Loco Culebra/Crazy Snake returns this weekend
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D.C. artist Quique Avilés will reprise his mythi-comical character el Loco Culebra / Crazy Snake this weekend at GALA Hispanic Theatre.
Longtime fans will recognize el Loco Culebra, a character that since the 1990s has evolved along with Avilés, a Salvadoran-born, District-bred poet, performer and artist. In this chapter of the story, Crazy Snake (also known as “The Defender of Brown People”) comes back to earth to uphold the dignity of immigrants in the times of Donald Trump. Because this is a Quique Avilés enterprise, el Culebra’s chief weapons for defending la raza are poetry, performance art, percussions, and acerbic humor.
Besides the mythical snake-narrator, Avilés also plays a street urchin called Chambas, who grew up selling chicles (chewing gum) in El Salvador, before migrating north to escape la mara street gangs. During a decade in Mexico, he morphs into a slang slingin’ Mexican güey. Eventually he makes it across the U.S. border, loses his accent, learns English, and makes a new life with an American wife—all to a sound track of Oscar de Leon songs.
Since el Loco Culebra/Crazy Snake is back for two-nights only, we interviewed Avilés to find out what to expect of this brief apparition.
How did your character, el Loco Culebra, come about?
He was born in 1996. He was born in my very first one-man show, where I played four different characters. It was called “Latinhood” and was born at (now defunct) La Peña, at 15th and Irving (streets) in Columbia Heights, with a live band led by Lilo Gonzalez, “La Mt. Pleasant.”
Who is el Loco Culebra?
He claims he is not really a human. He’s part of the gods or the spirits and calls himself “El Defensor de los Cafecitos / The Defender of Brown People”. He’s a crazy guy who doesn’t have a nationality but knows he’s here to defend brown people.
What are his origins?
He’s a descendent of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl-Kukulkan. The Aztecs call him Quetzalcoatl. The Mayans call him Kukulkan. So he’s a descendent of those gods, the feathered serpent / la serpiente emplumada symbolizing the union the meeting of earth and heaven.
How does Loco Culebra’s story begin this time?
There is no television in heaven, so (Loco Culebra) got distracted by playing cards with (the late Mexican comic legend) Cantinflas. He’s hanging out with god and flirting with La Virgen de Guadalupe. But he wants to know what’s going down on earth. He looks down and sees that Trump was elected.
He’s like, “Hold up, hold up, hold up! Nah man.”
So he comes back to earth to see what’s going on. His first stops are the islands in the Caribbean, because he’s a rumbero and plays the percussions. We’ve added that part of his character, because over the years (since first creating the Crazy Snake character) I’ve trained myself to play campanas, claves—all the Caribbean instruments. In this show, the transitions are playing along from Oscar de Leon songs—the classics.
How has the character evolved over the years?
One is that when I first portrayed him there was not a lot of this hatred that we feel nowadays.
I became a citizen about a year ago. I think the character evolved in the sense that I’m writing it with the feeling that I’ve paid my dues as a writer and as an immigrant. I transferred that feeling of what does being a citizen mean? It comes with responsibilities. A lot of my audiences, the people who have seen my work over the years, they’ve been asking me since he got elected, what are you writing about Trump?
I didn’t want to, but there was this idea of telling the story of this kid and his journey. Every day we’re being told that we’re criminals, but we know the truth. We are hardworking people. We have integrity. It’s the question of a human being’s integrity, of demanding respect, and looking people in the eye as an equal.
That’s what’s changed from beginning writing as an immigrant. I think I’m writing as a full American, not necessarily as an immigrant.
What role does dark humor play in this and your other performances?
If you’re not having fun doing this, you shouldn’t be doing it. Humor for me is important. I have to have fun and I have to be able to hear people laugh. But It gets serious and then it goes back. It’s a back-and-forth kind of thing to try to accomplish.
I think that a lot of my Latino friends say, ‘Okay el comediante.’ But I’m not a comedian. That’s a completely different oficio (profession) because I don’t do stand-up. I can be funny but that’s not how I see myself. I see myself as a performer and as a poet. There are two poems in the show; that’s the thing that fulfills me the most.
How long have you been working on this performance?
We had like a year to write this, while wondering what is happening in the country since Trump took office. People’s children have been taken away. The military has been sent to the border. There’s this national emergency. Loco Culebra somehow for me is the right way to say my piece.
The Return of Loco Culebra /Crazy Snake takes place for two engagements only this Fri., Mar. 15, and Sat., Mar. 16, at 8 p.m., at the GALA Hispanic Theatre. Staring Quique Avilés. Directed by B. Stanley. Avilés will also have art books for sale at the shows. FIND OUT MORE
— Delia Beristain Noriega
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