ABSTRACT
Latinx/Chicanx activists had been at the center of the struggle for environmental justice and ecological equity for over fifty years. In this chapter, I demonstrate the critical framework of ecodramaturgy to foreground historic concerns of environmental justice that have been at the center of many Latinx plays in the late 20th and early 21st century. José Cruz González’s Harvest Moon is emblematic of Latinx drama during the rise of the environmental justice movement. Coming of age during the Movimento and growing up in the milieu of the farmworker communities of central California, Cruz González’s artistic work demonstrates ecological and cultural understandings rooted in histories of mestizo/a presence on the land and argues for the power of theater not only to represent, but to demand, social and environmental justice. My analysis of Harvest Moon pays close attention to the embodied representation and lived experience of women and children, as well as their families and communities, and has larger significance in light of ongoing settler colonialism, immigration (in)justice, and the present and ongoing disproportionate impact of environmental degradation and climate change on communities of color.
