April Garcia

Written by Adrienne Dawes
Co-directed by jkjk (khattieQ & Jenny Larson Quiñones)
Original score by Graham Reynolds
Properties Design by April Garcia

Casta is an intimate multi-lingual performance featuring music, puppetry, and dance. Casta is inspired by a series of casta paintings by Miguel Cabrera. Casta paintings were a unique form of portraiture that grew in popularity over the 18th century in Nueva España/colonial Mexico. The paintings depicted different racial mixtures arranged according to a hierarchy defined by Spanish elites. When a lowly apprentice is commissioned to paint a casta series for a wealthy patron, he tries to conform his work to a set hierarchy. The images revolt, illuminating a complex portrait of fluid Latinx identities. These performances are in conjunction with the exhibition Painted Cloth: Fashion and Ritual in Colonial Latin America and produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater.