A Love
Letter to
Los Angeles:
Behind the Script
with Joel Ulloa
By Yazlin Juarez
The Circle of Imaginistas initiative is in its third year, and remains steadfast in its mission to amplify future generations of Latinx voices. This commissioning program by the Latino Theater Company pairs established Latinx playwrights with emerging writers, fostering mentorship and cultural dialogue. Tacos La Brooklyn (2023) by Joel Ulloa is the first out of a growing canon of exciting works commissioned by the LTC, and a recipient of several L.A. theater awards. This play addresses contemporary concerns within the Los Angeles community including gentrification, appropriation, and heritage. Ulloa joined us recently to share the creative process behind Tacos La Brooklyn and snapshots from L.A. history that brought his cross-cultural dramedy to the main stage.
Joel Ulloa was recruited for the Circle of Imaginistas in 2021, diverging from his career in housing and transportation to develop his writing with a cohort of theater professionals. He was mentored by Oliver Mayer, a professor at the USC School of Dramatic Arts and playwright of the recently premiered Ghost Waltz (2024). Ulloa was pleased with the match and remarked: “Oliver is a teacher at heart… he's just such a great mentor. He's really great at being able to encourage you in going down a pathway and continue blowing wind on your sails.”
Playwriting is constantly evolving, so how do you keep the momentum? In the Circle of Imaginistas, the writing process begins with inspiration packages. The playwrights are given initial prompts, themes, and moodboards that reflect the company’s mission to serve and showcase L.A.’s multicultural communities. Ulloa shared that although the writing process was rigorous, “It was great to work with a theater that is invested in your growth as an artist and [as a] writer while feeling like we're collaborating on work that aligns on shared values." He initially chose the theme of “interracial relationships,” and though the story began as a romance, he was ultimately inspired to write a love letter to Los Angeles.
“It was great to work with a theater that is invested in your growth as an artist and [as a] writer while feeling like we're collaborating on work that aligns on shared values."
Ulloa conjured memories of his childhood in Boyle Heights to craft an homage to L.A.’s Eastside through a cultural clash of passionate street vendors at the L.A. River Night Market. He can still recall walking down Brooklyn Avenue, now Avenida Cesar Chavez, with his mother in the 1990s. When creating characters for Tacos La Brooklyn, Ulloa wanted to incorporate the voices he grew up with, as he heard them: “heavily accented Spanish language from the coast of Nayarit, or some lady selling naranjas on the freeway, or a kid looking bored next to her mom selling fruta picada on MacArthur and 35th.”
Growing up across the street from Aliso Village Housing Projects in Boyle Heights, Ulloa navigated the world through sights, smells, sounds, and “weird flashes of light that drive you to write.” These memories blended into a nostalgic symphony: cholos blasting Zapp & Roger from their cars, travesuras with friends, señoras cleaning on Saturday mornings… and the occasional echo of a gunshot. His neighborhood became the backdrop for Tacos La Brooklyn because as Ulloa says, “there’s theater in it, too. It's not just about telling a story or about how people are a victim of something. People live in these ecosystems, and there's wonderful things about these ecosystems, as ‘crazy’ it may look on the outside.”
From afar, some may see Los Angeles neighborhoods as “siloed” ethnic enclaves, but to those who pay attention, these worlds cross all the time. Ulloa sought to explore historical and modern intersections of Asian and Latino culture, inspired by his Chinese wife and their biracial child. The playwright grew up with Asian community members from the fashion district who would often visit his mother’s bridal shop, negotiating the price of fabric or selling buttons in broken English. “There are these really cool overlaps across [Los Angeles] communities. They may seem unexpected on the surface, but they're more common and more familiar than we think and when we experience it, it does feel very homey, it feels warm. At least that's the way that I experienced it.”
“There are these really cool overlaps across [Los Angeles] communities. They may seem unexpected on the surface, but they're more common and more familiar than we think and when we experience it, it does feel very homey, it feels warm. At least that's the way that I experienced it.”
