New Play Explores Misconceptions of Latino Voting
By Brian Hiro
For most of her life, Patrice Amon has bristled at the popular notion that Latino people vote as one monolithic bloc.
So when she came across a script last year that delves into that very subject, she knew she had to make it her next stage production.
The result is “The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote,” a play that will be performed at Cal State San Marcos on Wednesday night. Directed by Amon, the chair of CSUSM’s theater department, the show will take place at 7 p.m. in Room 111 of the Arts Building. Tickets are free.
“There’s often an assumption that different parts of the Latino community will all act the same,” Amon said. “There is an abundance of diversity within the community. There’s a variety of languages that are spoken, a wide array of racial identities that we hold, a diversity of religions we practice. In that way, it is overly simplistic to imagine that all Latinos vote in a single bloc. There’s such diversity within the community that our voting practices are often just as diverse as we are.”
“The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote” centers on Paola Aguilar, a university professor who’s an expert in Latinx studies and who’s in debt from years of fertility treatments. Facing financial strain, she accepts a lucrative offer from a political party seeking to decode and capture the titular vote ahead of an impending election. As Paola navigates the party’s often superficial understanding of her community, the play satirizes the oversimplification of Latino identities.
The script was written by Bernardo Cubria, a Mexican playwright who lives in Los Angeles. Cubria based the story on his own experiences of volunteering for the Democratic Party and going through in vitro fertilization with his wife. Amon saw an early reading last January at The Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival and decided to produce it through TuYo Theatre, a San Diego company that specializes in Latinx narratives and for which she is co-artistic director.
The play opened on Jan. 3 at a high school in Chula Vista, and after the show at CSUSM, it also will be staged at High Tech High and San Diego State.
The 90-minute comedy features a cast of six, including Kevane Coleman, the administrative coordinator for the CSUSM art, media and design department who’s also a professional actor, singer and dancer. Coleman plays the role of Bernard, a political adviser who works with three other advisers to recruit Paola to help bolster the party's share of the Latino vote. Bernard and his partner have been on their own IVF journey, and he uses that as a way to befriend Paola after she has a miscarriage.
“When audiences, especially our students, come to see this play, I know many of them will see themselves reflected on stage,” Coleman said. “That representation is powerful and vital to the work we do as artists, but also the work that we do within each of our communities. As the president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association on campus, this production has also been an extraordinary learning experience for me. To be immersed in the Latin community by doing this show, it has broadened my understanding of critical issues facing this community.”
Besides faculty in Amon and staff in Coleman, “The Hispanic Vote” also has CSUSM representation in the crew from Abby Chacon, a senior theater major who’s serving as assistant stage manager.
About 40 tickets for the show are available. To reserve a seat, email info@tuyotheatre.org.
“I think this play will resonate with our students and the larger campus community,” Amon said, “because we all want to live in a world where we spend more time thinking about the nuances of our world.”
Media Contact
Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist
bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306