VOA标准英语2012--Latina Playwright Josefina Lopez Tells Immigrant Stories

Latina Playwright¹ Josefina Lopez Tells Immigrant Stories

Josefina Lopez speaks with actor Rene Rivera about his one-man play. Called The King of the Desert, it deals with his struggles growing up in a barrio, or ghetto², in Texas near the U.S. border with Mexico.
“My neighborhood is buzzing with conjunto music, a distinctly Tex-Mex sound," said Rivera.
This is the kind of story Lopez wants to put on stage at her community theater, called Casa 0101. Casa is Spanish for “home.” Zero-one-Zero-One refers to the digital bits and bytes of the information age.
She told an earlier immigrant story in Real Women Have Curves, an acclaimed³ play that became a successful film 10 years ago. Lopez coauthored the screenplay and America Ferrera starred in the film.
Woman in garment factory: “Are you going to be working here full-time⁴?”
Ferrera: “No. I'm just helping⁵ out my sister until I find a better job.”
Woman: “Oh, me too. I'm just working here until I win the lottery⁶.”
Lopez says that story needed to be told.
“I wrote it because I had never seen anything about people like me, women my size," she said. "So to have so many people embrace Real Women Have Curves and to have a buzz and people waiting and the excitement, I was like, wow, it's speaking a truth that goes beyond being Latino or being a woman. It's about people always underestimating you.”
In his play being performed now at the theater, Rene Rivera looks at the difficulty navigating⁷ life between two cultures.
“It is the life of a Hispanic family living in the United States and yet not being part of the United States," said Rivera. "And so being sort of locked and stuck in between the two cultures, and trying to be reverent⁸ to both of them.”
It's opening night for the new production, and this play has a personal message for one Mexican-born immigrant, medical researcher Alonso Arellano.
“This is wonderful," said Arellano. "I want this to stay and to grow. We should have more theaters like this.”
Josefina Lopez says there are thousands of stories like this from the Latino community and other immigrant groups just waiting to be told.

1 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

2 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

3 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

4 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

7 navigating   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的现在分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• These can also be very useful when navigating time-based documents, such as video and audio. 它对于和时间有关的文档非常有用，比如视频和音频文档。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Vehicles slowed to a crawl on city roads, navigating slushy snow. 汽车在市区路上行驶缓慢，穿越泥泞的雪地。 来自互联网

8 reverent   

adj.恭敬的，虔诚的

参考例句：

• He gave reverent attention to the teacher.他恭敬地听老师讲课。
• She said the word artist with a gentle,understanding,reverent smile.她说作家一词时面带高雅，理解和虔诚的微笑。