Latinx women face holiday struggles in a ‘Christmas Carol’ update

‘A Xmas Cuento Remix’ at 16th Street Theater touches on eviction, gentrification and redemption.

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Isabel Quintero stars as Dolores (aka Scrooge) in “A Christmas Cuento Remix” at 16th Street Theater in Berwyn.

Isabel Quintero stars as Dolores (aka Scrooge) in “A Christmas Cuento Remix” at 16th Street Theater in Berwyn.

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When playwright Maya Malan-Gonzalez sat down to write a contemporary version of “A Christmas Carol,” she decided to up the dramatic stakes by including a Christmas Eve eviction scene. 

“I thought it would be a good dramatic device, having this family forced to move out on Christmas,” she said of “A Xmas Cuento Remix,” opening in previews Nov. 29 at Berwyn’s 16th Street Theater. “Then I learned it wasn’t really a dramatization at all,” she added. “Evictions don’t take days off. Doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas Eve.”

‘A Xmas Cuento Remix’

‘A Xmas Cuento Remix’

When: Nov. 29 – Dec. 29

Where: 16th Street Theater, 6420 16th St., Berwyn

Tickets: $32 reserved seat, $25 general admission, $22 military

Info: (708) 795–6704, www.16thstreettheater.org

“Cuento Remix” follows the basic plot of Dickens’ original: Ectoplasmic intervention changes a miserly misanthrope into a compassionate philanthrope. The characters, however, are of a time and place much closer to here and now than Dickens’ 19th century London.

In “Cuento,” Scrooge is Dolores, a wealthy Latinx owner of a bar that’s become increasingly trendy as gentrification overtakes the once working-class neighborhood. Like Scrooge, Dolores has abandoned her family. When her estranged niece Anita comes to the bar in dire financial straits, Dolores turns her away.

The heroes and villains look clear-cut at the onset, but Gonzalez took pains to ensure that nothing in “Cuento” is as simple as it initially seems. “When we meet Dolores, she’s a terrible person. But then you have to ask why? Why has she run away from her family?” Gonzalez said.

Dolores isn’t the only one with a complex backstory (told in flashbacks, courtesy of Ixchel, the Spirit of Christmas Past). Anita is facing eviction because she quit her job. Her reasons (low pay, no respect, no holidays off — ever) are easy to empathize with. But as Anita’s husband angrily points out, respect and Christmas Day tamales with the family won’t pay for the asthma medication that keeps their son alive. Or the mortgage on their home.

Making Dolores, the Bob Cratchit-like Anita and all the ghosts Latinx women was intentional, Gonzalez said.

“It was important to me that this was a female story. As women, we’re all on tightropes, trying to carry forward our family traditions while also being successful and bringing in money. I wanted to highlight that struggle,” she said.

Like Dickens, Gonzalez weaves social justice issues into her story of ghostly redemption. Gentrification looms large, as does healthcare (or the lack thereof). Dolores lays out the latter in a devastating bit of dialogue:

“They said it was cancer,” she says of a childhood loss that planted the seeds of her adult bitterness. “But even as a kid I knew it was because we were poor. And on top of that… undocumented. If we were rich, [we] probably would have seen the best doctors. But we couldn’t afford anything back then. And that was never going to be me. I was going to have money.”

At its heart, “Cuento” is a story of family, forgiveness and inclusion, Gonzalez said. It’s also sprinkled through with Spanish, from millennial slang to old Spanish carols.

“A lot of the songs are from my childhood, but you rarely hear them on stage in Christmas stories. I wanted to show that ‘Ya Llego La Navidad’ is as valid as ‘Jingle Bells,’ It doesn’t matter if you understand it word for word. If you don’t shut off your mind, you’ll get it,” she said.

“We’re living in a time where people are scared and traumatized,” the playwright continued. “We have a president that refers to Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers. We have children in concentration camps. Through all that, I think it’s more important than ever for Latinas to see themselves on stage. I want theater that reflects all of us. And I want people to know that we all have closets full of screw-ups, things we might think we can’t come back from. I want people to realize you can overcome your mistakes, even if you think we can’t.”

Catey Sullivan is a local freelance writer.

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