10 Questions with Marta Martínez

When the actors emerged onstage Wednesday night for the opening of Trinity Repertory Company’s latest play, La Broa’ (Broad Street), many in the audience were hearing the story for the first time. But for others, it was a familiar tale — one they’d grown up hearing from aunts and grandmothers and even lived through their own experience. The play’s title refers to Providence’s Broad Street, where Rhode Islanders from “la communidad Latina” have made their home since the 1950s. The production is inspired by Latino History of Rhode Island: Nuestras Raíces, an oral history project and, eventually, book by Rhode Island Latino Arts Executive Director Marta Martínez.

Martínez worked closely with playwright Orlando Hernández, a former Rhode Island resident and RILA performing arts programs coordinator now living in New York, as he adapted the collected stories for the stage. Here, Martínez shares the inspiration behind the project and what it was like seeing her work adapted for the stage for the first time.

 

Have you seen the show yet?

I saw it opening [night]. That was the first time I saw it all the way through. I peeked in occasionally during rehearsals, but I purposely didn’t want to watch. They invited me often, but I didn’t want to watch. I wanted just to see the play with everyone else.

 

What was it like seeing it the first time?

It was a range of emotions. It was very nostalgic. [There was] great pride that the Latino story — more than seeing my work on stage — that this community that has been around so long and who feel sometimes unheard finally has a voice. That’s what went through my mind, and those were the comments I’m getting from people who attended. It’s like, ‘Finally, our story, my story, my relatives’ story.’ Some of the individuals that I interviewed, either their family members are attending or they themselves are attending. So all of that range of emotions of great pride that that’s happening.

 

Is there a lot of excitement in the Latino community around the play?

Yeah. For a few days they have what they call previews. And those few nights — there were four nights of them — I was getting so many tags on social media just with long, really beautifully written comments and speeches of how proud and excited [people are]. A lot of them are young people who are saying just what I said a little while ago. It’s like, ‘Finally, our stories.’ And some comments were like, ‘I had no idea all these people went through all this just so that we could have what we have now.’ So that was the first sign that people were just thrilled, and there were lots of those. And then afterwards, people came up to me. They just were very, you know — a range of emotions, same as me. Cried, laughed, just proud. Those kinds of things.

 

How did the partnership with Trinity Rep come about?

I became involved with Trinity Rep in a very significant way seven years ago, in 2016. [Rhode Island Latino Arts] provides art from every genre, and we really weren’t doing that much in the theater world. We had one or two people who the closest to theater was performing spoken word, but Trinity wanted to — they had a play that happened to take place in Spain. And they thought, ‘Let’s bring some Latinos on the stage.’ So they ended up in my office. And I just said, ‘Well, I really hope Trinity does more than just give tickets out.’ So that’s how I got involved.

From that we formed what we called Teatro en el Verano, it’s ‘Theater in the Summer.’ And Trinity and RILA have been co-sponsoring or co-producing it since 2016. It’s plays written or adapted by local [artists]. Once they announced RILA was involved, that’s when all the theater makers started coming out of the woodwork. ‘I’m an actor, I’m a writer, I want to get involved.’ And so our little team of Teatro del Pueblo [RILA’s theater program] started to form. And then I started to say, ‘You know, we need to do more. Let’s just not isolate this program.’ I kept telling Trinity, ‘We need to do more.’ I really was very stubborn and said, ‘We really would like to do more, there’s got to do be more that Trinity could do.’ And they listened. One day [Trinity Rep Artistic Director] Curt Columbus came up to me and said, ‘You know, we know you’re doing this project, and we’re trying to figure out what is it that we can do that could make an impact to the Latino community more than just what we’re doing now. Can we turn your project into a play?’ And I kind of sat on that for a while because it just never occurred to me that they would turn around and do that. Yes, these stories need to be told. They need to be on stage and if it’s going to be on stage, it should be in the state’s largest and most revered repertory company. That was three years ago.

 

How involved were you with the actual production?

