More than 20 years ago, Annamaria Cavallone was bothered by the lack of a Latino theater company in Reno — so she created one.

Cavallone and her husband, Mario DelaRosa, now run their nonprofit organization Latino Arte and Culture full-time. They are known for their devotion to the arts and the community, organizing events like Fiesta on Wells, and the Day of the Dead Festival. They’ve also hosted theater workshops and produced plays.  

Most recently, they’ve launched a mentoring program for local Hispanic/Latino middle and high school students with the goal of helping them explore their potential and map out a path to college.

Noticiero Móvil sat down with the pair to talk about their work and the importance of cultivating the arts in the Reno Latino community. 

Andrew Zuker: How did Latino Arte and Culture come to be?

Annamaria Cavallone: When I came back to Reno – I had been studying in Santiago [Chile] for theater, communications, and writing – I wanted to see theater in Spanish and there was none. I was working for the “Ahora” newspaper, where Mario was the editor and talked about wanting to “see theater.”

“I want to see theater,” I’d say, and then one day Mario said to me, “you talk too much about that and you don’t make anything.”

Mario DelaRosa: I said “you need to make your own theater group,” or something like that. “You have to make your own.”

Cavallone: So we started the first Latino theater company [in Reno] 23 years ago named, “Brown Eyes, Too”. We go to start [working] with the plays, but realize we don’t have any plays in Spanish. I said, “Mario, can you write a play for me?” and he said, “yes.”

Zuker: What was your first production?

Cavallone: A bilingual play. A good small play about a girl who wanted to study in the university, but her dad says “no,” like “women need to work or stay home. Why do you want to go to college?”

Zuker: Before that, Mario, did you have any experience writing plays?

DelaRosa: No, no experience with writing plays. “Carmencita’s Dream” was the first play. Her dream was, of course, to go college. The second one was, “My Son was a Good Kid,” dealing with gangs and focused on Latino kids. 

Zuker: How does a bilingual play work? Is each line given in both English and Spanish?

DelaRosa: No, no there is no translation. There is continuity in the dialogue. Somebody says something in Spanish and the next line sometimes reinforces what was said or not, maybe, and it’s in English. The action on stage can give context. Sometimes, there is a question and the answer is in English.  

Zuker: You are involved with a wide range of programs and events, including LGBTQ+ events and drag shows. Have you experienced some pushback or negative reaction from more traditional/conservative members of the Latino community?

Cavallone: Yeah, with the LGBTQ+, we spend a lot of time working on this play. Mario wrote a lot and did a lot of research, but people didn’t go to see it.  

DelaRosa: … Because of the issue, and because the Latino community is very, very Catholic and they don’t want to talk about that [community]. There is a scene in the play where a kid wants to come out of the closet, and there is always this issue with the father or the mother who say you cannot be like that.

Many of the actors and actresses have said, “This happened to me right there. My father had the same reaction.”  So we know people identify with what’s going on in the play. In that sense, it’s really good. There are other short stories in the play that also make people say, “yeah, I’ve seen that.”

Zuker: Please tell us about your new mentorship initiative for middle and high school Hispanic/Latino students. 

DelaRosa: We have a program for Latino students to mentor them and to push them to go to college. If some student wants to take acting classes? We can provide that. They want to take some folkloric dancing classes or learn the violin? We can provide that too. We can guide these children to whatever they want to do. The general idea is get them invested in their own education and then, ultimately, get them ready for college. 

Zuker: Are there projects from over the years that are particularly special to you?

Cavallone: In 2006, I saw the Vagina Monologues in English … Really boring. So, I said we need to make this more fun. So I produced the Vagina Monologues for 16 years. 

DelaRosa: In Spanish.

Cavallone: In Spanish, but for Mexicans, because typically when you see that play in Spanish, it’s in Spanish from Spain and it’s no fun. So we made it fun. … I’m not Mexican, but I have a lot of Mexican friends and the Mexican bad words are really the best.