Oleksandr Pronkevich
“Theater on the Border” or Here Comes Quixote Nuevo
Polish Journal for American Studies, vol. 18 (2024), pp. 171-180

Abstract: Octavio Solis is an American playwright and director who was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. His plays have been performed in show theaters and small companies throughout the United States of America. He wrote more than 25 plays, including Mother Road, La Posada Mágica, Santos and Santos, Lydia, El Paso Blue and others. His reputation as an American borderland author was augmented by his creative nonfiction memoir Retablos: Stories from Life Lived Along the Border. It is a collection of short stories based on Octavio’s experiences during his childhood. The concept of retablo refers to a unique genre that combines visual arts of Mexico and the devotional icons of the Catholic Church. Quixote Nuevo is one his most successful plays widely represented in many theatres all over the USA. It is an excellent example of borderland thinking applied to performative arts. Its synthetic idiom combines all elements of the Chicano artistic identity created at the intersection of the pre-Colombian (Indian), the European (Spanish), the American and the Mexican traditions. The interview below focuses on the analysis on the play Quixote Nuevo as one of the paradigmatic works of the borderland Chicano theatre.

Keywords: borderland, quixotic myth, Chicano identity, borderland theatre, synthesis of cultures

DOI: 10.7311/PJAS.18/2024.12

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