Milk of amnesia

Proust ate a cookie and his childhood memories came rushing back. Will Carmelita Tropicana eat a yuca and be cured of her amnesia? Will she have to go back to her homeland, Cuba? And if she goes back, will she fall into a CUMA - Collective Unconscious Memory Appropriation Attack? 'Milk of Amnesia' is a work that blends the persona of Carmelita with the more personal voice of her creator, Alina Troyano, who describes the hardships of growing up as a transplanted child. This is a one woman travelogue that shifts from the U.S. to Cuba, from modern times to colonial times, from public persona to the private self, presenting an array of characters, some male (Pingalito Betancourt, a cigar chomping macho Cuban bus driver) some female (Carmelita Tropicana, a cross between Lucy and Desi) and some animal (Arriero, Hernan Cortez's horse).

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.