Teatro Mexicano de (La) Frontera

A border denotes a limit, either territorial or any other type. It is said that the border is not a fact of nature but a social construct, something invented by men as an indicator of differences. Border Theater endeavors to break these limits inflicted by cultural and social impositions. What is life like for the common people along the United States/Mexican border and how does this affect the theater? To better understand Border Theater, we must focus not only on the individuals who affect Border Theater, but also understand the environment that affects it as well. The average person along the U.S./Mexican border is exploited, oppressed. Where is proof this occurs? Why does this occur? And what can be done to ameliorate this problem? The theater produced nowadays in the Northern part of Mexico is a field that has not been researched in depth. The playwrights who live, work, and produce in this part of Mexico are an integral part of that intellectual community. Hence, the importance of exploring their works and their contributions to the intellectual community at large is vital to our understanding of the border culture. Their works reflect a mixture of idiosyncrasies unique to this culture. Moreover, their plays reveal themes of socio-cultural interest, being this part of the border culture, and at the same time, they contribute to the transformation of the theatrical aesthetic. The border theater exposes the social environment pervading in this unique milieu. Border Theater (the theater produced by playwrights who live and produce their works in the U.S.-Mexico Border) is an essential part of the Mexican dramaturgy in spite of being considered by the mainstream critic as an opuscula. Nevertheless, its study has been neglected. Mainstream critics only focus in the theater produced in Mexico City.