Orlando for a couple of years worked with me. He was in charge of theater programming [for RILA], so he became very familiar with not just the organization, but with my project. That’s an oral history project. It’s a program of RILA. But it’s my personal project. I took it on and I just have kept it going. He learned how to do a couple of interviews and helped me, and so he was familiar with the project already. When he was selected [to write the play], he immediately said, ‘We need to get together.’ During COVID is when he really worked on it very intently, and we kept in touch over Zoom and he had lots of questions. What I worried about from day one is because this is a living history of people’s lives, some of these people are still alive here, and I wanted to make sure that whoever wrote the play did it justice and that it represented not just the individuals, but also the larger community. He really was very respectful of that and always checked with me. And if there was anything I asked him to change, we would talk about it. It was a good team effort.

 

And you said you hadn’t actually seen it performed all the way through until opening night?

One of the things I learned that I had no idea [about] — he kept it a secret — he put me in the play. And I had no idea. He never told me. The play is based around an oral historian who goes out and starts collecting the history of Latinos and interviewing people. And so that person is me. I didn’t know that, that he had inserted me into the play as deeply as he did. And so I’m in it. I’m in the play. Which, you know, talk about emotions. It was moving, touching, but kind of weird rewatching your life.

 

One of the main characters in the play is Doña Rosa. And she’s based on a real person, right?

Her name is Doña Fefa. Josefina is her name, and they used to call her Doña Fefa. And the whole play is based on actual events. She’s the main character and when we first spoke, Orlando and I had decided she was going to be the center. We talked about how the play was going to be built around her. Because really, that’s what she did. One of the first questions that I ask of people who I run into that tell me they moved here back in the ’60s or ’70s and I’m interviewing them, I would always ask, ‘Where did you shop? Where did you buy your groceries?’ And they always said Fefa’s Market. Every single person who is seventy or older, sixty or older, said, ‘Oh yeah, I used to go to Providence to this bodega called Fefa’s Market.’ Having her in the center of the story to me was very key. And so they did put her at the center, but they had me with her as well. And there were people in the play on opening night, people who came up to me and said, ‘Oh, I used to shop there.’ Her name is still very well-known and very popular.

 

So people were able to relive their memories with her.

Exactly. People who actually shopped or who she brought from the Dominican Republic. There’s still people here who came because of her. They’ll remember her.

 

How did the Nuestras Raíces project come about in real life?

The story I tell is when I moved here, the first thing you miss is your food, right? Your food, your music, your customs. So when I first moved here, I went out looking for Mexican food. And there wasn’t [any] at the time, there were no Mexican restaurants. And a friend of mine said, ‘You need to go talk to Josefina Rosario.’ And I went and met her. She’s very warm and friendly and started telling me her story. Of course, I have a journalism background, so it was basically me asking her a million questions. And something about her story just kind of hit me and I said, ‘This is kind of cool.’ And I had a tape recorder on me and I took it out and started recording her just informally. From that it just kind of took off. I realized she was a special person. And I would go back often and she would say you need to go talk to so-and-so and so-and-so and this other person. And next thing you know, it just kind of turned into what people finally told me was oral history. This was 1991, so it’s been that long.

 

What do you hope people take away from the show when they go see it?

What it reflects is the history of what was going on in the early days of a particular community, but it’s not just one community. After the show, a few people came up to me who were African American and there was a couple of Asians and there was a Greek lady even who came up and said, ‘You know, that’s my story too.’ It’s not just Latinos that felt discriminated [against] when they didn’t speak English or who couldn’t understand their utility bill and so their utilities were cut off. Those kinds of things. We’re all one, we all share that. Immigrants are here to work hard and to create a community and to contribute positively.

 

Is there anything else that you wanted to share, either about the show or about Nuestras Raíces?

I’m still collecting, so I’d like people to feel compelled [to share]. And some people are like, ‘Well, I’m not Latino.’ I’m like, ‘That’s alright. I’d be happy to take your story.’ Tell your story and if ever anybody wants to reach out to me — if you know somebody who has a story from the early days, that would be the best thing. Because I’m still trying to capture some of those early stories, but [also] Latinos now if they’re interested in telling the story, by all means. It changes your life. Some of these early pioneers, especially Doña Fefa and her family, it changed her life. She kind of realized her significance. I laugh when I say that because people keep telling me that — ‘Do you know what you did?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m just doing this project.’ I have to sit back and realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s going to make a difference whether it’s positive or negative. And to make sure you capture it somehow — write a poem, write a song, tell a story, write a play.

 

La Broa’ (Broad Street) plays at Trinity Rep through Feb. 18. Visit the website for times and ticket prices.

 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

 

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