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Salinas (Ric) Culture Clash Collection
URB.CC-RS
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives
Title: Ric Salinas Culture Clash Collection
Creator:
Salinas, Ricardo
Identifier/Call Number: URB.CC-RS
Extent:
3.90 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1978-2003
Abstract: A founding member of Culture Clash, Ric
Salinas was born in El Salvador, and moved to San Francisco as a child. He grew up in the
Mission District and attended San Francisco State University, where he participated in the
theater program and earned a degree in Speech Communications. A member of Teatro Latino,
Salinas became interested in the Chicano movement because there was not an equivalent within
the relatively small community of Salvadoreños in San Francisco. Culture Clash was founded
on Cinco de Mayo, 1984 at René Yañez's Galería de la Raza/ Studio 24 in San Francisco's
Mission District by Richard Montoya, Ricardo Salinas, Herbert Sigüenza, and José Antonio
Burciaga. Culture Clash's brand of Chicano comedic theater has brought them to renowned
venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Lincoln Center in New York City,
the Huntington in Boston, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, The Alley Theatre in Houston,
Texas, the Seattle Repertory Theatre in Seattle, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los
Angeles.
Language of Material: English,
Spanish; Castilian
Ric Salinas was born in El Salvador, and moved to San Francisco as a child. He grew up in
the Mission District and attended San Francisco State University, where he participated in
the theater program and earned a degree in Speech Communications. A member of Teatro Latino,
Salinas became interested in the Chicano movement because there was not an equivalent within
the relatively small community of Salvadoreños in San Francisco.
Culture Clash was founded on Cinco de Mayo, 1984 at René Yañez's Galería de la Raza/
Studio 24 in San Francisco's Mission District by Richard Montoya, Ricardo Salinas, Herbert
Sigüenza, and José Antonio Burciaga. Sigüenza had trained as a visual artist, Montoya's
background was in spoken word poetry, and Salinas had performed as a break-dancer and
bilingual rapper. The group was originally called Comedy Fiesta and conceived of as a troupe
of six actors, comedians, and poets including Marga Gómez and Monica Palacios. The group
eventually fragmented, and Culture Clash was formed with four members Burciaga, Montoya,
Salinas, and Sigüenza. Burciaga left the group in 1988 and died in 1996.
Some of their best-known plays include
The Mission (1988),
A Bowl of Beings (1991
), S.O.S—Comedy
for These Urgent Times
(1992, written in response to the Los Angeles Riots),
Carpa Clash (1993; carpas are Mexican vaudevillian tent shows),
Culture Clash Unplugged (1994),
Radio
Mambo: Culture Clash Invades Miami
(1994),
Bordertown
(1998),
Nuyorican Stories (1999), and
Mission Magic Mystery Tour (2001). Many of these pieces were site-specific
commissioned works. Bowl of Beings is particularly well-know as it was filmed for PBS' Great
Performances series in 1992. Culture Clash performed their adaptation of Aristophanes' The
Birds for South Coast Repertory Theater in San Diego, California and the Berkeley Repertory
Theater in Berkeley, California in 1998.
Culture Clash's first book,
Culture Clash: Life, Death, and
Revolutionary Comedy,
appeared in 1998. This publication includes scripts of many
of their plays. In 2001 they published
Culture Clash in
AmeriCCa,
a book that explores what it means to be an American through a series of
vignettes. The book was inspired by the show
Culture Clash Coast to
Coast,
which premiered at the Japanese Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Through the efforts of comedian "Cheech" Marin, Culture Clash developed a show for Fox
Television, entitled Fox Television's "Culture Clash." The show ran from 1993 to 1995 with a
total of 30 episodes. The comedy sketch show featured guest appearances from Edward James
Olmos, Jimmy Smits, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Dolores Huerta.
Los Boys de CC have been featured together and separately in several feature films. All
three appeared in 1992's Encino Man as Loco, Enrique, and Chuly. Montoya was in Lucky Luke
(1994), Falling Down (1993), and Hero (1992). Sigüenza can be seen in Star Maps (1997) and
Hero (1992). In 1992, they co-produced and wrote Columbus on Trial, an award-winning short
film.
In 1989 while trying to break up a fight, Ric was shot and severely wounded by a
17-year-old gang member with a sawed-off shotgun. The fight took place outside of Ric's
house in San Francisco, where he had been meeting with Richard to discuss Culture Clash
business. This incident was incorporated in Bowl of Beings.
The members of Culture Clash also work on their own theatrical projects. Herbert Sigüenza
was in Yo Soy Cantinflas, based on the life of the Mexican comedy star.
The
Ric Salinas Culture Clash Collection consists of materials
related to the professional and personal life of Ric Salinas, including the production,
performances, and publicity of the Culture Clash theater troupe. The collection has been
organized into three series:
Plays (1988-2004),
Troupe (1984-2000), and
Personal
(1978-2000).
Series I,
Plays, consists of mailings, newspaper and magazine
clippings, performance schedules, production notes, programs, reviews, and scripts and is
arranged alphabetically by the title of the play.
Series II,
Troupe, consists of materials that were created by
and for the Culture Clash Troupe that are not part of the previous series. The materials
include brochures, mailings, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, programs, public
relations materials, reviews, and scripts. Materials are arranged alphabetically.
Series III,
Personal, contains personal materials from Salinas.
The series is arranged alphabetically.
Series I: Plays, 1988-2004
Series II: Troupe, 1984-2000
Series III: Personal, 1978-2000
Digital reproductions of selected items in this collection are available electronically as
a part of the
Latina(o) Cultural Heritage Archives
project.
Related Material
Other Information:
This collection was processed in part under a U.S. Department of Education Title V
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Grant.
The collection is open for research use.
Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of
this collection has not been transferred to California State University, Northridge.
Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials
protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires
the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any
use rests exclusively with the user.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Ric Salinas, 2003
For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style
manual, or see the
Citing Archival
Materials
guide.
robert G. Marshall, Rebecca S. Graff; February 2004
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Documents
Photographs