Review: TACOS LA BROOKLYN at Latino Theatre Company At LATC

With apologies to Rodney King, can’t we all just get…a lunch?

No, apparently, we cannot. Not peacefully. Not if it means buying a pricey, gentrified Mexican morsel from a Korean street vendor who is playing an authenticity card he may not have “earned.” On the other hand, what is authentic anyway and who is allowed to dictate what person gets to represent any given culture?  An Instagram influencer by virtue of having thousands of followers? One has to figure that the lowrider culture-loving men and women back in Japan wouldn’t object to a few tacos lovingly prepared by Asian hands at an outdoor street market across the globe. Then again, these faux vatos aren’t so easily canceled.

“Appreciation not appropriation” and all its messy complications sits at the heart of TACOS LA BROOKLYN, a new play by Joel Ulloa produced by the Latino Theatre Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. A co-production with East West Players, Ulloa’s play makes the case for deeper investigation and against the kind of snap judgments that its hero, Chino, endures and fuels. Engagingly performed and containing plenty of cool visuals, Fidel Gomez’s production is a bit of a group hug. But it plays.

Our scene is East L.A., specifically the embattled LA River Night Market where food vendors ply their wares to hungry and very loyal customers. One of the market’s stars is Chino, a  former foster kid who is a few more successful nights away from securing a downpayment for the brick-and-mortar location of his Chino’s Underground Tacos which he hopes to open on Cesar Chavez Avenue. Chino has a running wager with his food-hawking market mates Mike (Xavi Moreno) and Monse (Zilah Mendoza) who sell meats and sweets respectively. They do OK, but it's Chino (Gavin K. Lee) who is always walking away with the six pack of cervezas that the three are wagering for the first person who gets to 50 customers. The “secret sauce” of his underground tacos is the barbacoa technique that Chino learned from Don Agapio (Sal Lopez), his adopted grandfather. And the presence of Don Aga's longtime friend Lencha (Alejandra Flores) who makes the tortillas doesn’t hurt either.

The night market is a bustling space, with patrons rushing on and off to sample the wares. Even more traffic-y is the web where social media influencers blast out their likes and troll-ish quips. By virtue of a series of  jazzy projections designed by Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh,  Chino, Mike, Monse and the lowrider-loving Asians from the Whittier Blvd. Social Club in Nagoya are represented like rock stars or videogame avatars.

The friendly feud between Chino and Mike takes a turn when Mike directs customers to come find him “next to the Chinese guy selling tacos.” That ends up being catnip for influencer Yesenia Tapia (Esperanza America) – a local who is fiercely protective of the neighborhood and her culture – to train her sights and her #appreciationnotappropriation lens – on Chino. Chino fires back online: He believes in elevating the cuisine, not stealing it. Over the course of the play, we get Chino’s backstory, how he came by his food knowledge, and we check in periodically with Whittier Blvd. Social Club, and watch as a market – and a neighborhood – start to transition, all to the strains of a guitar played by El Musica, a modern day strolling minstrel (Jesus “Cuy” Perez).

Containing sections in three different languages (with helpful supertitles), TACOS LA BROOKLYN is feel-good stuff presented with some hip energy. Director Gomez mines the humor and the heart of Ulloa’s tale, keeping things engaging and balanced, almost to excess. There are no bad people in this story, just unwise choices which lead to realizations, course corrections and the ending that you would hope a partnership between Latino Theatre Company and East West Players would engender. Minus some of the salty language, and if the multi-media elements could travel, this one might be good for a school tour.   

The casting is solid, with TACOS LA BROOKLYN benefitting greatly from the presence of Lopez and Flores as the elders who have helped Chino on his journey. Lopez makes Don Aga a proud and occasionally brusque man, a businessman himself who will never sell out his community. Flores’s Lencha is warmth and reassurance personified, the yin to Lopez’s crusty yang. The presence of Zilah Mendoza (ELECTRICIDAD, THE CLEAN HOUSE) is always a welcome sight, and she makes Monse more than just a bland keeper of peace.

As the two combatants on different (but not necessarily opposite) sides of a cultural divide, America and Lee generate some interesting friction. In America’s hands, Yesenia is no empty-headed self-promoter. Channeling a laid back carelessness of a young Keanu Reeves, Lee embodies the kid and adult Chino with equal charisma. We certainly get why so many people are looking out for the guy.

Props also to the Latino Theatre Company for managing to turn its home at the Los Angeles Theatre Center into a first rate artistic community center with three performances running concurrently. Now that’s food for the masses. 

TACOS LA BROOKLYN plays through Oct. 29 at 514 S. Spring St., L.A.

Photo of Alejandra Flores, Ariel Kayoko Labasan, Gavin K. Lee and Jesus “Chuy” Perez
by Grettel Cortes Photography

 

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