When Irma Herrera gives her name its correct Spanish pronunciation, some people assume she’s not a real American. Her play, Why Would I Mispronounce My Own Name?, is one woman’s journey from a small segregated South Texas town to California's multicultural mecca.
In this wide-ranging interview we explored many topics, such as the difficulty to access safe spaces for those of us deemed second-class citizens, her Chicana identity, colorism and racism, linguistic isolation, cultural hybridity, internal refugees in the United States, class migration, how her play is relevant to our current socio-political and cultural climate, and we glimpsed into the many reincarnations of Irma—lawyer, director of a social justice organization, journalist, playwright, and more.
For those of you interested in seeing Irma’s play live and you happen to be around San Jose, California, on November 15th and 16th, prepare your Sunday’s best to attend her critically acclaimed show at MACLA (Movimiento de Cultura y Arte Latino Americana) in downtown San Jose. Click HERE for ticket information.
MACLA
510 South 1st Street, San Jose, CA
This episode was edited and produced by Julián Esteban Torres López.
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