CALTAC launches Canada's first Latinx theatre-artist database

Free, accessible list will help build community across the country

SPONSORED POST BY RUMBLE ThEATRE

Photo by Brandon Law

The Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC), a Vancouver-based service organization dedicated to furthering the Canadian Latinx theatre experience, is set to launch the CALTAC Artist Database.

The new public list collects the names of professional Latinx Theatre Artists who work across Canada.

“Finding Latinx talent can seem daunting for mainstream and non-Latinx theatre companies,” says CBC Canada Reads winner and CALTAC co-founder Carmen Aguirre. “The idea for a free, easily accessible Latinx database has been around for many years and we are proud to be the ones to make it happen.”

The database of professional Latinx theatre artists will be shared with theatres across Canada. According to Stats Canada (2016 Census), there are over 400,000 self-identifying Latin Americans in Canada, a 17.3-percent increase since 2011. In the last five years, Latinx representation in Canadian theatre has come to the forefront of the diversity and inclusion conversation, thanks to the bravery of Latinx theatre artists who have continuously spoken out about exclusion and erasure.

“What motivated me to co-found CALTAC was community building and finding each other,” says CALTAC co-founder Alexandra Lainfiesta. “We created the database with the goal to connect Latinx artists across Canada. To me, the core of CALTAC is community building.“

In addition to its new database, CALTAC has created three videos aimed at educating the Canadian theatre community about Latin America and the Latin American diaspora in Canada. Called TRAYECTOS, the project is aimed at helping the theatre community learn more about Latin American history, Latin American theatre movements, and who gets to claim Latinx theatre movements and Latinx identity.

“There has been a sense that anybody can play us,” explains Aguirre. “We believe that practice stems from not understanding that in the Global North context, we are a distinct, racialized people that come from a continent colonized by the North. Latinx folks, as well as everyone in the theatre community and beyond, can use these videos as educational tools.” The three videos are Patria Grande, En busca de la creación colectiva/In Search of Collective Creation, and We Are Here.

Post sponsored by Rumble Theatre.