Interview with Enrique Buenaventura.

Interview with renowned Colombian theater director, theorist and playwright Enrique Buenaventura, founder of the Teatro Experimental de Cali (TEC), conducted by Chicano theater scholar Alma Martinez. In this extensive interview, Buenaventura discusses key topics germane to his artistic work, narrating his first experiences in theater and literature, the influences and lessons of his many travels (especially to France and throughout Latin America), his personal and professional relationship with theater director Jacqueline Vidal, and the history and situation of Colombian theater, and its culture in general, in the context of the country's economic crisis, issues of censorship, and political struggle. A prolific playwright and theater director, Buenaventura discusses his most influential contribution to Latin American experimental theater, 'creación colectiva' ('collective creation'); he also comments on the trajectory of the TEC, one of the most important Latin American theater groups, founded by Enrique in 1954. In a dialogue with interviewer Martinez and Colombian actor Lisímaco Núñez, Buenaventura poses a commentary on the interplay between art and politics, the nuances and differences between notions of 'popular' vs. 'populist' theater, and the role and limits of art criticism; taking into account the works by Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino, the artist also discusses the aesthetic and political points of contact between Chicano and Colombian theater. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics