Hispanic or African operas/musicals?

[RicardoMagon]

Hi everyone. As much as I love broadway, I've been on a quest to find new stories. new theater. new music that doesn't always get heard in America.  I've been thinking about all the stories set to music  that rarely ever get told in america about people of color. Does anyone know of any African or Latin american operas or musicals that they could recommend? I know nothing about the opera world but I figured some of you might. 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I love the musical Raisin, winner of the 1974 Tony for Best Musical, but we’ve rarely heard about it since.  It’s a shame because the music is gorgeous and the story is timeless.  Wish it would be revived.

Raisin on the Tony Awards

[ggersten]

Fela!

 

[LuminousBeing]

"Bernada Alba" by LaChiusa; "Caroline or Change" by Tesori (lyrics by Tony Kushner)

[Rainah]

I can list off a few well known ones, not sure how specific you're looking for

Evita is set in Argentina and is about Eva Peron

Once On This Island, which is currently playing, is set in Haiti and has an entirely poc cast. Colonialism is a pretty big theme

In The Heights is about the Latin-American immigrant experience

This assumes you want Broadway musicals set in Latin America or African, and not musicals FROM Africa or Latin America. If so, apologies. 

[dramamama611]

^And I thought just the opposite: that the op WAS looking for non-American written shows!

[daredevil]

Lost in the Stars, music by Kurt Weill, lyrics and book by Maxwell Anderson, based on the novel Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. An African minister in a small town searches for his wayward son in  Johannesburg. Beautiful music and a devastating portrait of Africa during the Apartheid era.

[RicardoMagon]

Thank you for the suggestions everyone.

To clarify, I was looking for hispanic/african theater that aren't american written shows. But feel free to list shows that are american written. Shows like RAISINS I was not aware of, so feel free to be lenient with your suggestions.

I pose this topic only because I didn't realize until recently how little Latino stories are told on Broadway. I remember Lin Manuel Miranda saying there's only 3 latino roles in all of american musical theater for men ( Paul in CHORUS LINE, Don in MAN OF LA MANCHA and Bernardo in WSS.) 

His comments made me want to search for a show/musical/opera that gives a voice to people of Hispanic or African heritage and really all people of color.

I think alot the problems with how we see race in this country stems from people of color not knowing our true history. So much of what we are taught in school about history has either been white-washed or just never told. 

More than ten thousand mexican, cuban and puerto-ricans fought in the American civil war. Why is that never told? Why do mainstream history books never mention the Mexican Magon brothers who stood up to Mexico's dictator during the mexican war of the late 1800s? 

Why do we never mention that the richest man in the world was an African King named Mansa Musa during the 1300s? People in america like to act like Africans had nothing before colonization happened. That their lives meant nothing.  But that's not true. They were kings. There were empires. There were African kings who ruled west africa. People like Mansa Musa and Sundiata Kieta were so rich they spread their gold around sinking economies in other nations. Sundiata Kieta was born unable to walk and rose up to become the leader of one of the fiercest empires in all of Africa.

Why is that story never told to young african americans growing up in America?

Why do those stories like the ones I mentioned above never get told in theater? in hollywood? in everything?

Growing up as a minority I was taught to almost be shameful of where I come from. To be ashamed of my color and the color of my culture. But when you look at history, when you look at  history of the past that never get told in the west, there's so much to be prideful for. There's so much to relish. Black Panther figured that out and I'm thankful that movie is here. But there's so much more to be told. So much beautiful history that Broadway isn't even close to looking at.

THOSE are the stories I want to see onstage. Those are the stories that give me pride in being who I am.