Caridad de la Luz (born January 21, 1977), a.k.a. "La Bruja" (The "Good" Witch), is a Nuyorican (a New York-born Puerto Rican) poet, playwright, actress and activist. She is considered one of the leading spoken word poets in the world.[1] In 2005, El Diario La Prensa, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in New York City, named De la Luz as one of the "Fifty Most Distinguished Latinas in the United States".[2][3]
De la Luz's parents moved to New York City from Puerto Rico. She was born, raised, and received her primary and secondary education in the South Bronx. As a child she was surrounded and influenced by the sounds of salsa music.[2]The Bronx where she was raised is known as El Condado de la Salsa (Salsa County).[4][2]
De la Luz started writing poems when she was three years old.[5] Her great-grandmother, Adelaida Cataquet Montalvo, "the original poet" of the family, served as an influential factor in De la Luz's literature aspirations. On Thanksgiving and Christmas days, Adelaida would share with De la Luz a poem – then ask her to recite it back to the entire family.[5]
De la Luz would often prepare shows for her family, imitating her favorite salsa singers Celia Cruz and Celina Gonzalez. She also enjoyed writing, especially poetry, and graduated with honors from Murry Bergtraum High School.[3] She then studied literature and theater arts at SUNY Binghamton.[6]
In 1992, while in college, De la Luz became a sister of the Omega Phi Beta Society and a chartering member of its Delta chapter in SUNY Binghamton.[7]
From 1996 to 1998, De la Luz worked as a community organizer in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx: focusing on issues like drug abuse, dropout prevention, teenage pregnancy and AIDS. During those years, initially in poetic form, she began to formulate the characters who now inhabit her work.[6]
Debut: Boogie Rican Blvd.
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
De la Luz made her debut as an artist in 1996, when she first took the microphone at the Nuyorican Poets Café and received a standing ovation.[5] The Nuyorican is a New York City art space: where some poets, writers and performance artists have gotten their first exposure to major live audiences.
For several years at the Nuyorican Café, De la Luz developed and refined the many characters that ultimately gave life to her first theatrical production, Boogie Rican Blvd. The play traced the life of the multi-faceted Puerto Rican persona from the Bronx to Puerto Rico, as De la Luz blended her characters, poetry, photography and music into a dense, multi-layered, yet seamless narrative.
In October 2001, Boogie Rican Blvd. had its Off-Broadway debut at The Producers Club, and the show was a success.[8] After the Producers Club, Boogie Rican Blvd. sold out an eight-week run at the LATEA Theater in New York, was featured prominently in the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, and made a four-week run in the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (PRTT) in 2009.[1]
In its review of the PRTT production, The New York Times announced that De la Luz "is a juggernaut".[9] In a second article, The Times noted that throughout the show, De la Luz portrayed seven different characters—two of them male—as well as singing, rapping and dancing.[6]Backstage described De La Luz as "an actor whose power of impersonation recalls that of Whoopi Goldberg at her best. De La Luz, who is also the playwright, portrays six characters, each a different stereotype—the eccentric bodega owner, the Long Island wannabe, the hip-hop gangster—with a comic sensibility that is both affectionate and cutting."[10]
In a press interview, the theater and film veteran Míriam Colón, who was also the founder and executive director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, said this about De la Luz: "I was flabbergasted when I saw her performance...That is a gigantic undertaking that only the most skillful and experienced actresses dare to do...She interprets these very recognizable barrio types with a lot of compassion and tenderness."[6]
De la Luz also toured internationally, presenting Boogie Rican Blvd. in cities throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America.[3]
The casting and crew of Boogie Rican Blvd. reinforced the show's in-depth exploration of family relationships: since De La Luz's daughter played a leading role as "Papo," and De La Luz's son Kelson worked as a production assistant.[8] Both Kelson and Carina are cast members of De La Luz's current show "Bru-Ha-Ha."[11]
