This story aired on the September 19, 2024 episode of Crosscurrent
If you life in San Francisco you don’t speak English you might have a hard time watching a play or going to the movies. In an art scene that centers English-language productions, La Lengua Teatro is devoted to breaking down linguistic barriers. Their powerful Spanish-language performances focus on issues that directly impact the local immigrant community.
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Behind the rehearsal of Paradise
Inside of Brava Theatre's small studio in the Mission District of San Francisco, a cast of four actors prep for rehearsal. Their director Samuel Prince guides them into the scene.
Samuel: Are there any questions that you or discoveries that you made during the, you know, the two days that we were off while you were working on the scene?
Iris Díaz: I think I say something about, “el pobre no da pie con bola y yo con mi inglés goleta,” what, what is it that I'm saying when I say…
Dyana Díaz: That means that you don't get anything right.
They’re going over Puerto Rican idioms. Opening night is just a few weeks away so the actors finish locking down the nuance of each line before they begin.
Samuel: Okay. Let's do, let's start. Let's do it.
At the far end of the empty room, two chairs are set up next to each other to resemble a bus stop. The room is quiet as the actors settle into their chairs. Iris DÍaz and Dyana Díaz get into character.
Iris: Tanta protesta no resuelve nada
Dyana: Ay, pero sacamos a Rosello en el dos mil diecinueve
They play two Puerto Rican women who start chatting at a bus stop. Their conversation quickly centers on politics. This rehearsal is for a play performed by La Lengua Teatro, a small Spanish-language theater production company in San Francisco. Commissioning this play is part of Virginia Blanco’s larger vision.
“I'm the founding artistic director and executive director of La Lengua Teatro en Español,” says Virginia.
Virginia’s journey to La Lengua
As the artistic director, Virginia gets to decide what programs her company produces. The plays illuminate issues that affect the immigrant and Latine community here in the Bay. This fall, La Lengua will debut a story by playwright Tere Martinez, about the intricate relationship between the US and Puerto Rico.
“We have a play, a world premiere, of Paradise. And Paradise is a slice of life. It's like if we're flies on a wall hearing what's going on in 2022 in Puerto Rico and how they're being affected from all the tax policies and how that impacts [Puerto Rican] daily life,” adds Virginia.
The socio-political themes of the show, Paradise, are a point of connection for the Latine diaspora in the Bay, but it’s not just the motifs of La Lengua’s plays that serve as a bridge to the community.
The theater presents these stories to the people affected by these issues in a language they understand – literally. It’s a bilingual program, mostly in Spanish, with a little bit of English. This includes translations projected on stage to alleviate any language barriers.
In San Francisco, where 1 in 10 people speak Spanish, it may be surprising to learn that Spanish language theater is still a rarity. There’s a handful of Latine companies that produce Latin American work, but most of that is still in English. Today La Lengua is the only company in San Francisco dedicating their efforts to produce programs in Spanish
“One thing that we want to normalize is that you can do theatre in other languages other than English,” Virginia says.
Virginia worked in theater in Argentina, where she’s from. She says theatre was a popular pastime across generations and there were lots of chances to see American shows, but when she moved to the US, she quickly learned that plays from Latin America were not as common.
Virginia mentions, “I didn't find a place where I could jump in as a Spanish speaker theater maker. I was amazed that having such a huge Latinx community, how was [it] possible that [there] was not a theater company presenting theater pieces regularly…”
In Spanish. Virginia took note of this disparity and even after learning English to up her chances at a job, she had a difficult time adjusting to the power dynamics of being an immigrant, looking for work, in theater.
“The sad thing about that is, being an immigrant, in a way you have internalized that that's your place, that you don't have the power to speak up or maybe just ignore that feeling that you're being stigmatized because of your accent, because of how you look,” she says.
Because of this experience, Virginia wanted to improve conditions for other immigrants in theater. Getting a seat at the producer’s table was a step in the right direction, but it wasn’t enough.
“There are people that are not interested in the things that we need to discuss,” Virginia says, “I think the solution is creating your own table because I've been waiting for years to find a Spanish-speaking theater company, a professional here in San Francisco, and I couldn't find it.”
