Closing the curtains for Act 1, opening them for Act 2
- La Voz Latina
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Escrito por: Alexa Figueroa 🇸🇻
“I was ready to hear your voice, mijita, ready to hear your story.” This was a line from a memoir that changed the course of Alexander Diaz-Lopez’s college journey.
He was asked to perform a monologue for an acting class, and Diaz-Lopez picked “Once I Was You: A Memoir,” by journalist Maria Hinojosa. Usó una escena en la que interpretó a un periodista que regresaba a casa de un viaje y reflexionaba sobre la experiencia de ver a una niña que había sido separada de sus padres y metida en una jaula.
“I will never forget the look that my professor gave me when my scene finished. It almost was a look of a proud dad, and he said, ‘Alex, I think this is a much larger journey for you than you can anticipate in this moment.’” said Diaz-Lopez, who majored in theater and communication with a specialization in political communication and public advocacy.
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Creció en D.C. y asistió a escuelas predominantemente latinas hasta que llegó a la escuela secundaria. He quickly realized that his racial identity and skin color became more prevalent as he began his theater journey, as he was only cast in roles where the character had a darker skin complexion and the nuances of brown people were overlooked.
“Looking back at my journey with theater, I wanted to not highlight my Hispanicness. I wanted to hide away from that, because the moment where I felt validated as an actor was when my skin complexion was used as a token to fill in the gaps of diversity,” he said.
He came to UMD as an undecided student, and after being introduced to the theater department by another student, he took his first intro to acting class and never looked back.
Although it was one of his greatest theatrical accomplishments, Diaz-Lopez says his middle school self would have never believed he was the lead of A Bicycle Country, una obra sobre inmigrantes cubanos que se encuentran en desesperación en Cuba y deciden arriesgarlo todo y venir a los Estados Unidos con la esperanza de una vida mejor.
“It kind of just became the ending of a full circle moment where one of the last things I did was lead a show that was about celebrating something that I always wanted to hide or that I never felt really comfortable sharing with the world,” he said.
Diaz-Lopez was the Kennedy Center’s theater education intern in 2022 and hopes to return in the future in an administration role. Additionally, he would like to get his foot in the door with local theaters.
“I want kids to know that there's space for them. And I want to be able to bridge Latino kids, who might have some inclination to any artistic bone in their body to really follow through with that,” he said.
“¡Te lo propusiste! ¡Lo lograstes! Y con la ayuda de Dios salistes adelante. Estamos muy orgullosos de ti y te amamos infinito.” - Diaz-Lopez’s parents
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