ABSTRACT
Theatre that emerges within community spaces through social gatherings performed at potlucks and holiday parties is an important legacy of queer Latinx theatre in California and the United States. For over a decade, Teatro Alebrijes has built a tradition of performing queer parody pastorelas in San Jose, California, that emerge in this way. This chapter retraces the company’s trajectory from backyard parties and impromptu pageants to formal productions through its yearly drag pastorelas. Pastorelas are Catholic pageant plays with distinctly Mexican roots. These Catholic pageants belong to an arsenal of works deployed by the Catholic Church to indoctrinate and affirm Catholic supremacy in Mexico by modeling “good” citizenship. Through their pastorelas, Teatro Alebrijes reimagines the world and teaches new lessons about kinship, desire, and devotion for a new millennium.
