by Clara Galvano Rivera
Eugene Rodriguez, our PRIDA Artist of the Month, likes to refer to himself as “The Chairman Emeritus of Community Board 11” and laughs when he explains that he’s the only one who ever says that! An award-winning playwright, poet and performer, he never learned to speak Spanish at home. “My father said that the Spanish were horrible to our Taino ancestors and he didn’t want to speak their language, so we didn’t. I actually learned Spanish on 116th Street!”
After graduating from Aviation H.S., Rodriguez, joined the Navy. A Vietnam Veteran, he shares “I was there 3 years, 11 months, and 10 days — I couldn’t wait to get out, they didn’t treat me right,” he looked around for employment and found it as an air traffic controller. “The job is very stressful. You have to stand up to see where the planes are going, control the local area, pay attention to what’s coming and going. That’s why the towers have glass walls. It’s a serious job. People’s lives depend on you doing your job accurately.” After being there for 11 years, he and his colleagues, all 11,345 went on strike. Having asked for better wages and working conditions, President Regan refused their requests and fired the whole bunch and banned them from federal service for life. So now what?
“I always wanted to write,” Rodriguez says “I didn’t want to pay for classes, and I had heard that Miriam Colon’s Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre was offering a free playwrights program. I signed up, took them and I became one! I never thought of myself as a playwright, until then.” Rodriguez was a member of the Puerto Rico Traveling Theatre’s (PRTT) Professional Playwrights Workshop for 10 years and has had more than 20 plays produced and shown in various off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theatres.
His play, “Mambo Louie & The Dancing Machine” was produced by PRTT and received rave reviews. “Mambo Louie was the first time that mambo music had been used in a play; we had some really good music in there.” This play was really a tribute to a guy that was a regular at the Corso Nightclub. “Louie Maquina era un negrito alto y cuando empazaba a bailar, everyone would circle around him to watch. He had some amazing moves, man!”
Rodriguez is a man who gets things done. He’s responsible for making “El Barrio” the legal official name of, well, El Barrio! Now he has his eyes set on creating a Theatre District there. As Chairman of The El Barrio Theatre Group, he produced “La Mariposa” at The Julia de Burgos Cultural Center and again at Artspace PS 109, and “The Mambo Café” in the Black Box Theatre at El Museo del Barrio. “We have at least six or seven small gems in the area that could be used for plays. What we need is foot traffic. After a production, people like to go out for drinks, dinner and this can bring millions into the local economy. El Barrio can be a Cultural District and there are plenty of people in the neighborhood that can be hired to work the lights, do the mechanical stuff, etc. We can take many off the streets and train them and give them decent paying jobs. We produce the same way Broadway produces their plays, nothing different. We just need the opportunity.” PRIDA has gone full speed ahead in support of these efforts. They have succeeded in renaming the theatre at the Julia de Burgos Latino Culture Center, “The Miriam Colon Valle Playhouse”. Official renaming will take place soon.
Rodriguez talks about one dark spot in his life. After leaving the air traffic controller gig, he had a recurring nightmare where planes were not “listening” to his instructions. One mistake can cause an accident and take many lives. He wrote A Stormy Night, about his time in the tower. Eventually he found a way to stop those nightmares and it’s something he shares with veterans every time he speaks to a group. “Write it down and put your heart into it. Then, get a bag and either burn the pages or bury them in a bag and put it away. Eventually, the trauma will lessen and disappear from your life. It did for me.”
Happily married to his wife, Linda for 45 years, they live in a brownstone that had been abandoned and which they have restored back to life (he calls the brownstone La Mariposa). I am sure their three kids all helped in one way or another back then, but Rodriguez’s mechanics training at Aviation helped him then, and continues to keep him busy. “I’m still working on it.” “With six healthy grandchildren visiting constantly, he doesn’t have time to stop. “My grandkids are my biggest happiness.”
There is one other thing on Rodriguez’ mind. He thinks theatres in El Barrio should be named after Puerto Rican actors. For instance, the theater at El Museo del Barrio could be named the Rita Moreno Theatre, or the Raul Julia Theatre or the José Ferrer Theater. “These are just suggestions, but it does make sense, you want to see names on the marquee that represents your people.” Stay tuned to see what this prolific Nuyorican playwright has his sights on next. It could be something called “East Side Story”, details not available at this writing, but stay tuned.
Contact info: eugenius442@earthlink.net
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