Sorry if this is a bit long but I thought it might be of interest.


My dad said it was okay to post this bit of correspondence between him
and the University of Davis, California. After writing and performing a
play with the students there a year ago he was approached to do a new
project. He decided to write an opera about Malinali, Cortes’ Mayan
mistress who was the sole translator between the Spanish, the Mexicans,
and their King, Montezuma (Cortes called her Marina, Mexicans today know
her as La Malinche).

The Faculty on the Davis campus had a meeting and this was the outcome:


Copy ...............

Dear Howard and Pablo:

As we went around the room this morning with everyone saying what they

thought about the La Malinche project, it quickly became clear that the
consensus was that as a producing group, we did not think it was a good
idea
to do a production created by a non-native group at this time. There were
a
number of reasons offered, although none of them had anything to do with
the
high esteem we all have for you both and excitement that you would wish to
collaborate together. The problems are internal to the state of California
and historically marked and situated. I would like to repeat the major
points here for you:

1.The sense of this issue as being highly charged within the Chicano and
Mexican and Mexican American communities, intellectually and artistically.
A
great deal of scholarship and creative writing has appeared, mostly
concerned with the possible interpretations of the La Malinche figure in
legend and in history, and especially the role the betrayer/whore image
has

played for women in Latin culture. The colonial/postcolonial aspects of
this
debate have also been very central (whose accounts of this history should
be
valorized, whose authority should be established).

2. Because of the cultural issues involved, a bilingual text would be
expected--not just because of California but because of the bi-lingual
history involved. Indeed, a recent production used the an Indian language
as well as Spanish to establishes these different voices in the text.

3. While the intentions and politics of our team would be excellent, we
would still be perceived as having given the stage to "foreigners" on this
topic which is so fraught with the regional and the local.

4. There is a web site for "La Malinche" will details a storm of protest
recently over an attempt to open a museum on the possible site of La
Malinche's home. Again, the issue of appropriation was foremost.

5. The state of California is right now in a deadly fight over the rights
of
immigrants and Latinos generally. The June ballot will have a measure to
discontinue all bilingual educational programs in the state schools.
Latino
student college enrollments are dropping. There is rising prejudice toward
an immigrant population which, while not solely Latino, is often perceived
as the "Mexican threat." The UC Davis campus also has a history of bad
relations with Chicano Studies and Native American Studies, a history of
tokenism in representation in the arts and cultural events, and some bad
blood specifically with our department when an anglo student's production
of
SIMPLY MARIA turned out to be very controversial.

6. In this situation, the department would in fact love to intervene in a
positive way, but that would probably mean commissioning a Chicana
playwright like Cherrie Moraga to write something for us and to work with
our students in educating them about the issues. Indeed, in the future, it
will be a priority to schedule some productions which include this
regional
constitutency more directly than we have recently done.

I have tried to give some idea in detail of the kinds of things that were
factors. We were operating as a producing group, trying to mount a
progressive politics with regard to the issues facing us in this moment.
I'm
sorry to report this, because of my initial enthusiasm, but I must tell
you
that I also agree with my colleagues that we wouldn't really have a chance
of addressing this topic in a way that would achieve a positive result.

Where to go from here? The department is still delighted and pleased with
the notion of a collaboration. We hope, Howard, you will understand the
particular response to the suggested topic and that you may have some
other
projects in mind. We also hope that our many positive collaborations with
Pablo will continue. If the two of you want to work together on something,
that would be wonderful too.

.................................


He replied ....



Looks like this stranger's been run out of town by the local Committee For
The Enforcement Of Racial Purity.
I'm sure you'll understand that after this episode my heart isn't in doing
the Granada Fellowship again, so I withdraw from Winter 2000.

I'm sorry you were caught in the middle of this, Janelle. Our
friendship,
I know, remains intact. It will be lovely to see you in June or July, do
be in touch.


Love, Howard


                                                                           
....................................................
Anyone else have any similar experiences?

X Harry


PS. Happy afternoon K!




%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%