“We are here to watch and hear and learn from somebody who was just like you not too long ago,” said Drama Professor Nick Garcia as he introduced Theater artist Brian Quijada to a packed audience Sept. 23 in the Student Union for an equity speaker event in honor of Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month.
Quijada is a playwright, actor, and composer who explores Latin American themes.
“I hope the students see themselves in Brian because I believe he comes from a similar background as many of the students, and he’s done a lot of great and successful things,” said Jazmine Morales the interim senior program coordinator of equity of diversity, who helped run the event alongside Puente, the Drama Department, Ethnic Studies, the Honors Program, Student Life, and the Umjoa Program. She wants students to learn from Quijada’s story.
One of the students in the audience Jazmine Hernandez, attended because she was interested after her multicultural drama professor encouraged her to go.
“I’m looking for a way to expand my knowledge to write more about different cultures,” she said.
“Seventeen years ago, I was at the University of Iowa and I thought I was the only Latino in the entire department. One day, I walk into the theater department, and there’s a freshman who’s the only other Latino, and I went, ‘Oh my God.’ And we just see each other.” Garcia said.
Garcia highlighted Quijada’s compelling play “Mexodus” currently touring across America, and said he knew his story would inspire LMC students.
After Garcia’s rousing introduction, Quijada stepped on the stage and transitioned into an impassioned spoken-word poem about the significance of his name. After the performance, he formally introduced himself and described his backstory and what he does for a living.
He explained that he came from Salvadorian parents who crossed the border in the 70s and settled in Chicago. He reminisces about his family’s music tastes.
“My dad was huge into Mexican boleros, and my mom was, super into 70s rock and roll. And obviously we were playing hip hop in our room. And on Sundays, it was like, who could blast music the loudest? Hip Hop always won.” Quijada said.
Quijada further illustrates that music was a significant factor in his life. He found himself writing lyrics and developing makeshift rapping beats from Garage Band. Just like any artist, music sparked passion within Quijada. But despite his inclination towards music, his parents reminded him of the risks of becoming a musician.
“I spent most of my childhood with my parents being like, art is not something that you can make a living on,” Quijada said.
Despite his parents’ warnings, he got into theater during Middle School because his older brother took him to watch “Cabaret.” Feeling inspired, he had to learn to sing to audition for his middle school musicals. He found his vocal range and realized he couldn’t sing high enough to perform the melody. He quickly learned how to utilize his singing voice musically.
“It taught me how to harmonize. It taught me how to get along with people. It taught me like to to that I could be a part of something that was bigger.” Quijada said.
Despite his desire to work in theater, his parents pushed him to pick another job. So he applied to University of Iowa as an English major so that he could eventually teach theater in high school. During his time at the university, he secretly auditioned for plays and felt fulfillment. While at the university, he secretly auditioned for plays and felt passionate when he got cast. That’s when he realized that he wanted to be an actor. He quickly gained a scholarship, which convinced his parents to let him pursue theater. He worked at the National Playwrights Conference to develop plays for the conference festival.
After his time at the conference, he moved to New York City to audition for roles. Quijada was under the expectation that he’d be able to sing and dance, that he’d play roles that reflected who he was. But he was disheartened when he realized that most roles he auditions for are harmful Latin American stereotypes.
“I played a Salvadoran rapist on ‘Law and Order’ last season, and I remember calling my dad and being like, ‘I’m so sorry that we did this.’ And he’s just like, ‘it was dope as hell seeing you on TV,’” said Quijada.
Quijada sat on the couch and started writing poems about his life and experience with Latin American culture. One of the poems he performed was about wondering where Latin Americans fit during America’s racial segregation era. He compiled every poem he wrote and created a play named ‘Where Do We Sit on the Bus?’
After writing and touring the poems across America, Quijada noticed some people walking out the door during his performance. Determined to enrapture his audience, he wrote another play. Quijada interviewed his mother and wrote a play based on her immigration experience.
Eventually, Quijada discovered a hidden railroad that African slaves used to escape from the United States to Mexico. Quijada and Nigel D. Robinson wrote a play about that experience, “Mexodus.”
Around the end of the speech, Quijada had a Q&A session with the audience, with Garcia there to facilitate the questions. Many of the students were curious and asked thoughtful questions.
One student asked Qujada what he does when he’s writing, and he responded that it’s hard to put the words on the page. Quijada responded by breaking down his writing process.
“And writing, I think, isn’t writing, it’s rewriting. So like, you write the sh–t, I spit it out, just like, whatever. It could suck,” Quijada said, “Once it’s all spit out, it’s like, okay, cool. How do you refine the structure that you’ve already made?”
After the speaker series, Quijada elaborated why he brought in Robinson to help him write “Mexodus.”
“It’s important to have an appropriate cultural understanding of what you’re writing about, and you can read all of the books on slavery but still not have a cultural understanding of what that actually means, living in a black body.”
Quijada is currently preforming “Mexodus” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre starting Sept. 28th. You can purchase tickets on the Berkley Rep website.