The play features several East-Asian characters with ties to Latino culture, including a Korean foster-child raised by Mexicans, and Japanese low-rider fanatics. The character of Chino was inspired by real cases of under-the-table adoption proceedings that failed to secure documents for Korean immigrants during the 1980’s. In this way, many Korean-American foster children found common ground with the struggles of undocumented Latinos in Los Angeles. Around 7 years ago, Ulloa discovered the Japanese-cholo phenomenon on social media, which made him wonder “What drives someone to be so focused about something so specific?” In Japan, these American subcultures are often seen as “undesirable,” and especially taboo for women. Ulloa explores and embraces these unique characters, connecting audiences through a mutual love for Chicano culture: "We learn through storytelling, and that comes in different forms both theatrical and not. It's a vessel for being able to learn about each other and to grow closer together."
"We learn through storytelling, and that comes in different forms both theatrical and not. It's a vessel for being able to learn about each other and to grow closer together."
Social media plays a major role in this story packed with pop-culture references, which is tricky to get just right. “I'll let you in on a secret,” Ulloa laughed, “I did not have an Instagram account before any of this.” His incorporation of social media was effective because he did not intend to pander to the youth, but to capture the depth of online communities. From a storytelling perspective, social media can serve as a setting, an antagonist, and an –often unreliable– narrator: “I used it as a way to connect with the outside world and the pressures of being a street vendor trying to balance [having] a really good product –which is your taco, or your barbeque, or your cacahuates… But there's also another layer that people are tapping into, which is ‘vibe.’ What do you represent? So much of that branding starts to spill into your social media and people are not only just consuming the product, they're consuming everything else that goes with it. It can be very precarious.” Will we see more digitally-driven plays like this in the future? Ulloa notes that as technology continues to integrate into our relationships and careers, he “[looks] forward to seeing them in more work and challenging the benefits versus the costs they elicit for the world.”
Although playwriting was not his original calling, Ulloa has quickly adapted to this new ability and its avenues for community-building. He entered theater as a child actor, eventually starring in a production of Los Vecinos by Luis Alfaro at age 11. His journey came full-circle when he reconnected with Alfaro, a decorated Chicano playwright and fellow Imaginista. Tacos La Brooklyn premiered for the LTC’s 2023 fall season, and was received with open arms by Angelinos. Ulloa was touched by the production's success because it means that others connected with the world he grew up in: “I hope that [Tacos La Brooklyn] was not only entertaining, but hopefully communicated something about who we are as a city, who we are as a community, who we are as a group of people.”
“I hope that [Tacos La Brooklyn] was not only entertaining, but hopefully communicated something about who we are as a city, who we are as a community, who we are as a group of people.”
Joel Ulloa and the Circle of Imaginistas invite audiences across L.A. and beyond to join us at the Los Angeles Theater Center to take part in a theatrical, cultural exchange. Tacos La Brooklyn unites flavors from around the world with a modern twist, allowing diverse theater-goers to see themselves represented in roles that resonate with them. The Latino Theater Company continues to bring emerging Latinx writers to flight, so stay tuned for more fantastic productions coming soon…
Joel Ulloa grew up in Boyle Heights. His early connection to theater started with a role in a local production, Los Vecinos – an adaptation of the Mexican Pastorela. Most recently, Joel’s 10-minute play, A Bag of Options, was produced as part of Teatro Frida Kahlo’s 10-minute play festival in Los Angeles. He also wrote Re-Vitalized which was selected as part of the 2020-21 Cimientos Program – a play development program hosted by IATI Theater in New York City. He is a member of Collective Voz, a writer’s collective in Los Angeles, and enjoys writing, storytelling, and gives acting a shot from time to time. Joel has a professional background in housing, public transportation, and electric vehicles, and studied Urban Planning and Business Administration at USC and UCLA
Yazlin Juarez is a writer and multidisciplinary artist based in Pico Rivera. She takes every opportunity to forge spoken word poetry, photography, and design into instruments of social change. Yazlin discovered her love of theater through the Cultural Arts and Diversity Resource Center, where served as the Poet’s Corner director. She is published in the Red Wheelbarrow Anthology and TWANAS Press and continues to capture her history from a queer Chicana lens.
📸 Tacos La Brooklyn, 2023 Production Photos by Grettel Cortes Photography