It has been 18 years now that GALA Theatre first presented its ‘Fuego Flamenco’ Festival and each year there seems to be a new wrinkle, a new twist. It just gets better and better! The theatre has managed to create an excellent company right here in the nation’s capital under the curatorial eye of El Salvador’s, Edwin Aparicio. Over the years they have also set up a reciprocal agreement with the famous Casa Patas flamenco company in collaboration with Flamenco Spain Flamenco Arts and Culture (FECACE).

In addition, for the first time, Fuego Flamenco has become a 3-week affair, having added the Cadiz inspired, Santa Fe based, ‘Entre Flamenco’ spectacle to its long list of successful flamenco shows. ‘Cerrando el Circulo’ the title of the first show, co-directed and choreographed by Antonio Granjero had its debut performance the weekend of October 28. More on that later.

The weekend of November 4-6, Edwin Aparicio will highlight the latest in his Flamenco Men series, an approach that has garnered him widespread recognition in the flamenco world.

En Washington, DC recuerdan la historia del surgimiento de la comunidad latina

Con motivo del Mes de la Herencia Hispana, la Oficina de la Alcaldesa para Asuntos Latinos organizó un panel con personalidades de diversas áreas que contribuyeron al desarrollo de la comunidad en la capital de Estados Unidos  

Patricia Zelikoff

La alcaldía de Washington, D.C. recordó algunos aspectos de la formación de la comunidad latina en la capital de Estados Unidos, como parte de su programa de celebraciones del Mes de la Herencia Hispana.

Troublesome Troublemaker

            The new musical show at GALA Theatre is a curious potpourri of production and directing choices. Based on a brief, frivolous, light opera -a genre known as ‘Zarzuela’ in Spain- it is a comic opera akin to the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas of the 18^th century. This particular piece, ‘La Revoltosa’ (The Troublemaker) was written in 1897 and was originally less than 30 minutes long.  

            The evening was entertaining and enjoyable. The music, performed live by a ten-piece orchestra, was enchanting. At the beginning of both the first and second acts there were extended musical introductions that set the fantasy-like tone for the proceedings. The singing, what there was of it, was special. If you have never witnessed a performance by mezzo-soprano, opera star Anamer Castrello, you should attend simply to enjoy her solo at the beginning of the second act. Anamer is simply the finest Hispanic female singer in the metropolitan area. Whether she is belting out a Celia Cruz tune or a Leontyne Price aria, she will leave you breathless from the range and power of her voice. The show deserved more of her.

D.C.’s Ward 1 has always been an iconoclastic place that has a tendency to vote for outsiders and underdogs for Ward Councilperson. In the early 80’s Frank Smith, a civil rights veteran and yet an outsider to D.C.’s democratic elite, beat a white, establishment backed, liberal in his first election.

After four terms, Smith would lose to Jim Graham, a gay man (when that was less common in D.C. politics) who clerked for a Supreme Court justice and managed the District’s most famous AIDS prevention facility, the Whitman Walker Clinic (along the way befriending Elizabeth Taylor who became a major supporter). To win his first campaign in Ward 1, Jim put together an eclectic coalition of gays, Hispanics and what I describe as the ‘Euro trash’ vote – young, white, lefties from Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant & Columbia Heights. At first, he did not win the majority of the African American vote, nor the support of the democratic machine. Later the African American community and folks on the eastern side of the Ward became his most loyal constituents.