Native American Actor Kenne Ramos on Representing Indigenous Communities

Kenneth Ramos.

In partnership with Cornerstone Theater Company : Cornerstone Theater Company makes new plays with and about communities.

This article is part of an exclusive series about Cornerstone Theater Company 's upcoming Hunger Cycle play, Urban Rez, a community -engaged production created in collaboration with members of the Native American community in Los Angeles. Urban Rez, written by Larissa FastHorse, an award -winning playwright and choreographer from the Sicangu Lakota Nation, reflects a contemporary story of urban Indians in Los Angeles through performances that examine the hunger that persists when culture, language, land and identity are denied.

Playwright Larissa FastHorse has worked to develop Urban Rez in response to her communitys specific challenges. Her desire is to provide an experience that blurs the lines between theater, culture, and education and to present the play at outdoor venues, connecting audiences with the lands of the Native people of the Los Angeles Basin. The artistic process began by interacting with indigenous peoples of Southern California and learning about their culture, issues, needs, and aspirations. The end result will be an immersive theater experience that unfolds as part of an interactive cultural fair, held outdoors this spring at the Los Angeles State Historic Park and Kuruvungna Springs.

This series explores the play's development process from the perspective of community members and artists involved in the project.

In this article, Kenneth Ramos shares his experience as a community actor in Urban Rez.

Urban Rez rehearsal. | Photo: James Cheeks III.

Where I Come From

Haawka! ( Hello in Iipay Aa, my Native language). My name is Kenneth Ramos and I am Iipay from the Barona Band of Mission Indians. I was raised on the Barona Indian Reservation in East San Diego County and moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school in 2008 to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where I was one of eleven incoming American Indian freshmen. At that time, the overall American Indian student population made up 0.39 percent of the entire undergraduate student body. During that first year, I experienced numerous instances of ignorance and racism in and out of the classroom, and these experiences helped open my eyes to the systematic injustices and inequities, both historical and contemporary, which affect American Indian communities today.

Through my American Indian studies classes, I gained a more critical understanding of the history of my tribal nation, my family, and myself, as well as of the overall history of American Indians in the United States. My growing tribal consciousness isolated me from the 99.608 percent of the student population whose vague understanding of American Indian communities and issues was poorly cultivated by the media through films that perpetuated harmful stereotypes, like Disney's Pocahontas, and by our own state education system, where fourth graders are encouraged to build replicas of California missions out of popsicle sticks while ignoring the role the Spanish mission system played in the attempted extermination of California Indian language, culture, and people. This realization caused me to seek refuge with the American Indian Student Association (AISA) at UCLA, where I met other like-minded Native students and staff and began to connect with the Native community on-campus. My involvement in AISA deepened my understanding of the abundant and complex issues that American Indian nations face, while also exposing me to the diversity represented in the American Indian community in regards to identity, culture, and experience. The more I learned from my peers, the more I learned about myself, and through AISA, we worked together and organized around issues pertaining to American Indians in higher education, mostly outreach and retention. These experiences perfectly complemented my education in American Indian studies, and laid the foundation for my continued community involvement. The community I found in AISA became my chosen family and those individuals supported my growth and development as a young Native scholar and leader throughout my time at UCLA. It was my experiences in AISA that influenced me to be involved with the community and kept me grounded as a young Native man, living away from my own tribal community and family, in Los Angeles.

Urban Rez rehearsal. | Photo: James Cheeks III.

Connection to the Community

In 2013, I graduated with a bachelors degree in American Indian studies and a ton of passion for the Native community, but not a lot of ideas of what to do with it. I attended a Torres Martinez Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) job fair and heard about a potential employment opportunity with the Red Circle Project (RCP) at AIDS Project Los Angeles Health and Wellness (APLAHW). RCP is Los Angeles County's only HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program targeting American Indian Gay/Two Spirit men and transgender individuals. One job application, two interviews, and six weeks later, I had my first full time job as the RCP prevention training specialist.

Los Angeles County has the largest population of American Indians in the country, and this is the only sexual health program designed to serve that specific population. The RCP staff, which only included my supervisor and myself, were responsible for serving the Native community throughout the county and we would do programming all over, from Long Beach to Palmdale. This job allowed me to use and further develop the leadership and organizational skills I learned in AISA, as well as my education in American Indian studies, to help improve RCP's services and scope of outreach. Working with RCP also allowed me the opportunity to become more involved with the local American Indian c

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/cornerstone-theater-urban-rez-kenn...
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