At a brainstorming workshop for Restaurant Spanish (the show I'm developing with a team of Core Artists from my beloved Teatro Luna), we found ourselves asking a lot of questions about America. And Americans. And what it means to be Americanized. Which got me thinking about Thanksgiving, which has to be the most significant of the "All American Holidays." I have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving. On the one hand, I grew up with parents who made sure I understood that the reality of history era nada que ver con the paper bag turkeys and crayoned "Indian" headdresses we made at my international school in Quito, Ecuador. Plus, I'm a die-hard vegetarian and not-so-in-love with sitting around a pile of turkey bones for 4 hours. But, on the other hand, I am AM so in love with pumpkin pie and pecan pie and apple pie and [insert whatever kind of pie except shoo fly pie]. And I like an excuse to get together and eat until you are too full to move or button your pants (which is why I always wear a dress to dinner). And I don't have the kind of family that puts on The Game or worse, makes us go outside to play one (see "too full to move" above), which means I get to enjoy a holiday where we are encouraged to lie around on sofas balancing a plate of pie in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. Is it no surprise that my absolutely FAVOURITE holiday is Passover? But that's another story.

So what does this have to do with Restaurant Spanish, our MUSICAL about immigration, language, and uncomfortable cultural moments? Well... we (read "me") are a little bit obsessed with a town called Carpentersville, Illinois, located about 35 miles northwest of Chicago. Carpentersville is the site of an incredibly tense cultural and legal battle about what it means to be American. The town has gone from being 17% Latino to over 40% Latino in just ten years, and people are freaking out! Trying to pass all kind of English only ordinances and complaining that the "illegals" are refusing to become Americanized. I'll have LOTS more to say about that in a later post, but right now, a week before Thanksgiving, I'm wondering what it means to become "Americanized." Do we really have an American culture? Just one? What does it look like, really? I mean, I know that even I talk about "gringadas" all of the time, so obviously I myself think there is something to being "Americanized", but what?

I mean - Thanksgiving is pretty much our most "National" holiday, but everyone I know celebrates it differently. Martha Stewart spreads and my own stereotypes about football aside, we all have pretty different ways of approaching what we eat and how we spend the day. SO WHAT IS AMERICAN? By the way, I'm not being rhetorical - I really want to know! As with every new project, I'm trying to set aside my own ideas and listen to what other people are saying are the problems. And the answers. So, um... answer! Porfis?