Latino Theaters for Social Change
Theatre in Latin America was already established even before the Europeans arrived to the continent. The inhabitants of Latin America had their own practices, festivals, and ceremonials. They involved dance, singing of poems, song, theatrical spoof, mime, acrobatics, and magic performances. The entertainers were trained; they dress in costumes, makeup, masks and toupees. Platforms had been assembled to make visibility better. The ‘sets’ were garlanded with plants, branches from trees and other natural items.
The Europeans exploited this to their benefit. For the first fifty years subsequent to the conquest the missionaries made use of theatres widely to proliferate the Christian doctrine to inhabitants accustomed to the image and oral quality of show. It was more efficient to use the indigenous styles of communication than to put a conclusion to the ‘pagan’ customs, the conquerors grabbed the substance of the spectacles, maintained the trappings, and exercised them to express their own message.
At first the roles played in these austere religious performances such as the nativity as well as the adoration of the Magi were acted by priests in the shelter of the church. However, as the anthology of the Church grew to embrace the passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Church was threatened with the predicament of how a priest should represent Herod. While sharing of opinion in the Church persisted as to the worth of theatrical interpretations, the constituents of the congregation undoubtedly enjoyed and were encouraged by them. The dramas persisted to grow, moving out of the Churches and into the open areas in front of the Church. Eventually, the members of town society began to play a role on