BOOK ABSTRACT

Eastside Latinidad:
Josefina Lpez, Community, and Social Change in Boyle Heights
Trevor Boffone

Eastside Latinidad explores the mutual relationship between theater and community, and
analyzes how theater and performance can be used as a critical framework to promote social
change. The book examines the textual and performative strategies of contemporary Latin@
theatermakers based in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, that use performance as a tool to expand
notions of Latinidad and (re)build a community that reflects this diverse and fluid identity. This
work utilizes theater performance as a tool to resist hegemonic depictions of Latin@ identity in
mainstream institutions and the theater space as a site to generate and embody contemporary
Latinidades. By focusing on a specific community and group of theater artists in Los Angeles,
this project demonstrates how Latin@s contest and (re)negotiate cultures and spaces to create an
inclusive environment that reflects contemporary Latin@ experience and identity. The book,
although localized on Los Angeless Eastside, comprises a model for exploring issues of
community, identity, and artistic expression of the United States Latin@ population.
The book documents Latin@ performing arts and cultural production in Boyle Heights from
1990-2015, made possible through the efforts of Josefina Lpez, playwright and artistic director
of CASA 0101 Theater. The book argues for the critical role this work plays in constructing
cultural, political, sexual, and social identity in the community. I examine the impact of theater
in Boyle Heights and how the individuals involved, most notably Lpez and her mentees, have
forged positive subjectivities of Eastside Latinidadconstructions of Latin@ identity that are
unique to the Eastside, are performed through the arts, and counter negative representations of
Latin@s in society and in the media. Originating from within the community, these subjectivities
allow each theater artist the opportunity to author ones own story as a response to
socioeconomic conditions and marginalization. I argue that the evolution of Latin@ cultural
production in Boyle Heights since the 1990s presents a localized case study that demonstrates
how theater can be used as a site of collective resistance to hegemony.
I develop the theoretical framework of Eastside Latinidad to capture constructions of identity
that are unique to Latin@ experiences on Los Angeless Eastside. Riffing off of the outcomes of
urban renewal programs such as the Los Angeles freeway system, my theory of Eastside
Latinidad is quite literally an other (wrong) side of the tracks mentality. My argument is that
Boyle Heights history as a community comprised predominately of immigrants and people of
color and as the site of urban renewal projects positioned the community on the wrong side of
the tracks, thus creating a legacy of negative portrayals in the media, pop culture, and in the Los
Angeles psyche. Finding its theoretical roots in Chela Sandovals theory of differential
consciousness, Eastside Latinidad originates from a geographical space of resistance and
performance and speaks to the sense of collective identity that stems from a mutual sense of
feeling different and being in direct opposition to the mainstream. Eastside Latinidad uses the

arts to (re)claim space and subjectivity and, ultimately, update the narrative on Latin@ identity
and experience in the twenty-first century.
The lives of the Eastsides Latin@ theater artists expose issues of belonging, community, gender,
sexuality, dis/ability, and politics that have come to typify the Eastside Latin@ experience. To
tackle these themes, I analyze theatermaking and the commonalities and differences of members
of theatermakers in Boyle Heights. By examining the work of Latin@ theater artists, this book is
a testament to how theater helps (re)define an Eastside Latinidad that the individuals in question
employ to situate themselves against negative depictions of the Eastside and of Latin@s in the
media, against mainstream theater in Los Angeles, and against the forces that have led to urban
social and spatial segregation. The mere act of making theateras an artist or as a spectator
demands participating in Eastside Latinidad.
The book consists of a prologue, introduction, epilogue, and six chapters that are organized into
three parts. One part focuses on the mutual relationship between theater and community, one on
how CASA 0101 Theater creates visibility and showcases seldom-seen Latinidades, and the
other on how Josefina Lpezs repertoire reflects this community-centered focus. These parts
work in unison to explore how the agents in this book construct, perform, and theorize Eastside
Latinidad in Boyle Heights. With these goals in mind, the book examines how theater and
performance can be used as a critical framework to promote social change on the Eastside.