Destinos celebrates Chicago Latino theater
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Ellas y Yo: Mexicanas blends contemporary dance, physical theater, and storytelling. Photo: Courtesy of Silvita Diaz Brown
Chicago's largest Latino theater festival returns with productions exploring federal immigration enforcement and its impact on Latino communities.
Why it matters: Destinos uses theater, dance and storytelling to explore the heightened fear Chicago's Latino community has faced since the Trump administration launched Operation Midway Blitz last year.
What to expect: Now in its 9th year, Destinos features more than a dozen productions across nine Chicago venues, stretching from Aguijón Theater in Belmont Cragin to the Wirtz Center in Streeterville.
- The fest runs through Oct. 11.
Zoom in: The shows include "Disposable," a one-person documentary-style work exploring the parallels among low-wage temp workers, day laborers and working professionals.
- "Unpacking Home" uses dance and poetry to dig into memories and ancestry.
- Queer Quentos is a storytelling showcase for Chicago's queer, lesbian, and transgender Latines.
- "El Evangelio Jornalero" follows day laborers at "Home Deport" as they wait for work, telling stories of wage theft, work discrimination and immigration enforcement.
Flashback: Chicago's leading Latino arts and cultural organizations created the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA) in 2016 to give a bigger platform to Latino theaters and artists.
Reality check: More than one year after President Trump unleashed federal immigration officers to Chicago, CLATA executive director Jorge Valdivia says it's more urgent than ever for city leaders and patrons to show up for the fest.
- "We expect the current political climate to have an impact on attendance, which is why we are asking people to show up for those who cannot," Valdivia tells Axios.
State of play: "We have already been operating with disproportionately limited resources. We're being forced to do more with less at precisely the moment in history where visibility is perhaps most important," Valdivia says.
- The CLATA leader is referring to a Great Cities Institute study that found that Latino arts organizations received only 4.2 to 6.6 percent of Chicago's philanthropic arts funding between 2020 and 2022.
- "We should all be asking ourselves what we are doing to meet this moment in history and support Latino live performing arts," he adds.
What's next: Check out the full schedule and get tickets.