Interview with Carmelita Tropicana

This video features documentation of an interview with Alina Troyano/Carmelita Tropicana at the Second Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, "Memory, Atrocity and Resistance", in Monterrey, Mexico from June 14-23, 2001. With a great dose of humor, Carmelita begins the interview by giving a brief introduction of herself and her relationship with the Hemispheric Institute Encuentro. She discusses her roots in Havana, Cuba and her experiences of migrating to the United States. She also remembers the legendary night of performance surrounding identity politics at New Museum, The Studio Museum, and The Museum of Hispanic Arts (performers included Guillermo Gomez-Peña, David Wojnarowicz, and James Luna amongst others). It was this evening of performance as part of 'The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s' that changed Carmelita's writing into a different personal tone and multi-dimensional style, referencing 'Milk of Amnesia' at PS122 as an example of such writing.

Alina Troyano (a.k.a.Carmelita Tropicana) is a Cuban-born performance artist, playwright, and actor who has presented work internationally, from el Museo del Barrio in NYC to Hebbel am Ufer in Berlinches Her book, 'I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures' includes plays, monologues, performance art pieces, and short stories. In Tropicana's work humor and fantasy become subversive tools to rewrite history. Tropicana's performances plays and videos have been presented at venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin, Centre de Cultura Contemporanea in Barcelona, the Berlin International Film Festival, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Mark Taper Forum's Kirk Douglas Theater in Los Angeles, and El Museo del Barrio in New York. She has received numerous awards including the prestigious Anonymous Was a Woman and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts as well as an Obie for Sustained Excellence in Performance.