David Lozano admits he was disoriented while planning this year’s Latinidades Festival and Symposium. Donald Trump had become president again and among his first acts was an executive order ending all federal programs and policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The order called for closing offices, eliminating positions and terminating grants and contracts, including those with arts groups. Also on Lozano’s mind was President Trump’s crackdown on immigration through stepped-up arrests and deportations.
DEI is a given for Lozano’s group, Cara Mia Theatre, as the company exists to tell Latino stories and support Latino artists and audiences. The changes in federal policy have influenced decision-making by state and local governments. For example, the city of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture is examining its funding guidelines in light of the federal government’s termination of DEI programs and policies at the same time that the Dallas Cultural Plan is calling for more diversity, equity and inclusion.
“What's my place, what's our company's place and then what's the place of so many in our community now?” the Cara Mia executive artistic director asked himself. “If one feels threatened that their culture is not welcome to be represented or funded or worse, you start to question, ‘Do I belong?’ That’s a question that's being asked within our Latino community. Do we belong?”
Lozano’s answer was to lean into what the company has built over three decades since its founding: programming that has earned a following and respect.
While this year’s sixth annual festival and second symposium look similar to last year’s, Cara Mia is describing the gathering in more potent terms. “Sustaining the Arts Through Community Development” has given way to the more pointed, “How Will the Arts Thrive in a Time of Change?” with that time of change described as “turbulent.”
“I came to the conclusion that we have to find the confidence to continue to be the company we are and the artists we are,” Lozano says in an interview at the Latino Cultural Center, where Cara Mia has a long-term residency.
“Considering that our company in particular tells stories about immigrants, stories of social justice and the Latino, Latin American and Chicano experience, there was a recalibration. What do these cultural changes mean to our work? There has been a chilling effect, and it took some time to realize we've got to just hold our ground and continue doing what we do. That’s what’s important.”
As in past years, politically oriented productions from across the Latino world define Latinidades. They include:
El Pazchuco for Prez, a satire from San Antonio’s Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center about a zoot-suited lecturer who dives into the world of American “politricks,” bringing flair to the electoral scene.
La Razón Blindada, a dark comedy from Los Angeles’ 24th Street Theatre about a pair of political prisoners who meet weekly to enact the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as a means of perseverance and resistance.
The Delicate Tears of the Waning Moon, a drama inspired by real events from Chicago’s Water People Theater about a Latin American human rights journalist struggling to regain her memory after suffering a brutal attack.
A two-day symposium will be held in conjunction with the two-week festival. Mentorship is one of its main themes.
It kicks off with keynote speakers Cora Cardona, co-founder of Teatro Dallas, and Avery-Jai Andrews, executive director and board chair of Arts Mission Oak Cliff, addressing the question, “How Will Artists Respond to this Historic Moment?”
Cardona, whom Lozano cites as a mentor, and rising star Andrews respectively represent the generations older and younger than his, Lozano says. After their talks, longtime arts advocate Vicki Meek will lead them in a discussion about how they’ve prepared for today’s challenges and the role that mentors, artists and their communities play for them in the current climate.
Two sessions will be held on how to become a mentor or mentee, featuring a roster of arts leaders that includes Meek, Amphibian Stage founder Kathleen Culebro, African American Museum of Dallas interim director Margie Reese and Jubilee Theatre executive artistic director D. Wambui Richardson.
“Our mentors have lived through so many different eras,” Lozano says, “I mean, we have two mentors who have lived through the Jim Crow era, others who have lived through the culture wars of the ’80s. It’s valuable to hear people put this moment into perspective and to say to be patient and to be strong.”
There also will be sessions with arts funders and the next generation of Dallas arts leaders and on topics like AI and the arts. The symposium closes with a discussion about collectively dreaming of a future where “instead of a play, theater was a backyard garden, a fugitive library ... a meal with friends and strangers, a place where we gather to tell stories, fully embodied, at a table of our own making, where nobody goes hungry.”
Details
Latinidades Festival and Symposium runs Sept. 27-Oct. 12 at the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St. Passes run from $40 to $295. Scholarships are available. caramiatheatre.org.
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