(Re)tracing la Pastorela: Performance, policy, pedagogy and power

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Texas State Board of Education has recently approved and is implementing new state adopted standards. One segment of the standards, titled Historical and Cultural Relevance articulates the expectation that students will explore diverse cultures. As the state mandates that teachers include culturally diverse perspectives, university programs preparing students for a Texas theatre teaching certificate must consider how they prepare teachers to meet these state standards. This article advocates for more diversity in stories and storytelling in theatre teacher preparation programs, examining la Pastorela (or The Shepherd’s Play) as one example of an enduring title in Mexican American communities. Dating back to the early 1500s and first performed in the Americas by Indigenous Mexicans for Spanish soldiers, la Pastorela has continued to endure and evolve throughout the regions where it was first performed. This article offers an historical analysis of how la Pastorela was brought to and developed in the Americas and how it has transformed over the centuries. The article further encourages university theatre programs to recognize this often dismissed critical tradition as one that deserves to be witnessed in order to teach a more inclusive version of our history, at the university level and therefore in K-12 schools.