Unpacking Shakespeare: My Latina Experience With The Bard– A Journey To Understanding And Acceptance

ABSTRACT This thesis is a critical autoethnography that examines my journey with Shakespeare and the impact his work and idolization has had on me as a Latine theatre artists, as well as the importance of the representation of the Latine community in the current theatre industry through the lens of a Latine Shakespearean adaption. Latine playwrights and theatre artists must overcome the standards set and maintained by an institution with little insight into their culture. With recent societal paradigm shifts and the call to action for more diverse narratives, do we need Latine Shakespearean adaptions to keep Latine theatre moving forward? I have structured this project with lived and embodied experiences, interviews, and explored the politics for Latine artists in a predominately White institution. Lastly, I have examined El Henry by Herbert Siguenza, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I, and personalized it to the Houston, TX LatinX community, specifically the Tejano, experience.