“Growing up in New York City with Ecuadorian immigrant parents, I was sheltered. Dartmouth opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed. Latinos were only 4 percent of the student body, which made me understand the importance of affirming my identity.”
“I thought I’d major in biochem and become a doctor, but the writing assistant in my freshman seminar was a theater major and urged me to audition for a play he’d written. I caught the bug.”
“I realized my parents were projecting a dream of me being a doctor as something that would be good for me. I draw on that when students ask me to talk to their parents about majoring in theater. I talk not just about the value of liberal arts but how exciting it is for a child to be able to explore possibilities and have choices. The conversations always go to money. I talk about skills that will be gained. I try to focus on supporting a student’s choice rather than instilling fear about finding a job.”
“Perhaps the biggest skill one learns as a theater practitioner is knowing how to engage people, how to collaborate, how to solve problems. In theater there are always hiccups, so you must find solutions.”
“A lot of my work is very much community engaged, which means it’s not about me. It’s about the stories that need to be told. We don’t often see those who are neglected, so that requires me to shift the paradigm of me being the expert scholar to turning to community members as experts.”
“When I worked with a group of women who were HIV positive on a series of oral histories and a museum exhibition, the most powerful thing that happened was the creation of a documentary play, at first acted out by students. Then the women took ownership of the work. I learned that creating a safe space can foster partnerships to disseminate stories.”
“With what is happening now, not only immigrant students worry about what they can say or do. All students are very careful about sharing information.”
“I press my students to see themselves as global citizens, so the choices they make matter. A lot of the work we do in the classroom is about conjoining the heart and the mind in pursuit of new knowledge. I ask myself, ‘What don’t I know yet that I need to learn?’ ”
Notable Achievements
- Award winner for scholarship and community activism; has taught at the University of Richmond since 2009; Ph.D. from City University of New York; César Chávez Fellow at Dartmouth
- Author, Nuyorican Feminist Performance: From the Café to Hip Hop Theater (2020); lyricist/rapper, 2006 Grammy-winning children’s album; playwright, A Woman Who Outshone the Sun, Embrace Me with Your Shawl, and Remnants; at work on Dreaming of Augustus Washington
- Mother of three, lives with her husband in Richmond, Virginia