De La Luz's other theater performances include Ubu Unchained, El Spanglish Language Sandwich by Pedro Pietri, and Women Like This, and a hip hop festival held in Switzerland.[3]
In 2004, she played the role of "Lucy" in the film Down to the Bone.[6] In 2005, she played a relentless girlfriend who uses witchcraft in the Spanish-language comedy El Vacilón – The Movie. The film was based on the highest-rated FM morning radio show, in all of New York City: El Vacilón de la Mañana, which airs daily on the La Mega-FM channel.[13]
On Netflix, De la Luz and her music are both featured in the film Gun Gill Road.[7]
In the History Channel's series Witch Hunt, she was cast as the mysterious "Tituba".[2] She also played the lead in Danny Hastings' indie film comedy Venus de Macho.[1][7]
HBO Latino recruited her for their series HABLA Women, and she is the voice of Roxy in MTV's animated comedy Lugar Heights.[1]
De la Luz toured internationally with her show Boogie Rican Blvd. (playing seven different characters). She also toured Poland and New York in the musical Ubu Enchanted and was featured in Pedro Pietri's El Spanglish Language Sandwich.[1]
As an ensemble member of the Pregones Theater since 2014, De la Luz has appeared and been featured in Betsy, The Red Rose, I Like It Like That, and Dancing In My Cockroach Killers.[1]
In the Off-Broadway production of I Like It Like That, De la Luz starred in the role of "China Rodriguez", alongside salsa icons Tito Nieves and Domingo Quiñones.[13][14] The show ran for five months.[5]
In 2018, her one-woman show Bru-Ha-Ha was a sensual, scandalous and semi-autobiographical send-up of her own life showing how De la Luz's alter ego "La Bruja" (the witch) was born. Bru-Ha-Ha was noted for its colorful cast of characters (all played by De la Luz), unique music from the "Brujalicious Quintet", outrageous insights and breaking personal boundaries —a witch's brew which took the audience on "a ride of wonder, laughter and surprise".[15]
In 2019, De la Luz starred in the role of "Sally" in the feature film Release.[16]
In addition to writing Boogie Rican Blvd. De la Luz's poetry, essays, and dramatic writing have been widely anthologized.
Voices in First Person, Reflections of Latina Identity; We Got Issues, A Feminist Perspective; Me No Hable with Acento, A Collection of Spanglish Poetry; and Breaking Ground/Abriendo Caminos, Anthology of Women Writers in N.Y. 1980-2012, have all published her writing. De la Luz also self-published The Poetician, a collection of 52 poems and lyrics.[7]
The content of De la Luz's poetry explores social justice and Nuyorican identity. Its tone is urban, raw, empowering, and is sought by inner-city communities and universities alike.[7] Her best-known poem is WTC, which she wrote in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam in 2002. WTC consists entirely of three-word phrases using words beginning with those exact letters: W, T, C. It starts with "What’s the cause/Work to connect/Wish to change/Want to cry" and incorporates the refrain "Wish time could/Wash this clean".[6]
Other poems by De la Luz have been published in magazines such as Shout, Vibe, Source, AWOL, Urban, and Stress. El Vocero and the El Centro Journal for Hunter College, have also published her poems.[3]
She released the album titled Brujalicious on her own record label, De La Luz Records, which blends a Latin-tinged hip hop with reggaeton. Her latest album, For Witch It Stands, is a popular selection on iTunes.[7]
She also performed in radio and television commercials for McDonald's and Café Bustelo,[7] and is a spokesmodel for Levis Jean's.[2]
Currently De la Luz collaborates with composer/musician Desmar Guevara, choreographer Nilsa De La Luz, a Salsa dance troupe, and a full band with back-up singers, to generate immersive Latino worlds and narratives called Salsa Bruja. From its inception, in June 2014, Salsa Bruja sold out the Pregones Theater and other major venues.[20][7]
Activism and community engagement
Mural amidst tenements in Hunts Point
For decades – from her early years as a community organizer in Hunts Point until the present – De la Luz used her talents to give back to her community by working with local organizations that help young people, especially young Latinas.[21] The struggle and social injustice she witnessed during her community organizing left an indelible imprint on De la Luz. The daily issues were serious: including teen pregnancy, low educational attainment, drug use and STDs. De la Luz believes that many of these difficulties stem from the complex and often bewildering balance of two cultures, diverse family roots, and an increasingly elusive "American" identity.
