Shakespeare and Latinidad

This book offers a unique and wonderfully broad collection of essays that introduce the reader to an important and little-known trend in Shakespeare and theatre studies. The editors have included essays by leading theatre artists, playwrights, directors, actors and scholars who celebrate Shakespeare as seen through the multiple perspectives of Latinx Shakespeares as performance, as literature and as community-building through professional and community-based theatre companies from coast to coast. -- Jorge Huerta, University of California San Diego
Shakespeare and Latinidad brings together a community of scholars, theorists, practitioners, and activists to encourage us to slow down on the how and truly listen to the whats and whys that brought the diverse ensemble to Shakespeare. [...] this is a valuable contribution to practitioners of both Latinx and Shakespearean Theatre as well as students as scholars in Ethnic Studies, Performance Studies, Chicanx Studies, Latinx Studies, Theatre, and English. -- Volume 56, Number 3 * Comparative Drama *
...Shakespeare and Latinidad articulates a theater that responds to the diversity and demands of the present. This useful and necessary collection also reminds us, as artists, scholars, and advocates, of the roles we might play to address the interlocking injustices of linguistic colonialism, economic exploitation, and immigration policy. A theater practice committed to social justice in research, performance, and pedagogy is too large, too expansive to accept narrow methodologies or fail to respond to the violence of borders. -- Vol. 14, No. 2 * Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation *
Shakespeare and Latinidad would make an excellent companion text to any class in Shakespeare studies as well as theatre history, dramaturgy, and community-based theatre. It would also be accessible and of interest to a general audience. Shakespeare will likely continue to be seen by many as an elitist figure, but this collection helps to anchor Shakespeare in the here and now, reflecting, refracting, and imperfectly capturing the diverse realities of Latinx peoples in the United States today. -- Volume 56, Number 2 * Latin American Theatre Review *
Boffone and Della Gatta’s twenty-five contributors develop a conversation establishing Latinx Shakespeare as a field of study robustly worthy of an equal seat at the table of Shakespeare studies. Together, the voices in Shakespeare and Latinidad pave the way for increased investigation into Shakespeare as a mode of performing and exploring Latinx identity. -- Aislyn King Barnett, University of Colorado Boulder * Theatre Annual *
Shakespeare and Latinidad is an accessible volume that sheds light on understudied areas of both Latine theatre studies and Shakespeare studies. Those working in either area will find it an informative study of empowering theatrical practices. Those who adamantly reject the continued primacy of Shakespeare may find that this volume reifies his position as a Eurocentric standard of excellence that Latine and other minoritized communities must unlock for a sense of legitimacy and enlightenment. Even those readers, however, will be hard-pressed not to admire the tenacity it highlights among Latine theatre artists in both refusing to remain in the margins of US theatre and insisting that the world’s most produced playwright should join them there. -- Volume 76, Number 2 * Theatre Journal *