How Come You Speak Spanish???
In 1976, The Inner City Cultural Center and The Bi-Lingual Foundation for the Arts co-produced Federico Garcia Lorca’s, La Casa de Bernarda Alba….The House of Bernarda Alba. The production was mounted at ICCC, in its Lounge Theater.
It starred BFA’s founder Carmen Zapata, and was directed by BFA’s Margarita Galban. Aside from Zapata, the cast also included, Puerto-Rican actress Ivonne Coll, Cuban-American actress (my dear friend) Karmin Murcelo…representing BFA…and from ICCC, Jeanne Joe and myself.
We performed the play twice a week, for four weeks…one night in English, and one night in Spanish. I spoke some Spanish, however it was still a challenge, and it was also an amazing experience performing the same play to two totally different audience—one night to a majorly English speaking, audience, and the next night, playing to a majorly Spanish speaking.
One very interesting experience that I took away from performing that classic, was the reactions I got from some of the Spanish speaking audience members. My Spanish was/is fairly decent. Being from EastLos, and having loved and studied Spanish for many years. After the play, some members of that audience would ask me in Spanish…”de donde es usted?”….”where are you from”? I would reply, “de aqui”…”from here”. “No, no, they would reply, “A donde naciste”…”where were you born”. “Aqui”, I would reply again. Then I’d get side ways glances, as if they didn’t believe me. Some folks would insist that I had to be from Colombia, or some other South or Central American country, where there are a number of black folks. I sometimes felt that some were accusing me of hiding…being ashamed of my Colombian heritage….and/or unable (refuse?)to believe that a black, non-Latina, American could actually speak Spanish.
“Bernarda”, was a totally, wonderful experience. Loved the audiences, loved performing that Lorca classic…..and sharing the stage with those super talents, no longer with us….Carmen Zapata, Karmin Murcelo, and Jeanne Joe, in addition to Ivonne Coll, who I think, today is living somewhere in Puerto Rico.