So she built one herself with La Lengua Teatro.
In rehearsal with the cast of Paradise
Dyana: Pero perdone opciones habían.
Iris: ¿Sabes lo que sería de este país sin los Americanos?
Dyana: ¿Usted sabe lo que sería de este país sin corrupción?
Samuel: Okay. I’m going to stop you.
Back in the studio, the conversation in the bus stop scene is getting heated. Samuel, the director, steps in to emphasize the gravity of this moment in the play.
Samuel: So that line has to be like you know, “pero tú sabes lo que sería esta isla sin los Americano” you know, it’s more it’s more of a…
Part of the process of running a Spanish language theater means hiring artists who speak the language. You need a director who can communicate notes regarding tone and inflection, a stage manager who can help read lines, and actors who can flow between languages.
“My name is Iris, but I answer to Iris also, so Iris Diaz. And I’m playing the role of Tata”.
This is Iris’s first time performing in Spanish. She says it’s been an opportunity to get closer to her culture.
“To be able to do a play that's actually in Spanish allows me to go to other parts of my ser, to bring out something that I hadn't brought out before,” Iris says.
Her ser, part of her being. Virginia mentions that a lot of artists who come through her company often express a similar sentiment.
“Someone told me, ‘I felt there was something missing from, from my identity, and it was this, for performing in Spanish’”.
A play in Navajo, commissioned by La Lengua
This opportunity, to experience art in another language, goes beyond the artist. Audiences get a chance to engage with ideas or concepts often missed in mainstream English-speaking White American theater, like when La Lengua, in collaboration with AlterTheater, commissioned a play in Navajo by Blossom Johnson, a Diné playwright.
“The playwright decided not to use English supertitles. So they wanted the audience [to] experience the language and the story as it is,” says Virginia.
Many of the audience members left before the play was even over. For those who remained till the end, they participated in a talkback where they revealed their discomfort.
“And some of them were, [they] described the whole process of being exposed to a language we don't understand at all and we were sharing that, and all the arc from discomfort to introspection to why I'm feeling so…”
So confused, lost, excluded – feelings that so many monolingual immigrants who don’t speak English experience daily. And that’s another important part of La Lengua’s mission, exposing new audiences to the artistry of non-English playwrights so they have a better sense of the multiculturalism they’re surrounded by.
Back in rehearsal
Iris: ¿Ay, ay, como estas, como estas muchacho?
Héctor Lugo: Ay Tata, bein mal! Bien mal!
In rehearsal, everyone is focused and passionate about the work, but nerves start to show as they perfect an emotional moment in the scene.
Iris: Por que!
Héctor: No... Line
Héctor Lugo, who plays Kike, forgets his line.
Iris: That’s ok.
Héctor: Let me start again.
Natalia - Stage Manager: El Julian esta…
Samuel: You know why you forgot your first line?
Iris: Because you were in it.
Samuel and Iris: You're in the emotion of everything. Because you were so fucking good
Iris: You were in the emotion of everything
Samuel: Let me stop you actually before, because this is going to get even more intense. Let's go back here. Yeah, let's go back.
The cast is quick to support their castmate. It’s an encouraging environment for Héctor, who is a new performer.
“This is the first, time that I act in a professional play,” Héctor says.
He feels comfortable in this role due to the nature of the piece.
“I feel very comfortable because I live in multiple languages, you know.”
Héctor hopes that audience members who share his experience can find encouragement to celebrate their multiple languages.
“I hope that they feel happy that they can be who they are and particularly those people that speak like Spanglish,” says Héctor.
For these audiences, stories performed by La Lengua validate their lived experiences. It gives them access to art they’re often shut out of due to language barriers.
“And I also want, you know, the kids and the youngsters to feel like, yeah, man, you know, I can speak that language anywhere. I can, I can be myself anywhere. I want them to feel like, you know, it's a beautiful reality to live in, you know,” adds Héctor.
And at La Lengua Teatro, this beautiful multilingual reality takes center stage.
