Gutierrez Family Circus.

In the spring of 1993, I tried this again. This time, I recruited a new group of actors. Although we had greater success than the last time, we still made very little progress. In the summer, while the Elyria School was closed for renovation, Manuel (Roybal), Jose (Mercado), Angela (Manzanares), Carolina Olmos and I snuck into the theater. This time I had a better idea of where I wanted to go.

At the Elyria School's post-renovation ribbon cutting, a sold-out house waited outside in the lobby for the world premiere of La Carpa Aztlan presents: I Don't Speak English Only! as we were still screwing in the seats. The ribbon was cut by Martina Coca (mother of carpera Sherry Coca-Candelaria) as the audience entered the fog filled theater to the beautiful sight of Grupo Sabor Latino cutting the diffused lights with their graceful dance moves. I stood in the back of the theater and watched the audience: their "oohs" and "ahhs" of admiration cooled with the dimming of the lights - on cue, the tears of laughter rolled, the contact lenses popped out and the wives jabbed the sides of their husbands.

The journey that began in a spring snowfall, ended in the fall of 1997. The carperos journey will continue in different forms. We pause to remember the passing of Jose Guadalupe Saucedo who did not travel this far in the journey. Our companero died in the fall of 1995, succumbing to the tragedy of SIDA. He will live forever in the soul of La Carpa Aztlan... Many times it is not the destination but the journey that offers the true rewards.

September 20, 2012

This last spring, news of the activities of the Tucson Unified School District's decision to ban Raza Studies, was coupled with the "Papers Please Law" igniting a fire that only burned hotter as the Texas Board of Education moved to eliminate the referencing of positive Latino role models from their textbooks, at the same time eliminating the teaching of Darwinism and the Separation of Church and State.  

Aside from causing our blood to boil, it took us back to the place where we were nearly 20 years ago.

Against a siege of anti-immigrant legislation that was aimed at language, in particular bilingual education, the onslaught has continued and intensified today. We had thought that legislation that required teachers to turn in the parents of students they thought to be "illegal" was bad, but now we are faced with laws allowing police officers to stop drivers they suspect  are in the country without documentation.  

The national schizophrenia that this country has toward Latinos continues, as Mitt Romney romanticizes the benefit to his presidential campaign for him to be "a Mexican". My question is, would he then self-deport, as he suggested last spring?

The idea that somehow Latinos have not only achieved but have exceeded the full possibilities of the American Dream, buries the hidden sentiment that many believe that we have perverted that which is essentially American. This flies in the face of the fact that the Southwest was in fact once Mexico, and then became American. That is the true American story.

It was then important for us to respond, in typical Su Teatro fashion.  

We would mock our opposition. Because there is a faction of this country that is, in the words of performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, " nostalgic for a time, that never existed". Our proposition was, if there was a past, where we were a happy, well adjusted populace, and where people of color were happy to do their work and disappear at night, what would it look like if that imaginary place returned in the future and what would our recourse be to resist such a world?

The answer of course was humor, music and as much obnoxious analysis as possible. In the beginning, we chose the carpa style because the tent shows that traveled the Southwest and Mexico provided entertainment for the poor. It was not restrained by bourgeois quality standards of form, precision and training, which appealed to our resistance -to -quality standards. We wanted to use the term Aztlan, which refers to the pre-Columbian homeland of the Mexica ( Aztecs) and also refers to the Southwestern states that were once part of Mexico. We wanted people to remember and say that name. We also wanted to draw attention to the Official English movement that was the precursor of the racist immigrant bashers that we hear today. What happened instead was that audiences abbreviated the title of the play that the staff and artists abbreviate as " La Carpa Aztlan", to " I Don't Speak English Only", and then to " I Don't Speak English" and a variety of other variations that leave us guessing as to which play they are talking about.

But yes, this is the same show with some updates. You really don't have to do much to challenge the " Know Nothing" political ideology, which has only changed its targets and not its argument since the 1830s. This is the same show that toured up and down both coasts, and along the I-25 corridor. It is the same show that ran for more than 150 performances in its first iteration.  

Returning to head the cast is Manuel Roybal, as Don Guillermo Aztlan, el gran maestro de la carpa and of course his partner in jest, Debra Gallegos.   New additions include Archie Villeda as Alberto, the lost boy who stumbles onto the carpa, Angela Maez as Consuelo the violinista, Lara Gallegos as Violeta the bailarina and of course, making his acting debut is Tony Silva.

It is appropriate that we reintroduce La Carpa Aztlan presents I Don't Speak English Only as part of our season at the Denver Civic Theatre. When we were developing the work we often talked about the play being Teatro-biographical, as in some ways it parallels the story of Su Teatro both individually and collectively. As we celebrate our 40th year, we can look back on what got us here.  

The transformation that the organization is undergoing is tremendous: we are not the same group that moved into the Denver Civic Theatre 2 � years ago. We sit on a perch that allows us to look forward to what our community will look like in 10-20 years. Part of the story of La Carpa is the idea of creating art, in resistance to a society that seeks to silence our expression and our ability to teach our children cultural pride and history. In places like Texas and Arizona this racism is being recorded as law, but it is a battle that in the long run the xenophobes will lose, because the craziness, la locura, of the arts and the people's desire to express that which is not tangible, always seems to escape.  

Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center will be a launching ground for craziness for years to come. The difference is that it will not be hidden underground; it will not be marginalized; it will be part of a new mainstream that Latinos will be very active in crafting. Our task then will be to open our arms to other communities that are marginalized and to be as accepting as we were resistant to rejection. We must treat the next group better than we were treated: that is the true spirit of La Carpa, and the inclusiveness of Aztlan.

- TONY GARCIA