ANNUAL ARTIST SHOWCASE FEATURING:
-SPOKEN WORD
-POETRY
-MUSIC
-TEATRO
AND MORE!
SHOWCASE DATES:
AUGUST 29-31, 2025
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
WHAT IS PALABRA?
Directed & Produced by El Teatro Campesino Artists, “Palabra Artist Showcase” is ETC’s annual event where diverse voices and performances converge into one show. Open submission process to submit short works (up to 10 minutes) to be considered for the showcase. Selected works are rehearsed, cast and directed, and performed in person at the ETC Playhouse in San Juan Bautista.
2025 Performance Dates
FRIDAY
AUGUST 29
8:00PM SHOW
SATURDAY
AUGUST 30
8:00PM SHOW
SUNDAY
AUGUST 31
2:00PM SHOW
FEATURED ARTISTS OF PALABRA VOL. X
Writer of the short play:
“ALIEN MENUDO”
Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago. His plays have been seen in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, Seattle and all over Texas. His other plays include On The Wings of a Mariposa, Carmela Full of Wishes and the award-winning Luchadora! He recently created a new stage adaptation of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s novel Esperanza Rising that premiered at Milwaukee’s First Stage. Mr. Rios is a proud veteran of the US Army. He teaches playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. alvarosaarrios.com
Writer & Performer of the song:
“WALK”
Romulo Resendiz (America’z Mijo!) is a San Jose, CA native whose upbringing in a hardworking Latino household shaped his passion for music and community. Since 2005, Romulo has been on a personal journey of mental health healing, which deeply informs his soulful and powerful storytelling through music. Inspired by community support and driven by a desire to uplift others, he’s performed at events supporting youth programs and noble causes. His debut single Love Conquers ALL, released in 2018 after the passing of his brother, marked the beginning of a musical mission rooted in faith and resilience.
Writer of the short play:
“GRACIAS, HERMANO”
Christopher D. Soriano-Palma is a poet born and raised in Watsonville, CA. He is the author of the poetry collection “the world is burning and i’m late for work”. He earned his MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and moved to Los Angeles soon after, writing several plays, screenplays, and poetry. His short plays have been performed by El Teatro Campesino and 14/48 Hollywood. He divides his time between Watsonville and Los Angeles. You can follow him on Instagram at @ChSoriPalma.
Writer of the spoken word poetry:
“GALLETITAS” & “MI LENGUA”
Ivanna Rodriguez Ramirez. I am 23 years old from a small town called Los Banos in California. I’ve always enjoyed performing arts, particularly because I have found it to be healing, therapeutic, and transformative. As an undocumented individual, existence in this country has been an undeniably heavy weight to hold, not only for me, but for all those in a similar situation to me. Without my poetry, I would not have found words to convey the everlasting effort to create a space for my identity where I feel robbed of it. I hope that whoever is in a similar situation can feel healing through my words, or at the very least feel seen when they have been forced to stay invisible for survival.
Writer & Performer of the Monologue:
“POST POST PRE PARTY RITUAL”
Maribel Martínez is a Queer Chicanx P’urhépecha brainiac, storyteller, and dream warrior from East San José, CA. Maribel shapeshifts between public policy, higher education, and the arts. Maribel performs and writes short stories, poems, plays, and napkin memoirs and may even sing you a Mexican bolero. Maribel is a recipient of the inaugural Movimiento de Arte Y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) Cultura Fellowship and the California Arts Council Emerging Artist award. Maribel’s play “Becoming (MAR)” premiered at Teatro Vision in 2022 and was broadcast on CreaTV. Its sequel, “Mar in the Middle,” had a staged reading in 2023 and “Mar Abierto” in 2025.
Writer & Performer of the Poems:
“MASSACRE” & “COMMENCEMENT SPEECH”
Marvin Flores is a Chicano poet, teaching artist, and community organizer who won the 2024 Youth Speaks Bay Area Slam and went on to represent the Bay Area at the national youth slam in Washington, D.C. Since then my work has centered on bringing poetry to underserved and underrepresented youth in the South Bay, with the goal of launching a youth slam specifically for local youth. Marvin is also a member of Los Jaguares, a student-led organization at Foothill College dedicated to political education, advocacy, and holistic community support—addressing the spiritual, physical, and mental well-being of Latino students and their broader communities
Writer & Performer of the Monologue:
“ILEGAL”
Mauricio Sámano is a Native from Colima, Mexico; grew up in a small town named Los Tepames. Watsonville has been his home since his arrival to El Norte in 1994. Mauricio has worked in multiple theatrical productions with the world renowned El Teatro Campesino, based in San Juan Bautista for the better part of 25 years. He has also worked with Baktun 12, in Salinas, and Teatro Vision of San Jose. When he is not doing theater, he is an active community volunteer with his employer, for local non-profit organizations in the Santa Cruz area. Mauricio is a firm believer of using theater as a means to educate people on the many issues we face as a society.
