Language Justice is community joy
Language justice in entertainment is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.
The cenzontle interpreter team with the cast at Asheville Community Theater (ACT)
Our joy is important. Joy is liberation. We deserve to feel welcomed in entertainment spaces.
Cenzontle had the unique experience of translating a classical play and interpreting it at Asheville Community Theater’s mainstage. The 39 Steps is a parody play adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The production is played by four actors in total. Our interpreters Monse, Dulce, Ingrid, and our star-guest Kelvin each played one of the actors in Spanish during a live performance. We attended rehearsals, learned acting cues from the actors themselves, and even made everyone laugh backstage. As interpreters working in community spaces fighting for social justice, it felt refreshing to get to perform for the arts.
The day of the play, we saw our grandparents, our siblings, our compas, and our friends walking into the community theater, many of whom we don't usually have the opportunity to see any art shows with. With the help of our interpretation equipment and our wonderful coordinator Omar, everyone in the audience who wanted to hear the play in Spanish could. After two hours of murder mystery and fake accents, the actors and interpreters had an opportunity to talk back with the audience. Our favorite things that we heard: “I haven’t been to a play since I left my home country years ago. This was so special.” Someone also shared about the experience, “I was watching the actors, but listening and understanding the entire play in Spanish!"
Opportunities like these are essential for the latine and hispanic community. The arts world has to remember that we deserve to be entertained too. We want to be in places where we can laugh and smile and cry and feel all the emotions. Creating multilingual entertainment requires resources—translators, voice actors, subtitles, dubbing, and marketing strategies that reach diverse audiences. It is vital to fund opportunities that ensure everyone, regardless of their language, can fully participate in these shared cultural experiences. Language justice in entertainment is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.
We highly value Asheville Community Theater’s commitment to language justice and hope to see their example being followed by more local groups and beyond. Save the date for our next collaboration- In The Heights musical coming to you summer 2026!
