Actor and comedian John Leguizamo brings his Tony-award nominated play “Latin History for Morons” to Boston for two performances – Thursday, 11/7 and Friday, 11/8 at the Emerson Colonial Theater.
Leguizamo, who is known for his personally-inspired one man plays (as well as his successful acting and comedy career), has poured his passion into this project. “Latin History for Morons” was initially inspired by his son’s experience in school, where he was bullied for being Latino, and was called racial slurs. In trying to arm his son with historical weaponry – so as to be able to fight back with information about his heritage rather than his fists, he discovered what he has come to call the “erasure” of Latinos in American history. The fact that he could not find any Latino heroes or even those who made a significant impact on our country caused him to seek out why. And this led to his discovering that there are A LOT of LatinX people in our history, who have contributed to this country for hundreds and thousands of years. And none of it has been taught in schools or has been put into the history books.
“I was like, ‘I know we exist, I know we’ve done great sh**. We’ve come from empires. Where the f*** is our information? Why can’t I see one thing about a Latin person for once, in a newspaper, a textbook or in literature?’ I needed to see a little reflection of myself just to get a little validation to get through my day.” This understanding is what inspired his first one-man show Mambo Mouth and continues to do so.
So when John learned about the upcoming El Mundo 30 Under 30 event on Saturday, November 9th, where we proudly honor thirty young Latinos under thirty who are accomplishing amazing things, he was ecstatic. He’ll be performing in Brooklyn on that day, but said, “Beautiful!! This is what we gotta do. We’ve got to speak out, picket, boycott, write letters, and celebrate ourselves more.”
On terminology, Leguizamo said he actually likes the term LatinX because, “it makes us sound like we Latin people have a super power – and we do, with all the sh** we’ve been through. He is not a fan of the term “Hispanic” because it was created for political reasons, and he also has an issue with therm “people of color.” “I used to think it was dope and unifying but then I realized it was being used against Latin people to keep excluding us. I once called the New York Times asking them why, for a city that is predominantly Latino, there are no stories in the paper about us. Their response was that they have in fact, increased coverage on people of color by 10-15%, but when I asked how many of them were Latino, it was zero. So, I realized it’s been used to exclude and bucket us to fill their quotas. So I do warn people about using that terminology.”
Latin History for Morons has experienced tremendous success. The Broadway hit is a 90-minute lesson on 3,000 years of Latino history, but it is told in the Leguizamo way. You will laugh, but you will learn a thing or two as well. John described people reacting to it in emotional ways – one man shared that he both laughed and cried, and other non-Latinos have thanked him for teaching them about things they’d never even thought of or knew about.
When we asked him if he feels he is accomplishing what he has set out to do, he gave us a resounding “Absolutely.” He said, “I feel like I’m getting to Latin influencers, Latin pundits, and white people who have an opportunity to make a change. A lot of teachers come see my show, and tell me that they’re showing parts of it to their students, and adding some of the books I reference to their curriculum. It’s incredible! And they will help shape the future of America. My biggest goal is to change the history textbooks, to include all this information so that people in America will have the facts. Otherwise they’re reading a fairytale.” When we shared how the city of Boston itself is being transformed, as evidenced by this past week’s city elections in which for the first time in Boston’s history, minority candidates (several of which are LatinX) will make up a majority of the Boston City Council, and 8 of the 13 are women, his response was, “We’re finally getting our due.” Indeed, John, indeed.
You can catch Latin History for Morons at the Emerson Colonial Theater on Thursday, November 7th and Friday, November 8th. (Check out our Facebook page to win tickets!) You can also purchase them at the Emerson Colonial box office. And, don’t forget to catch John in his new movie, Playing with Fire, alongside Keegan-Michael Key and local favorite John Cena, will premieres in theaters on Thursday, November 8th.
Lea este artículo en español aqui: https://staging.elmundoboston.com/john-leguizamo-comparte-su-historia-como-su-estreno-de-latin-history-for-morons-en-boston