“I worked with youth before becoming La Bruja," she said. “But once I saw the statistics of Latinas in particular, I felt the need to create something to bring awareness about these issues from a Latina perspective." For this reason she founded Latinas4Life: an organization which runs high school workshops around the city with a focus on positive role modeling, constructive introspection, cultural awareness, and self-respect.[21]
De la Luz is a board member of, and helps to develop workshops for, Voices UnBroken: a non-profit organization that produces writing workshops for Bronx young people in foster care, as well as adults in homeless shelters and correctional facilities.[21]
She frequently performs in schools, hospitals, prisons, universities, and community centers around the country. She supports positive change for the hip hop generation through organizations such as Voices UnBroken, BronxWorks, the New York City Mission Society, Good Shepherd Services, and Pepatian, Inc. She is also a staunch advocate for ending domestic violence.[7]
In 2014, she hosted the VIP Mujeres Beauty of Survival Benefit at the Museum of New York. Together with dancer Cynthia Paniagua, and produced by Pepatian, she performs a dance theater piece called Shadow Lands which helps to facilitate creative healing, for women who have suffered through domestic violence.[7]
Honors and awards
De la Luz's combination of poetry, theater, music, dance, and lifelong community activism has not gone unnoticed. In 2005, she was selected by the New York Spanish-language newspaper El Diario La Prensa as one of the "Fifty most distinguished Latinas in the United States".[2][22][3]
Beauty of Survival Award from the Violence Intervention Program, Inc.
Citation of Merit from the Borough President of the Bronx
Top 20 Puerto Rican Women Everyone Should Know
Currently
De la Luz is cultivating her own art space called El Garaje (The Garage) in the Soundview area of the Bronx,[18] where she lives with her children.[21]
She led a workshop called "How Can I Change the World" for the East Harlem Tutorial Program, which evolved into her current writing workshop "Write Your Way Representing Voices UnBroken," which she teaches at YAFFA Cultural Arts, Voices UnBroken, and through her own organization, Latinas4Life.[7]
During her spare time she enjoys singing, dancing and traveling to Puerto Rico. She regularly hosts an open mic show at the Nuyorican Poets Café.[5]
She is also a spokesmodel for Levis Jean's in a nationwide print campaign which runs in Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, US Weekly and Marie Claire magazines.[2] De la Luz was selected as a 2019 Artist Fellow by the Jerome Foundation. This will enable her to expand her knowledge of Indigenous practices, by visiting artists and healers of First Nations along the Northwest Coast of North America, Peru and Africa. Her long-range intent is to create transformation via art and Indigenous worldview healing practices.[18]
The Music of Puerto Rico has evolved as a heterogeneous and dynamic product of diverse cultural resources. The most conspicuous musical sources of Puerto Rico have primarily included African, Indigenous, and European influences, although many aspects of Puerto Rican music reflect origins elsewhere in the Caribbean. Puerto Rican music culture today comprises a wide and rich variety of genres, ranging from essentially native genres such as bomba, danza, and plena to more recent hybrid genres such as salsa, Latin trap and reggaeton. Broadly conceived, the realm of "Puerto Rican music" should naturally comprise the music culture of the millions of people of Puerto Rican descent who have lived in the United States, especially in New York City. Their music, from salsa to the boleros of Rafael Hernández, cannot be separated from the music culture of Puerto Rico itself.
Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "Nueva York", the Spanish name for "New York", and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants. This term is sometimes used for Puerto Ricans living in other areas in the Northeastern US Mainland outside New York State as well. The term is also used by Islander Puerto Ricans to differentiate those of Puerto Rican descent from the Puerto Rico–born.
The Nuyorican movement is a cultural and intellectual movement involving poets, writers, musicians and artists who are Puerto Rican or of Puerto Rican descent, who live in or near New York City, and either call themselves or are known as Nuyoricans. It originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in neighborhoods such as Loisaida, East Harlem, Williamsburg, and the South Bronx as a means to validate Puerto Rican experience in the United States, particularly for poor and working-class people who suffered from marginalization, ostracism, and discrimination.
