Students stage Spanish-language play to honor professor

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:25 PM PDT ∞

As a tribute to their favorite Mexican storyteller, former Cal State San Marcos professor Carlos von Son, some of his former students will stage one of von Son's plays ---- about a Mexican storyteller ---- on campus this weekend.

Von Son, who now teaches Spanish at Palomar College, ran a bilingual theater troupe at Cal State San Marcos for five years. One of the first plays the group staged in 2001 was his Spanish-language drama "Dona Criba." Von Son went on permanent sabbatical from the university this past semester, and his former students there decided to stage the play as a way of saying goodbye.

The students ---- members of the Club Latino and Teatro Molcajete ---- are not getting any course credit for staging the production (which is co-sponsored by the university's College of Education).Play director Diana Cabuto said the project was designed as a surprise for von Son and a way to reach out to Latino students in the city of San Marcos.

Von Son was unaware of the students' plan until last Friday, when Cabuto called him with the news.

"I was very surprised and overwhelmed by this expression of their feelings," von Son said. "It's unbelievable that this group of students would take the time to put something like this together as a volunteer effort."

The play tells the story of Dona Criba, the telephone operator in a small, rural town in Central Mexico in the 1980s. Dona Criba has served as the town's nerve center for decades, but her livelihood and sense of purpose are threatened when the government brings new technology ---- automatic long-distance service ---- to the town's residents.

Von Son spent many years in Central Mexico. In one of these towns, he saw how the construction of a new road opened up the village to the outside world for the first time in centuries ---- bringing both good and bad fortune.

An aspect of von Son's play is how the town's sense of history is manipulated by the government. Dona Criba, who has served as the town's record-keeper and historian, is rendered obsolete in the government's effort to control the town's future by installing long-distance service.

"She listens to pretty much all the conversations in the town and then makes up her own narrative that she shares with her friends. These two friends share it with other people in the town, and then you have the town narrative," von Son said of his play. "Writers go through the same process. We listen to events and then we add from our own personal encyclopedia and from our imagination. Then we put these elements together as a narrative."

Admission to the play, which will not be translated, is free, but donations will be accepted.