Cameras Rolling: Action on Jorge Huerta

August 6th, 2024 | By Maya Malan-Gonzalez

For many years now Alex and myself have had a dream of creating a documentary to capture the legacies of our Teatro veteranos and the journeys of teatristas across generations, this documentary release would coincide with a multi-generational convening…. and finally after years of talking and talking and oh my god- so much talking, we finally said “Action” and started the damned thing. 

Because time is never on our sides like we think it is…

2020 hit our elders hard. And we all got a wake up call that time is precious. In our personal circles, we lost Diane Rodriguez in the Spring. She was a mentor to Alex and many others, an incredible leader not just of our Teatro community but of American Theatre- she was a force of nature (if you’re new here, we stan her HARD- check out our blog by Alex, “Remembering Diane”). In the fall we lost Noe Montoya, a músico with El Teatro Campesino who mentored countless musicians and actors, took me on my first camping trip and introduced me to my life partner. These are just two veteranos we lost that year, and unfortunately, they were not the only ones. As time continues to tick on, more incredible leaders and members of what we call the “founding generation” have left us. 

SO ENOUGH TALKING, LET’S GET TO FILMING!

Time to call Action for the Rooted Documentary Film…

We felt it was right to kick off this project with the one and only Jorge Huerta, Chicano scholar, author and theatre director. I like to call him grandpa, and after talking with him we were reminded how many leaders in our field he’s taught and how many generations of mentees follow him; the man’s got granmentees for days- Recently I saw the doc on Netflix “Man with a 1,000 children”, I think Jorge is the Man with a 1,000 mentees and gran mentees. 

He is a gem and of course he had us all inspired. 

We launched this interview at the Studio in Boyle Heights (Boyle Heights is also the birthplace of Jorge!). We set him up cozy on our pink couch in front of a bookcase, books felt right for our scholarly guest. Alex and I had compiled a lifetime's worth of questions for him. We knew we wouldn’t get to all of them in our 2 hour session, but we also knew this conversation would have to take place in a few parts. 

And so we jumped into conversation. We asked him deep questions about the start of the Chicano movement, we asked him about the state of Latinx Theatre today, we asked juicy questions like 5 favorite playwrights (it was so fun to have him give the answer for when he was in college vs today- I can’t wait to spill the tea on who made the list), and we got to hear some amazing stories from long ago including the early days of Teatro de la Esperanza with Diane. 

I was struck by the rise of the Latina. 

Compared to the early days of the movement we have so many fierce Women leaders today- they were always there, but their leadership wasn’t as visible to the masses. Legacies of women like Diane, Maria Irene Fornes and Miriam Colon live on through their mentees and students. When we asked Jorge that juicy question about his favorite playwrights, I loved hearing the ones from his college years were 4 men and 1 woman, but when he spoke of his favorites today- babyyyyy, the first ones that came to mind were WOMEN. This led me to reflect on how back in the day, most Teatros were run by men- today Christy Sandoval is running El Teatro Campesino, Rosalba Rolón at Pregones, Miranda Gonzalez running UrbanTheatre Company, Dañel Malan is the new Executive Director of Milagro, Patrice Amon is running TuYo, and so many others- not to mention the rise of groups like Breath of Fire: Latina Theatre Ensemble headed by Sara Guerrero— AND OF COURSE if you’re on this page, you better know Studio Luna is dancing into our 25th year!

As we spoke with Jorge the list in our heads of people we needed to interview grew larger and larger. A map started growing in our mind’s eye of all these people and the reaches they have had. I knew this project was going to be big, but I think I will continue to discover how much bigger it will be. 

If you are interested in being interviewed or want to nominate someone you are worried will be left out email us at teamluna@holastudioluna.org