Edwin Torres is a Nuyorican performance poet. His work incorporates vocal and physical improvisation. He is the author of Ameriscopia, One Night: Poems for the Sleepy, Yes Thing No Thing, and several other poetic books. He also has produced recordings titled Oceano Rise, Novo, and Holy Kid. He is a member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school.
Linda Viera Caballero, better known as La India, is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter of salsa, house music and Latin pop. La India has been nominated for both Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, winning the Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album for the Intensamente La India Con Canciones De Juan Gabriel album.
Puerto Rican literature is the body of literature produced by writers of Puerto Rican descent. It evolved from the art of oral storytelling. Written works by the indigenous inhabitants of Puerto Rico were originally prohibited and repressed by the Spanish colonial government.
Pedro Pietri was a Nuyorican poet and playwright and one of the co-founders of the Nuyorican Movement. He was considered by some as the poet laureate of the Nuyorican Movement.
The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is a nonprofit organization in Alphabet City, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is a bastion of the Nuyorican art movement in New York City, and has become a forum for poetry, music, hip hop, video, visual arts, comedy, and theater. Several events during the PEN World Voices festival are hosted at the cafe.
Giannina Braschi is a Puerto Rican poet, novelist, dramatist, and scholar. Her notable works include Empire of Dreams (1988), Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) and United States of Banana (2011).
A bruja is a witch.
Nicholasa Mohr is one of the best known Nuyorican writers, born in the United States to Puerto Rican parents. In 1973, she became the first Nuyorican woman in the 20th century to have her literary works published by the major commercial publishing houses, and has had the longest creative writing career of any Nuyorican female writer for these publishing houses. She centers her works on the female experience as a child and adult in Puerto Rican communities in New York City, with much of writing containing semi-autobiographical content. In addition to her prominent novels and short stories, she has written screenplays, plays, and television scripts.
Luz María "Luzma" Umpierre-Herrera is a Puerto Rican advocate for human rights, a New-Humanist educator, poet, and scholar. Her works pans a range of critical social issues, including activism and social equality, the immigrant experience, bilingualism in the United States, and LGBT matters. Luzma has made significant contributions to literature, authoring six poetry collections and two books on literary criticism, in addition to having many essays featured in academic journals.
Sandra María Esteves is a Latina poet and graphic artist. She was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, and is one of the founders of the Nuyorican poetry movement. She has published collections of poetry and has conducted literary programs at New York City Board of Education, the Caribbean Cultural Center, and El Museo del Barrio. Esteves has served as the executive director of the African Caribbean Poetry Theater. She is the author of Bluestown Mockinbird Mambo and Yerba Buena. She lives in the Bronx.
Merián Soto is a choreographer and performance artist. Soto is best known for her interdisciplinary solo, group and collaborative works that explore and reflect upon the legacy of colonialism and Latino heritage, history and culture. Simply, Soto creates choreographic works that intertwine improvisational movements and post-modern structures she calls “energy modes”. By means of her choreography that accesses the personal history of Puerto Ricans, expresses the experiences of Puerto Ricans, and elicits the cultural memory of Puerto Ricans, Soto attempts to “blur the line between “real” life everyday/commonplace movement/dance/performance and staged/”artistic” dance and performance.”
Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) is a postmodern novel in English, Spanish, and Spanglish by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi. The cross-genre work is a structural hybrid of poetry, political philosophy, musical, manifesto, treatise, memoir, and drama. The work addresses tensions between Anglo-American and Hispanic-American cultures in the United States.
Empire of Dreams is a postmodern poetry epic by Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi, who is considered "one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin American literature today".
Magdalena Gómez (1953-) is an American playwright, poet, social activist, motivational speaker, and performer. She lives in Springfield, Massachusetts where she is the artistic director of Teatro V!da, the city's first Latin@ theatre, and served as the city's second Poet Laureate. Gómez has worked with young people through the arts for nearly forty years and focuses much of her work on intergenerational collaboration.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
