our shared and diverse experiences that contribute to the breadth of Latine theatre and performance practices. With this as our focus, we both historicize and make the case for a future of connection amongst Latine theatre artists and artistry:

While it may be useful to concentrate on individuals who make Latine theatre, we are better served by considering how we are united as artists, collectives, and theatre companies with missions, visions, and goals to engage, serve, celebrate and support Latine communities. This work has emerged while wrestling with our histories and conditions as we continue to make our presence known in the United States onstage and off. Latine theatre reflects our negotiations as a minoritized and marginalized political identity within the still pervasive hegemony of white culture, amid the celebrations of our distinctive, diverse cultural expressions that have contributed to the formation of dominant culture for centuries.

Positioning Latine Theatre

The authors of the concept paper came together to define and historicize Latine theatre and, in that process, considered how Latine peoples and art-making are positioned within the United States and the Americas. Before any discussion of the process of archiving, we had to come to consensus on the very definitions of our terms. The act of defining our terms set the tone for a conversation about the process and methods that shape Latine theatre without requiring a cohesive agreement about the efficacy or quality of a play or production, or the purpose of theatre: 

Latine theatre is United States theatre and American theatre, in the capacious form of both ideas. Latine theatre is produced by—or reshaped or reimagined by—individuals, teatros, and institutions that explicitly think of themselves in relation to one or more of the influences above.

Compared to prominent positions that the robust histories of Western art hold in universities and archives throughout the United States, the lack of access to Latine histories results in a misunderstanding of American art more fully.

Accessibility Matters

Physical archives are housed at universities, libraries, and in various locations that often require funding, time, and other resources to visit. While this reality affects scholars and artists from every background, the authors probed how accessibility affects Latine artists specifically. Compared to prominent positions that the robust histories of Western art hold in universities and archives throughout the United States, the lack of access to Latine histories results in a misunderstanding of American art more fully. In addition, for Latine artists, this erasure can limit our knowledge of our own histories—theatrical, cultural, linguistic, and national. This in turn will affect our artistry. To move Latine art forward, we must enable access to our own history:

Access to archives that can reveal the concerns, conditions, and results of early Latine theatremakers is a boon to the development of contemporary theatremaking. Being able to respond to the past is taken for granted in Western art; Latine artists deserve the same opportunities.

Creating the Latine Theatre Digital Archive

The preservation of Latine theatre history requires materials stored in locations across the continent, but they are located within Latinx Studies archives, literary archives, theatre archives, and elsewhere. The authors concluded that the priority is to build a central finding aid that will list the known relevant materials. In the process of building the finding aid, we will query institutions for materials that may be housed in other spaces, physical and virtual. Building the finding aid will function in tandem with promoting writing and programming that will continue to add to Latine theatre history: 

The diverse collection of materials requiring digitization or already digitized underscores the need for a comprehensive, and regularly updated, finding aid or research guide to Latine theatre materials housed in archives and collections both nationally and internationally. No such resource for Latine theatre archives currently exists. Efforts are needed to promote public writing and engagement with Latine theatre history through digital platforms, public programming, and community outreach initiatives—all of which can benefit from a Latine theatre digital archive.