Shakespeare border movement expanding with new book

Zoom in: "The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera, Volume 2" was released yesterday and contains four plays.

• The plays tackle Shakespeare's complex treatment of comedy and reimagine "The Merchant of Venice," "The Winter's Tale," "Measure for Measure," and "The Comedy of Errors."

Catch up quick: The three scholars, Kathryn Vomero Santos of Trinity University and Katherine Gillen and Adrianna M. Santos of Texas A&M University-San Antonio, last year were awarded a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to examine Shakespeare through a Chicano studies lens.

• "The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera, Volume 1" was published in May 2023.

Zoom in: Like the first volume, the new one retells Shakespeare's work through Latino and Indigenous lenses.

• The latest book contains Lydia G. Garcia and Bill Rauch's bilingual "La Comedia of Errors," which uses humor while tackling the separation of families at the U.S.–Mexico border.

The intrigue: The first volume is already being taught at two Canadian universities and all over the U.S., including at the University of Kentucky and Princeton University.

• "I think that is a testament to the types of plays that are in the anthology ... but also gives a sense that people are really hungry for a way to teach and engage with Shakespeare that reflects their students and their students' identities," Kathryn Vomero Santos tells Axios Latino.

Zoom out: Gillen tells Axios a Shakespeare borderland conference held in San Antonio in March attracted 200 teachers, students, artists and theater practitioners.

• "We've been able to see what happens when these plays really come to life."
• Adrianna M. Santos says her favorite part of that conference was seeing a student production of "Romeo and Juliet" set in their hometown in the South Texas Valley.
• "I just could see them taking the frame of Shakespeare and doing their own thing with it, and it made me very proud of them."

What we're watching: The scholars are planning a third volume and more events in Texas.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the three scholars are Texas-based (not all Latinas).

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