This festival swims, bounces, submerges and revolves around identity. Who is who? Where was the ball? What are the new frontiers at this stage of globalization? Where does race end and culture begin? In recent years, several Mexican taquerías have opened in China and a Starbucks in every corner of the world. While the franchises reign, are values​​ standardized? Can we only talk about economic borders? Doing exchanges with a country as multicultural as the United States provokes these reflections. Who are American artists? Can that be defined? Who are the Mexican artists? Can a national identity be standardized and exported? Who is the loneliest? Do we Mexicans complain more? As a fan of ranchera music, I prefer not to go into that undergrowth…. and better to ask myself, is it true that in Jalisco they don’t back down? Is that why there is a global success of tequila? Who are the Jalisco artists? When we started this new binational adventure I suddenly got lost …

We are staging a Chinese-American author and we invited a New York director of Croatian ascendance…. I started to analyze the surnames of our Mexican artists. Villarreal? Surely of Spanish origin… .and mestizo at some point. Viqueira? Things are starting to get more enigmatic. I noticed that Viqueira has a Chinese face and that Glenda, our assistant producer, also has Asian features (I think because of a Japanese great-grandmother); Then I found out that Morgana, our set designer, is half Anglo-Saxon and that Nicolás, our literary advisor, has a percentage of black genes, so before going crazy I decided not to continue down that path and change the formula.

What is moral or immoral in this world? Are there emotional quality controls approved by any global organization? Can we speak of sentimental equality? Are we all intrigued by the same things? For example: Why can’t a coffee be just a coffee anymore? Why does it have to come in the form of espresso, American, cappuccino, mokachino, latte, with sprinkles, without sparks, with cream, lactose-free, semi-lactose, light, semilight, etc … Why can love no longer be just love? Why does it have to come in a format of dating, sex buddies, “something”, affair, marriage, divorced, former couples, etc.? What has happened in the world? Is our soul being globalized?

One of our plays suggests that all that we are is the result of an error of judgment of a fish that thought that the air was breathable and left the water…. I agree … And I conclude that the theater is still the ideal place to ask oneself all the questions in the world.

AURORA CANO.