WYOpen Stages, a diversity initiative of the University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance, presents “Bless Me, Coatlicue,” the first play about the life and work of the celebrated Chicano writer Rudolfo Anaya, Friday, February 11 and Saturday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. nightly.

Produced by Cecilia Aragón and Patrick Konesko and directed by Aragón, this dramatic staged reading will be performed in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts Thrust Theatre.

A talkback with playwright Robert Con David-Undiano, a friend of Anaya, will be held after the Saturday evening performance.

Tickets are $5 for the public and $3 for senior citizens and students. To purchase tickets, visit the Performing Arts box office, call (307) 766-6666 or go online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts.

Anaya had deep roots in rural New Mexico. His father’s family were cattle workers and sheepherders, while his mother’s family were farmers from Puerto De Luna in the Pecos Valley. Anaya’s upbringing affected him profoundly and is reflected in his many novels, children’s books, poetry, plays, and non-fiction works. His groundbreaking work, which explores the human condition, had a great influence on Chicano/a literature from the 1970s onward.

“Bless Me, Coatlicue” tracks Anaya’s development and identity as a writer from his early work in the 1960’s through his passing in 2020.

“Coatlicue is the Aztec goddess of life and death,” said Aragón. “She is front and center in this play, omnipresent throughout the protagonist’s life as he comes to terms with his identity on the borderlands of many cultures.”

The play explores Anaya’s relationship with his wife, Pat, as well as his niece, UW’s own Cecilia Aragón, who directed many of Anaya’s plays. It highlights issues that confronted emerging Chicano writers of the time, including personal integrity, community building, lost indigenous history, and the lure of commercialism in the publishing industry.

Central to the play is Anaya’s relationship to “la curandera,” or spiritual healer, who figures so prominently in his most acclaimed work, “Bless Me, Ultima.” The young Anaya hit an impasse while working on the novel, and later claimed that “La Ultima” appeared to him and announced that his novel would not succeed until he included her in it. 

In dramatic fashion, “Bless Me, Coatlicue,” presents this often-referenced scene for the first time and explores the rich​thematic symbolism of “La Ultima’s” presence in the novel and throughout Anaya’s work and life. The play’s moving final scene provides closure to his relationship with and the meaning of his tie to “La Ultima.”

“Upholding the role of a cultural scribe, Anaya faced many transformations, so this play will speak powerfully to Latinos and those who know Anaya’s work,” said Aragón.

“But it will resonate just as much with others—these pivotal moments in Anaya’s life are at the core of human experience.”

“Bless Me, Coatlicue” is supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Legislature.

The UW Department of Theatre and Dance wishes to thank our co-sponsors for this production, community sponsor  KOCA Radio 93.5 Radio Bilingue Voz de la Gente, as well UW’s School of Culture, Gender, and Social Justice, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, and the Spanish program.

WYOpen Stages is an initiative to develop, produce, and present socially-conscious, thought-provoking work that fully engages the community in active dialogue on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The initiative aims to build bridges, earn trust, and secure the resources needed to make systemic changes in the performing arts

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.