TOPANGA, Calif. — Actress Xochitl Romero is stepping into the complex issue of the Latino vote while also dealing with the struggles of planning a family in the production of the play, "The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote" on stage in Topanga.
The election-year satire tackles the issue of the Latino vote.
"Which is an immense task because to say you are Latino is a massive spectrum," Romero said.
Romero plays Paola a professor of LatinX studies who is drowning in debt from years of fertility treatments. So when she's asked by "the political party" to understand the Latino vote, she reluctantly takes the job. Romero said her character has "to figure out how much of herself she's willing to give up to others as part of her identity in order to make a family that she thinks will be a part of her identity."
Bernardo Cubría is the playwright and co-director and said he was inspired by the 2020 election and the calls and text messages he got from his white American friends who were upset over the fact that some Latinos had voted conservative.
"I thought it was so crazy that they thought that somehow all Latinos people somehow agree with each other. I mean, it's such a vast, large, beautiful community, so of course we have disagreements within the community. We have different points of view like all human beings right," Cubría said.
To prepare for the play, Cubría went to Florida and Oregon and interviewed 500 Latino voters. What he said was universal is that people don't want to be stereotyped.
"Don't just ask us about the border. Don't just ask us about immigration. Don't ask us if we speak English or documented; those are offensive questions; ask us about our parents, about our jobs, about how we're struggling to pay for things," he said.
The play comes at a time when the number of Latino voters continues to grow. According to the Pew Research Center, Latinos are projected to account for 14.7% of all eligible voters in November 2024, a new high.
This share has steadily increased over the past two decades and is up from 13.6% in 2020.
In 2000, Hispanics made up just 7.4% of U.S. eligible voters.
The play challenges the notion that Latino voters are a monolith and that everyone from Tijuana to Buenos Aires should agree on every issue.
The play aims to celebrate the diversity of the Latino community and its differences.
The play debuts at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum from Aug. 24 through Oct. 20.
For tickets, visit this website.