For Puerto Rican-born playwright Tere Martinez, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a poster child for American imperialism.
“It is a shame that still, in 2024, the United States possesses territories all over the world. Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory, is powerless when it comes to making the decisions that can determine its future as a country,” says the New York writer, whose new play “Paradise” opens in San Francisco next week.
Martinez has made a career of dramatizing the U.S.’s hold over Puerto Rico. She’s currently putting finishing touches on the world premiere of “Paradise,” her latest full-length drama being produced by La Lengua Teatro. The company, based in the Mission District, presented a reading of an early version in its annual Decolonization Stories series; the full production, running Sept. 5-29, begins an entire season focused on Puerto Rican stories.
Directed by Samuel Prince, “Paradise” —which is told in English, subtitled Spanish (La Lengua’s trademark) and Spanglish —follows four Puerto Rican characters as they traverse the delicate relationship between their homeland and the mainland.
“All four characters represent a different perception of what’s going on in Puerto Rico, particularly in 2022, when the action takes place,” says Martinez. “Andrea, a young Puerto Rican, is fed up with our political situation, while Tata, a character in her early 70s, represents the status quo. On the other hand, Quiko, like so many Puerto Ricans, goes back and forth between the mainland and the island due to personal circumstances. Julian, who becomes the connection between all the characters, represents in many ways our complicated relationship with the United States.”
The merging of languages and dialects further illustrates the internal conflict of the characters and people who inspired them: “Many Puerto Ricans .. are completely bilingual and are constantly code-switching. I recently saw a play that I felt lost so much of its message and meaning by having Puerto Rican characters from the island speaking in English in a context where it didn’t make any sense. To me, the essence of a play can’t be jeopardized to accommodate an audience. I also hate underestimating my audience. It’s so much more interesting for them to hear the way the character needs to speak, even if they have to read supertitles or have to figure out the meaning from the context,” says Martinez.
Though Martinez doesn’t often work in San Francisco, developing “Paradise” with La Lengua was a perfect match. “Plays about Puerto Rico are rarely produced outside of Puerto Rico, New York or Chicago,” she says. “La Lengua’s vision to dedicate a whole season to Puerto Rico to inform audiences about what goes on down here, clearly demonstrates to me their commitment not only to Latin American, but also to the American theater.”
As with most of La Lengua’s work, the play is being staged at Brava! for Women in the Arts, an organization dedicated to work by and for women, the LGBTQIA community, people of color, youth and other underrepresented voices. (It’s running an ongoing fundraiser to stay operational.)
For Martinez—who applauds La Lengua’s marketing of the play (the “s” in “Paradise” is replaced with a dollar sign) to locals with Latin American and Puerto Rican backgrounds—the fate of Brava! speaks to the very colonization central to the show’s theme.
“I think ‘Paradise” will resonate with this community,” she says. “Unfortunately, places like the Mission and Santurce in San Juan become gentrified precisely because of their rich culture. And that’s when we need to use art as a weapon to fight for social justice, to educate and empower communities to take action and not give up.”
Martinez also recognizes that the fate of Puerto Rico ultimately lies in the U.S. legislative body. She isn’t optimistic about positive change after voters take to the polls in November.
“We’ve seen how even liberal presidents have promised to deal with the issue of Puerto Rico’s status, but in the end, nothing gets ever done,” she says. “The reality is that Puerto Rico’s destiny is a matter for Congress, and it never seems to be a priority on its agenda. As we all know, this is a very volatile election, and we doubt the issue will take precedent in the next four years. Puerto Rican nationalist leader Don Pedro Albizu Campos said about our relationship with the United States: ‘They are not interested in the bird but the cage.’”
Regardless of where the political winds blow, “Paradise” has led to something of a catharsis for Martinez and the lifetime of conflicting emotions she poured into the script.
“Paul S. Flores, one of the producers, described the piece to me once as a reality check of what’s going on down here,” says Martinez. “And he’s right. I had to make very difficult decisions about which issues affecting Puerto Rico to include in the play, but I also want audiences to experience how many Puerto Ricans feel trapped living in a place where they often feel zero power to create fundamental change.”
La Lengua Theater’s “Paradise” runs Sept. 5-29 at Brava Theater’s Studio (upstairs), 2781 24th St., San Francisco. Tickets are $25-$100, with pay-what-you-can options at lalengua.org.
Charles Lewis III is a San Francisco-born journalist and performing artist. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED and San Francisco Examiner. Dodgy evidence of this can be found at The Thinking Man’s Idiot.wordpress.com.
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