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Ana Elena PugaLove of Journalism Leads to a Career in TheaterBy Theresa Rojas, Editor, ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? and PhD Student, Department of EnglishPHOTO PROVIDED BY VICTOR ESPINOSAFulbright Scholar, Dr. AnaElena Puga holds a joint appointment inthe departments of Theater and Spanishand Portuguese where she is noted forher work on aesthetics and politics in LatinAmerican and US Latino performance. “Thewonderful joint appointment that I nowenjoy, between Theatre and Spanish andPortuguese has turned out to be a good fitfor me. The most rewarding part is feelinglike a bit of a bridge in which I help folksfrom Theatre and SPPO come together.”Puga will be spending a year in Mexicoworking on her project Staging MigrantSuffering. She notes, “Since immigrationreform is in the works now, this researchfeels extremely urgent and the [Fulbright]award could not have been more timely.”Puga is also a translator and dramaturg.She explains: “Dramaturgy is the artof creating the intellectual climate for thereception of a work. The dramaturg worksas a kind of consultant to a theater and toa director. She or he may be involved in awide range of activities: translating plays,promoting their production, helping thedirector arrive at a production concept,making suggestions during rehearsals,Faculty ProfileNewly mintedwriting program notes, and organizingevents such as exhibits orpost-show discussions or symposiumsaround the themes raised bya production, among other things.”Originally from Chicago, Puga“grew up about a block fromWrigley Field. I was a Cubs fanfrom an early age but the constantdisappointment led me to give itup later in life. I also always hada transnational connection toMexico – especially Guadalajara,where my mother is from, andGuanajuato, where my grandfatherhad a magical garden witheight guacamayas and a little roomfull of cages in which my mother’sstepmom kept a total of 80-somedifferent varieties of Australianparakeets. Between the birds andthe swing my grandfather set upfor me on the branch of a tall tree,I was pretty much in heaven there.”Ana Puga began her career asa journalist. She recalls, “When I was a kid,my father would bring all the newspapershome every day: the Tribune, the DailyNews, and the Sun-Times. I loved readingeverything from Ann Landers to the politicalopinion columns, especially Mike Roykoand his slashes at our very own Chicagocacique, Mayor Richard J. Daley. Also, myparents didn’t have much money to travel,so I wanted a career that would finance mycraving to see the world. My dream was tobe a foreign correspondent on an expenseaccount. For a while, I was. My journalismjobs took me to Caracas (no expenseaccount), Dallas (limited expenses, since Imostly covered the suburbs of Dallas), Tokyo(better expense account), Mexico City (bestexpense account), Boston, and Washington,DC, oddly enough in that order.”It was journalism that led Puga to theater.“I loved the drama of street life, from celebrationsof ethnic roots to urban guerrillawarfare, all of which I later found out can bestudied with theoretical frameworks developedin the field of performance studies.Political protest, and political repression,has always fascinated me, ever since I readRoyko’s account of how Black Panther FredHampton was assassinated during an FBIraid, and of how that murder was coveredup with what I now recognize as theatricalstrategies.”Puga is the co-founder of La MicroTheater. She explains, “It’s a theatercompany that I founded along with somefriends when I was just out of graduateschool. Having our own company was ahuge learning experience, since we had tostart it from the ground up. I would highlyrecommend to young people interestedin staging work, their own or others, thatif there is work that they would like tosee staged but can’t get staged that theyproduce it themselves. As Judy Garland andMickey Rooney said: ‘Let’s put on a show!’”Puga’s favorite part of her current workis “teaching students who are genuinelyinterested in learning and in sharing theirexperiences and ideas – both undergradsand grad students.” She also loves “goingoff into the field to talk to people aboutwhat is happening in their lives. Besidestalking to folks, through participant-observationethnography I can better understandtheir experience of the world. At themoment, for instance, I am on leave fromteaching in order to conduct researchin shelters for migrants who are mostlyundocumented and mostly from CentralAmerica. I volunteer in the shelters, participatein daily life there, yet also do interviewsand take notes on the side. This isa great way to learn more about variousperformative strategies for representingmigrant suffering and defending migrantrights. Recently, for instance, my researchin the shelters has involved sweeping andmopping floors, cleaning refrigerators,helping a very old woman in her wheelchairdrink her atole, participating in aBaptist prayer service, attending a Catholicmass, and interpreting for an Englishspeakingmigrant who was robbed anddoesn’t speak Spanish.”For students considering studyingtheater, she says, “Major in engineering. Justkidding. Seriously, it’s not such a terriblerisk. There is a ‘real world’ in the world oftheatre and of performance more broadlyconstrued.” Puga’s work demonstrates just afew of those rich possibilities.4