The Chicago non-profit group that nurtures and showcases Latino theater artists will host two new theater companies and five promising production companies at its Destinos festival this fall.
The yearly festival, slated to feature 16 productions — 14 local, one from Texas and one from Argentina — fulfills the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance’s mission to spotlight theater startups and otherwise unnoticed genres such as storytelling, improv comedy, and, for the first time this year, a Spanish-language musical theater.
So how is the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance still awarding financial grants and providing a platform for a growing, successful local theater scene while President Trump orders merciless cuts in federal arts and diversity funding?
Though the Alliance in May lost a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts — the nation’s largest federal arts funder which Trump has proposed eliminating — the grant represented only 2.9 percent of the alliance’s budget, said the alliance’s Executive Director Jorge Valdivia.
Ironically, the situation reflects historic underfunding for underserved communities’ arts groups, he said.
Chicago’s Latino arts groups received 6.7 percent of all local arts funding grants in 2023 — the latest data available — and about 5 percent of arts grants at the local, state and federal levels — far below Latinos’ representation as 30 percent of Chicago’s population, according to a May 28 research report conducted by Greater Cities Institute and commissioned by the Chicago Latino Arts & Culture Network.
Valdivia was the driving force behind this effort. He had a theory that huge inequities existed in local arts funding. While the report supported Valdivia’s theory, many in the arts community were not surprised.
Since Latin theater, dance and other artistic organizations have received far less public, philanthropic and federal funding than their proportional share, they have found other ways to support their viability. The Chicago Latino Theater Alliance relies on private foundations, corporate sponsorships and other government foundations for most of its funding.
Still, the alliance continues to host fundraisers and boost its individual donor support, Valdivia said, noting that this year’s Destinos festival will feature one international and one national production — rather than two or three as in years past.
But the festival remains as essential as ever as it introduces two theater company startups — Teatro Inovarte and Teatro Zona Rosa— defying today’s political thrashing of the arts, diversity, and multicultural inclusion.
Jose Rochel, the general director and co-founder of Teatro Inovarte —- Chicago’s new — and only — Spanish-language musical theater company — draws from his Mexican roots to encourage his cast and crew to relax, rejoice and run through the latest production.
He does so by feeding everyone Saturday breakfast in his home.
“We sit at the table and have a small meal, and conversation comes,” said Rochel, a Mexican native who grew up in Pilsen in the 1970s when the neighborhood’s immigration rights, community activism and artists’ haven revolutions were just emerging. Rochel, who works fulltime as a court interpreter and translator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, started his career studying with the renowned ballet dancer and Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center Founder Homer Hans Bryant, the Joel Hall Dancers, and Gus Giordano’s Jazz Dance Company, and danced with Ballet Folklórico México De Amalia Hernandez.
He discovered his love for the theater by accident.
Rochel was asked to choreograph a piece for the play “Alla en San Fernando,” written by local playwright Raul Dorantes, and instead ended up with his first acting role as Salome. The play depicted women slaughtered by drug cartels.
That’s how he met his mentor, Jose Burgos, of Spanish-language Repertorio Latino Theater, and fell in love with directing. Rochel wanted to offer innovative theater, at a time when most performances focused on classical texts.
That’s when Rochel partnered with Pachy Felix, his neighbor in the Lake View neighborhood, who serves as artistic director and co-founder, to start the Spanish-language musical theater.
“We decided to make the theater company cultural, with an identity,” Rochel said.
They also decided to perform live music with the dramatic plays, rather than depend on recorded music.
Teatro Inovarte depends on key players — the actors, a musical director, a vocal instructor who writes the scores and compositions, sound and lighting technicians and others — who studied or majored in theater but who now work in other careers. Rehearsals take place at Unity Church in Oak Park, where the theater rents space. A Boys Town salon, Zea Salon Bar, lets Teatro Inovarte host free raffles and fundraisers there. And Rochel’s husband, Andrew Spaulding, serves as treasurer of the board and does market research.
The theater has raised $18,000 in grants and through fundraisers for its second production, “Contra Ritmo.”
“Everyone is [involved] to fulfill their passion,” Rochel said. “It’s amazing to see. We spend 12 to 13 hours a week just to get the play going.”
The company’s first play, “El Nos Mintio,” which benefited from a Chicago Latino Theater Alliance grant and sponsorship from law firm Manuel A. Cardenas, was a sold-out success all four nights of its run.
The company leaders’ dream is to own their own theater in a North Side neighborhood and own their own destiny.
“We want to come out of the closet and scream, ‘We are alive,’” Rochel said.
Valdivia added, “We’re living in a time when our communities are under attack, families are being separated, children — not criminals — are being deported, and our cities are being invaded by the National Guard.
“Now more than ever, art matters. Telling our stories matters. Building community matters. Now more than ever, existir es resistir (existence is resistance).”