Culture Clash 101

By Letisia Marquez

Culture Clash members Richard Montoya (left), Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas are helping students in a class that combines oral histories, ethnographic writing methods and performance. (Photo courtesy of Ric Salinas)

UCLA student Aimee Lopez had to stop talking and take a deep breath to hold back the tears during her emotionally wrenching monologue performed before classmates and a special group of theatrical artists.

Lopez, 24, was recounting the journey of a hot dog street vendor, a Mexican immigrant whom she interviewed named Anastasia Ruiz Cantu. In her monologue, Lopez relived Cantu's perilous desert crossing of the U.S./Mexico border with her 7-year-old son, Cuauhtémoc. Pregnant and scared, Cantu had an unbearable thirst, but pushed onward through the darkness that engulfed her.

In the vendor's voice, Lopez recounted, "There were times that I was afraid I would lose Temoc (Cantu's son) because there was not enough water. It was so dark that sometimes Temoc cried and cried because he was so afraid."

The emotional monologue delivered by Lopez — herself the mother of a 7-year-old boy — struck a chord with Ric Salinas of the renowned Culture Clash Chicano theater troupe trio as he sat in class, listening intently. "Their stories are so rich," Salinas said later of the students whose presentations touched him. "They are one generation removed from immigrant parents. These are the modern ‘Grapes of Wrath' stories."

A classroom is not usually where you'll find the nation's premier Chicano/Latino performance troupe. Culture Clash is typically traveling the country performing and giving acting workshops.

But throughout winter quarter, members Salinas, Richard Montoya and Herbert Siguenza have been visiting UCLA's Chicana and Chicano Studies 188-2 ("Social History in Performance Art: A Seminar Featuring Culture Clash") to share their own histories and help students learn the art of dramatizing oral histories.

Lecturer David G. García created the course based on his UCLA doctoral dissertation, which provided the first comprehensive history tracing the evolution of the troupe and its work.

"It's a real honor to have a history class dedicated to our theatrical work which incorporates social anthropology, oral history and satire/drama," said Siguenza. "After writing and performing work for 22 years, one looks back — and, yes, in fact we have been leaving a trail of not only theater history, but American history as well."

For more than two decades, Culture Clash has performed politically inspired, satirical theater about identity, race, class, gender and other issues in urban America. Their plays, including the successful 2003 "Chavez Ravine" and last year's "Water and Power," often garner critics' praise and sold-out audiences.

Founded in 1984 at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in San Francisco, Culture Clash has written and performed 12 original plays, executed two full-length play adaptations and at least four distinct anthology productions, and briefly starred in their own television show in the early '90s.

"Culture Clash's ethnographic plays bring society's marginalized voices to center stage," said García. "Together, the trio and these undergraduates are illuminating the lives and histories of diverse communities. They're consciously challenging social and racial injustice."

Students will perform their monologues and Culture Clash will read excerpts from their plays on March 23 in the Fowler Museum's Lenart Auditorium from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The Chicano Studies Research Center, the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research, the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the César E. Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction are sponsoring the free event that's open to the public.