‘Luminarias’ Sheds a Bright Light

Did Times theater critic Laurie Winer and I see the same play? I am referring to the Latino Theatre Company’s production of “Luminarias,” actress-playwright Evelina Fernandez’s look at four contemporary L.A. Chicanas and how racism has affected and continues to affect their lives (“An Illuminating ‘Luminarias,’ ” Calendar, May 7).

Although Fernandez’s tone is light, the subjects she dredges up are heavy indeed: Latina/o self-hatred (the result of internalizing the racist values of the dominant culture), hatred of Anglos (the outcome of centuries of oppression of Latina/os and our ancestors), the painful issues brought up by mixed ethnic dating, deep mistrust of people not of one’s own race--I could go on.

Although I agree with Winer that at moments Fernandez’s dialogue descends into triviality and solutions sometimes appear too simple, for the most part I found “Luminarias” a deeply illuminating treatment of the serious damage done to everybody when one segment of society holds dominion over other segments.

I never would have guessed, from Winer’s review, that these were the topics dealt with in the play. Instead she trivializes the whole endeavor, describing it as the “antics” of “romance-obsessed” Latinas whom she views as “a mixed bag of warm nuts.” And her flip descriptions of some of the characters’ deepest wounds would be downright insulting if they didn’t so consistently and confusingly avoid the issues of race that Fernandez takes pains to make explicit.

Winer reduces Lilly (Angela Moya) to “a compulsive crier who finds love with a Korean man, until his parents reject her, and she cries”; why doesn’t she state that the Korean parents reject Lilly specifically because she is Mexican and they have a stereotypical view of all Mexicans as being garment workers unfit to sit at their table?

Sofia (Marta DuBois), a successful Westside shrink who’s always uncomfortably tried to fit in to white society, is written off as merely “seen to be cut off from her roots.” No mention is made of the tremendous shame and internalized racism Sofia reveals in the course of the play, feelings with which I, as a Puertorriquen~a who grew up in the conservative Anglo suburbs of L.A., am intimately familiar. The third of the four amigas, Irene (Dyana Ortelli), is described as a “pixie” who “thinks a Latina should only date a Latino.” In fact, Irene is a Chicano studies professor whose notion that Chicanas should only date Chicanos has deep political roots in a movement that partly began in this very state, as viewers of the recent PBS documentary “Chicano!” will recall.

And when Andrea (Fernandez)--a feisty lawyer who carries depths of rage over the centuries of racism she and her ancestors have endured--falls in love with a white Jew who defended a violent husband in a custody case, she is faced with a complex dilemma interweaving questions of professional integrity, personal morality, her responsibility toward younger women of color, her relationship with her teenage son and her own racism against Anglos.

These issues, to Winer, “seem like no-brainers.” Excuse me?

And gracias a la Virgen for organizations like the Latino Theatre Company, which continue to give voice and shape to the varied and valid experiences of the more than 40% of Angelenos whose roots are Latin.