ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the decolonizing force of performance-making within Latinx communities vis-à-vis the ominous structural whiteness of the American theatre. Using concrete examples from the urban performance “The Stranger & the City,” created by the Babel Theatre Project with Brazilian immigrants, crucial practices that disrupt well-established patterns of exclusion and lean towards a more authentically democratic use of personal and collective narratives are presented. Grounded in the theories of Gloria Anzaldua, Maria Lugones, and Augusto Boal, this chapter also questions the white supremacist differentiation between high and low art, which labels certain forms of theatre imbued with activism as applied theatre, almost as if they were secondary and not worthy of attention by those who dedicate themselves to the “real business” or “real art.”