Writer of the Short Script:
“THE ONES WHO CARRY”
Maximiliano (Max) Allende, born in Chile, moved to the US in the late 80s. He graduated from middle school in San Diego, CA, and high school in Miami, FL. He studied film at Seattle Central Community College and TV and Radio production at Miami Dade Community College. Maximiliano served as a correspondent for Abracadaver Magazine, and his short story “El Caballero Artista” was published in Revista Literaria Baquiana. His short script “From Stage to Scream” was made into a student project in 2007. He worked as a PA for the TV pilot “Mensajeros.” Currently residing in South Florida with his family, Maximiliano has worked in aviation for twenty years. His hobbies include writing and playing electric bass guitar.
Writer & Performer of spoken word poetry:
“CHRYSANTHEMUM”
Michael Jasso is a Poet from Visalia. He is the founder of the Loud Mouth Poetry Jam, a Certified Poet-Teacher with the California Poets In The Schools, serves on the Board of Directors of Arts Visalia, and is the Tulare County Arts Consortium’s Artist of the Year. His publications include Dia De Las Poeticas (2020), Wayside Shrines & Other Offerings (2022), Flies, Cockroaches, & Poets (2023), and Burn After Reading & Other Remains (2024).
Writer of the poema:
“LA LEYENDA DEL COLIBRI”
Miguel Ángel López is a queer Xicano-Indigenous (Hñähñu) award-winning director, writer, producer from Pomona, CA. He loves to explore decolonial practices to create art for working-class multilingual communities. He is a current Miranda Family Fellow, works for the Latino Theatre Co., and Artistic Director of Teatro Toibingna, Pomona based.
Writer & Performer of the poem:
“LOVE BLOOMED”
Ofelia “MexMama” Faz-Garza is a mama, poet, and cultural promotora from Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood. She draws inspiration from life’s subtleties and the everyday rituals that keep us grounded. The proud daughter of Mexican migrants, she treasures the ancestral heritage that roots her—even as she embraces the freedom to dream and move unbound. She lives, loves, and creates in Nepantla—the in-between space where identity and imagination meet. Her poetry and reflections have appeared in Women in Nature: An Anthology, Outrage: A Protest Anthology for Injustice in a Post 9/11 World, BASTA! 100+ Latinas Speak Out Against Violence Against Women, Voces Anthology, and more. She is the founder of Cascabel Group, an organization dedicated to building community through literary and cultural arts.
Choreographer & Performer of the danza:
“MICTLANTECUHTLI”
Paolo Sandoval Brennan. I’m 19 years old. Born and raised in Salinas. At 16 I got into Mexika (most people call it aztec) dance with calpulli yaocuauhtli. I’ve only recently returned to this dance form after rejoining Yaocuauhtli and another Mexika dance group at Hartnell. Although the Mexika aren’t my ancestors, it’s likely that my ancestors would have been conquered and assimilated by the mexika or were under some influence by these people culturally in a non violent way.
Lyricist & Performer of the song:
“UNA LUZ EN LA OSCURIDAD”
Rosa Angelica Aranda is a Mexican-American singer and actress whose goal is to provide positive, empowering, and inclusive experiences for audiences through visual performing arts. She is most active in liturgical music and works regularly with churches across the Central Valley and beyond to provide soulful soundscape in support of the mass. Rosa holds an AA in psychology from Merced College, a BA in Music from CSU Stanislaus, and a heart full of love for mariachi music. Her vocal identity is composed of a cross-cultural mix between operatic singing and mariachi-inspired belting. She sits somewhere in between the two, and injects passion for performative expression into her artwork to paint stories with sounds and gestures.
Writer & Performer of the Monologue:
“ENTRE SOMBREROS”
Rosanna Alvarez is a Chicana writer, multidisciplinary artist, and poet-educator whose work centers cultural memory, healing, and collective dignity. Her storytelling bridges generations and genres through performance, poetry, and editorial practice. She is the author of Braided [Un]Be-Longing and co-edited The Early Works of Luis Miguel Valdez in El Excentrico Magazine: El Machete Critiques of American Society. Rosanna’s art and scholarship are rooted in community and movement building, often blending ancestral remembrance with present-day resistance. She draws from her lived experience and academic background to create pieces that honor everyday survival as a radical act. Through her creative work, she offers space for grief, joy, and the stories that bloom between and across generations.
Writer & Performer of the monologue:
“¿CÓMO DE LLAMAS?”
Samantha Crystal is a fiercely proud first generation Mexican American Spoken Word Poet. She was born and raised in East Salinas, Ca (occupied lands of the Ohlones /Esselen Nation) by a single mom on a healthy diet of frijoles, tortillas y cultura! In drawing inspiration she looks to her colorful upbringing, motherhood, as well as traumas and life experiences as themes of exploration in her works. Written in both English and Spanish, Samantha’s poetry explores the intersections of Chicanx identity and oftentimes forced American assimilation. All her poetry is born from lived experiences and therefore aims to tell her story in her own words.
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