The static of an old-school radio crackles across the stage as the fictional Chicano Power Radio KMEX-FM turns on.
The announcer welcomes listeners to a new day in the barrio: Election Day.
It’s opening night of Adrian Villegas’ one-man show Barrio Daze, featured in Cara Mía Theatre’s 2023 Latinidades Festival of Latinx Theatre. Barrio Daze is a double-entendre that plays on the passage of time (“days”) and confusion (daze). The show follows nine characters in a barrio on Election Day.
As election season approaches, Barrio Daze, written in 1998, feels as timely as ever. It delves into issues like economic inequality, immigration, scapegoating, the teaching of history and the challenges of cultural assimilation.
“People think I wrote it yesterday. You know, because the issues are actually more urgent and intense now than they were when I originally wrote it,” said Villegas, who wrote and performs the one-man show.
The show still feels relevant because it’s rooted in characters and human nature, not specific headlines, he said. Villegas embodies nine different community members, including a panhandler, a conservative politician, a fast-food worker and a grassroots candidate.
Each presents a new perspective on the barrio.
For example, Villegas pointed to his character of the panhandler.
“In almost all mainstream storytelling, the lowest rung on the ladder of representation economically is middle-class or upper-middle-class comfortable people,” he said. “So just on that level alone, forget about the racial aspect of it, but just economically, you don't get that kind of representation.”
The show was inspired by Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, the monologues of Richard Pryor, Ice Cube’s Death Certificate and Robert Altman’s Nashville.
Villegas also pulled from his own life, writing the immigrant character based partially on his dad and referencing people he grew up with in Waco: “Mexicans who talk like rednecks.”
Villegas said the range of characters show the Latinx community isn’t a monolith.
“We're here. This is who we are. This is our experience,” he said. “Some of our experiences, when you can't speak for one general statement for everybody's experience, these are the aspects of our culture.”
Brenda Ferman came from Grand Prairie to watch the show. She said she could relate to being called a “coconut,” a derogatory term that’s meant to describe Latinx people who are disconnected from their ethnic roots.
Other issues like the stereotyping of Mexicans stuck out to her.
“I think all of them resonated with me at some point being a Chicana,” she said. “I think also the way Mexicans are represented in different things like movies or the news, just because we’re the working class doesn’t mean that we’re not smart or that we don’t have other attributes to bring to the table.”
The show also spoke directly to the complexities of what it means to identify as part of the Latinx community. One part of the show pokes fun at ever-evolving terminology used to describe the community, such as Chicano, Hispanic, Latino and Latinx.
Barrio Daze also gets at the intra-group tensions that exist as a growing number of Latinx voters support the GOP.
“What we're seeing right now, which is kind of like inside our own community, you have groups butting heads and fighting about, what does it mean to be who we are? Is it this? Is it that? Are you really the representative of what we should be?” Villegas said.
For Villegas, comedy and heavy subject matter go hand-in-hand. He said comedy is a way to speak the truth and open people to different emotions.
“So comedy can be a delivery vessel for really deep moments and deep insights and deep commentary for an audience,” Villegas said. “In a way, I feel like it makes the delivery of those heavier aspects more successful.”
That’s why he looks forward to the laughs: It’s a sign that the commentary and comedy are hitting home.
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