Crossing Borders

Growing up in the suburbs of Portland, gay Mexican-American performer Joaquin López did his best to fit in with the mainstream white culture.
“I’m light skinned, which makes it easier to assimilate,” said López. But passing as white puts him in an awkward position from time to time. When López speaks Spanish on the job at the taquería La Bonita in Northeast Portland customers have been known to say, “You say it like you’re one of them.”
“I show them a picture of my family,” he said, “and explain that Spanish is my first language.”
Themes of ancestry, identity and assimilation figure prominently in Cuentos: Searching for My Story, a theater piece produced by the Miracle Theatre Group and the multi-cultural artist ensemble ¡Viva La Cultura! López acts, sings and plays guitar in the production along with Portland performers Rebecca Martínez and Stan Olmsted.
López helped collaborate on the project when Martínez earned a Neighborhood Arts Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. “We explore our quest for identity in Mexican-American culture in a lighthearted way,” he explained.
The narrative for Cuentos emerged from a series of conversations between the artists. “Rebecca interviewed me about growing up Mexican-American,” López said. “She asked how it felt. What hurt the most.”
Martínez, López and Olmsted drew on their musical backgrounds to select Mexican and Spanish folks songs for the show. In addition López included several songs he learned singing in a Catholic church choir as a child.
Cuentos features two songs by gay Spanish writer Federico García Lorca, though there is no queer content in the story. The show is bilingual with no subtitles, but López assures that all audience members will be able to comprehend the content.
López said he is happily settled in a relationship. When he’s not working at La Bonita he’s very musically inclined. He’s currently writing a rock album, and he’d like to record an album of Spanish folk songs. He also teaches guitar at Sowelu Theater’s summer arts camps.

February 2-23; Saturdays at 3 p.m.; Milagro Theatre, 525 S.E. Stark St.; $5-$10 ($5 for children 12 & under); 503-236-7253.