Fears of ICE raids, family drama and a sassy guardian angel mix in 'Storyteller of East LA'

An irritable grandmother with memory loss, a home care worker afraid of ICE, sisters with conflicting childhood memories and a guardian angel who just wants a break.

These are some of the essential elements of the Latino Theater Company’s new play The Storyteller of East L.A. And while one of them may seem not like the others, they all work together to infuse a serious story with humor and a bit of magic.

In his welcome remarks before a recent preview performance, director Jose Luis Valenzuela told the audience, “We do plays for people to have discussions about what happens in our community. That’s really what we’re interested in.”

The Storyteller of East L.A. fills the bill in more ways than one.

The inspiration

Ruth Livier, Lucy Rodriguez and Sal Lopez in "The Storyteller of East L.A."

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Grettel Cortes Photography

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The ICE raids that have stoked fear in Los Angeles and around the country, the fact that a growing number of Americans — and more often women — are becoming caregivers to aging parents, and her own family story served as inspiration for East L.A.-born playwright Evelina Fernández.

Fernández, who is a founding member of the 41-year-old Latino Theater Company (LTC), developed The Storyteller of East L.A. through the company’s “Circle of Imaginistas” playwriting group, when dementia was suggested as a topic to explore because of its impact on the Latino community.

It was a topic that hit close to home for Fernández, whose mother Esperanza was living with dementia at the time and who became the inspiration for the character Mercedes (played by another LTC founding member, Lucy Rodriguez).

The process of writing the story, especially now that her mother has passed away, Fernández said, “ has kind of become part of my grieving for my mom, and it's also become a way to make sure that her story is told and that her legacy is out there.”

Adding the element of care workers afraid to come to work because of the possibility of being detained by ICE, Fernández said, came from her own experience of hiring people to care for her mom and the concerns they would raise with her, even before the ramp up in ICE raids that began last year.

“There's so many of us [...] who depend on the undocumented workforce, whether we know it or not,” Fernández told LAist. “So it was important for me to portray that character that this family totally depends on, and she herself is going through a crisis while at the same time she's taking care of their loved one. That's the way it is in life. When there's tragedy, when there's natural disasters, when there's war, people have to keep working. People have to keep moving forward.”

The audience

At the early preview, the story seemed to connect with the audience, who laughed and cried. Some even sang along softly to “Sin Ti,” the 1947 bolero by the legendary trio Los Panchos that plays at a critical moment in the story.

Taking a page from the company’s annual La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin play (also written by Fernández), which is entirely in Spanish with English subtitles, The Storyteller of East L.A. is the first LTC play to use both English and Spanish subtitles.

Ruth Livier and Sal Lopez (with Brenda Banda, Zilah Mendoza and Blanca Isabella in background) in "The Storyteller of East L.A."

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Grettel Cortes Photography

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The play is primarily in English but does include a significant amount of Spanish, so the projected subtitles above the actors ensure that both English and Spanish speakers are able to catch everything.

And that community-centered, inclusive approach has paid dividends for LTC.

 “Our theater is a little different,” Fernández said. “Because we're an independent theater, our audience are not theater-goers. They're people in the community that hear about a play and they come.”

At any given performance, about 50% of the audience is at the theater for the first time, Fernández added.

“They're not subscribers to theaters,” Fernández said. “What they respond to is seeing themselves and seeing their stories on the stage. That's why they come to the theater.”

How to see the play

The Storyteller of East L.A. is playing at the Latino Theater Company’s home of 20 years, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, at 514 S. Spring St. in downtown L.A.

Performances run 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through May 17.

Thursday performances are $10. All other performances are $48, or $24 for students, seniors, veterans and LAUSD staff.