When Josh Trevino, technical theatre sophomore, joined “¡Viva Cultura!” as the production stage manager, he was excited it was a larger-scale production than he expected it to be.

Earlier this year, Alex Blanco, theatre education junior, and Emilio Amaya, performance and production junior, co-produced “¡Viva Cultura!” to celebrate Hispanic and Latino culture. According to Trevino, the celebration showcase was unique because it was the first production solely emphasizing Hispanic culture in the Texas State Theatre Department.

“[Blanco and Amaya are] very passionate about what they’re doing,” Trevino said. “It’s honestly been inspiring to work with them because they’re the first people to do [a production like this] here. And they’re the first people to have the guts to do it, and it’s something that needed to be done.”

Texas State is a Hispanic Serving Institution.  However, Blanco said there is not a lot of diversity in the theater program. The production gathered a cast of 23 people from multiple cultural and academic backgrounds.

“I’ve worked with many casts before, and these individuals want to be here,” Blanco said. “People came out of hiding to be a part of this event because typically in the theater community, we see a lot of the same people doing things over and over again. In this production, this is a lot of people’s first time performing at Texas State.”

The showcase on Oct. 12 included 16 acts with notable performances such as a group musical number of “In the Heights,” a monologue from the play “Marisol” by José Rivera and a musical number of “Remember Me” from “Coco.”

“I think the most important thing for us was just telling true, authentic stories and just celebrating our voices,” Amaya said. “This event started off as just a little idea [that] me and Alex talked about… [and] one little thing evolved into something more than me or Alex could have expected.”

Each act sampled important instances from various productions that share significant aspects of Hispanic and Latino culture.

“We picked a lot of pieces from plays and musicals and songs that just celebrated what it means to be Latino in this world,” Amaya said. “We were given a lot of scripts and we just had to read through them and try to find which pieces, which scenes from those pieces, spoke to us the most.”

“¡Viva Cultura!” was the first production Amaya and Blanco directed. It was an independent and student-driven project with a faculty member ensuring the production ran smoothly.

“I’m very proud of my culture,” Amaya said. “I bring it here, I share it whenever I can and it’s something I want to incorporate now into my career… as I get out into the real world. I hope I can be a part of some sort of revolution for Latinos’ representation.”

Amaya wanted the audience to connect with the stories shared in “¡Viva Cultura!” regardless of their ethnic background.

“Even if you’re not a part of our community, you still find some sort of connection to it,” Amaya said. “You see how beautiful and colorful our community is [and] how vibrant we can be despite hard times that we’ve gone through in the past and hard times that we’re going through now… This is who we are.”