Culture shocks

Merilyn Potters

Friday, July 12, 1996 | 5:17 a.m.

Ricardo Reyno is a Chicano. Translated, he's a Mexican born in the United States.

But he feels like a man caught between two countries, rejected by both. When he goes to Mexico, he's called a gringo. In the United States, he's considered a Mexican.

This plight fuels his work, he says, the latest being "Arrest Him! He's Speaking Spanish!," a one-man show at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center this weekend.

It's a series of monologues that attempt to dispel incorrect perceptions, such as the one that lumps Hispanics into a group that "only goes to Taco Bell and orders the No. 2."

"It's racism with frosting on it," Reyna says. "It gets idiotic unless we do something about it."

Reyna plays seven different characters who admonish -- sometimes satirically and sometimes comically -- immigrant bashing, affirmative action backlashes and efforts to make English the official language of the state.

"It's performance art. Bam, bam, bam, thank you. I'm at you, and then on to the next without stopping," he says.

He hopes the production also will help the audience see that the Hispanic community is a group of separate cultures that includes not only Mexicans, but Cubans, Puerto Ricans and South Americans.

Though the English-language performance is targeted to the broad public, it will attract a mostly Hispanic audience, Reyna concedes. For now, that doesn't bother him.

"I'm making myself happy doing this, venting everything I see is wrong."

And besides, he says, "A lot of Latinos don't think about this."

To reach them, he'll bring humor to the stage.

"Take the movie 'Independence Day' -- aliens attacking the U.S. It's stuff Latinos will find funny.

"What a weird coincidence. What a parallel. It reflects the mood of the country -- worries of aliens taking control.

"I make a joke of it. Aliens are coming in, and they want to take all the jobs."

But the jokes will strike a nerve, he hopes.

"We need to vote to do something about it. Yes, we should assimilate and fit into the melting pot. But we should never, never forget what we come from. And we should never lose our dignity."

Reyno, 25, was born in San Antonio and was a film studies major at UNLV.

"I saw writing plays as a quicker way to express myself than through film. And it's not so expensive."

He wrote, directs, acts and produced the play with former UNLV classmate Jason Naugle.

"Arrest Him! ..." is the second production sponsored by the Latino Theater Experience and the Latino Chamber of Commerce.

"We also want to do poetry readings, music and dance and visual arts. This will be a plethora -- an ensemble of arts, starting with theater."

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