Dolores Prida Explained

Dolores Prida (September 5, 1943[1]  - January 20, 2013[2]) was a Cuban-American columnist and playwright.[2] Catherine E. Shoichet of CNN said that she was a "Latina Dear Abby".[3]

She wrote for a weekly column of the El Diario La Prensa. She also contributed to Latina magazine and the New York Daily News. At Latina she wrote her "Dolores Dice" ("Dolores says" in Spanish) column.[1] Prida was a founding member of the Latina magazine.[2]

History

Prida was born on September 5, 1943, in Caibarién, Cuba.[1] She was the oldest of three children. She had two sisters, Lourdes and Maria.[2] Though she showed no prior interest in theater, Prida did have an eye for literature as she often wrote poetry and short stories as a teenager. Shortly after the completion of the Cuban Revolution, her father left for the United States,[1] fleeing in a boat.[2] In 1961,[1] two years after the departure of their father,[2] Prida and her mother and two siblings left Cuba. The family settled in New York City, where Prida would end up spending the rest of her life, and where she was first exposed to the theater.

She began learning the inner workings of the theater and production in 1976, her first experience having been working with the Teatro de Orilla in the Lower East Side. She wrote her first play the following year and went on to work with other collectives such as DUO, INTAR, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, and Repertorio Español.

Education and Career

Prida attended Hunter College, where she studied Latin American Literature, taking night classes while working at a bakery. It was here where she also took her first drama classes. Prida never completed her college career before entering the publishing industry and becoming a journalist, working for Schraffts Restaurants as their company magazine editor. It was during this time in 1967, that Prida published her first written work, a poetry book titled, "Treinta y un poemas."

Two years later, she quit her job at Schraffts and was hired as a temporary foreign correspondant for Collier-MacMillan International Publishing Company. Prida then entered a period from the 1970s to the 1980s where she worked a string of temporary jobs in writing:

While these jobs short, they were pivotal to her skills as a bilingual writer, which she frequently exercised. During this time, Prida wrote a majority of her plays.

Works

Plays

Poetry

Awards/Recognitions

Reception

In The New York Times, D. J. R. Buckner said that in Casa Propia, "[n]ot much more is needed for comedy than throwing these broadly drawn strong characters together" and that in regards to the characters, "Fanny, Olga, Manolo and Junior are likely to live with you for a long time."[8] He said that Prida "has a good ear for New York Hispanic street language, and this cast exploits it so hilariously that at times even a viewer with no Spanish may want to set aside the simultaneous translation earphones and take it in raw: the grimaces and gestures reveal what is meant, and the sound is too good to miss."[8]

Death

She died on the morning of January 20, 2013, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, at the age of 69. Her cause of death is not yet known, and her family placed a request for an autopsy.

References

[9] [10] [11]

Notes and References

  1. Remeseira, Claudio Iván. "Dolores Prida, beloved columnist and playwright, dies at 69 ." NBC Latino. January 21, 2013. Retrieved on January 22, 2013.
  2. Hernandez, Lee. "Legendary Playwright and Columnist Dolores Prida Dies." Latina. January 20, 2013. Retrieved on January 22, 2013. '"We live three blocks apart," added Junco. "And she went home and on the way home, she didn't feel good, so she called her sister and they took her to Mount Sinai. it's not known if she died of a heart attack or stroke. The family has requested an autopsy," she said.'
  3. Shoichet, Catherine E. "Dolores Prida, Latina 'Dear Abby,' dies." CNN. Monday January 21, 2013. Retrieved on January 22, 2013.
  4. Fernández . María Luisa Ochoa . 2001 . Ethnically Humorous: Dolores Prida's "Beautiful Señoritas" . Studies in American Humor . 8 . 21–35 . 0095-280X.
  5. Web site: Coser y Cantar . 2024-11-18 . courses.cit.cornell.edu.
  6. Book: Castillo, Debra A. . "Language Games: Hinojosa-Smith, Prida, Braschi." (Chapter 5 in Redreaming America: Toward a Bilingual American Culture) . SUNY . 2005 . 0791462986 . New York . 145–186.
  7. Book: Prida, Dolores . Beautiful señoritas and other plays . 1991 . Arte Público Press . 978-1-55885-026-2 . Weiss . Judith . Houston, Tex.
  8. Buckner, D. J. R. "THEATER REVIEW; O.K., You Love the House. Now Meet the Neighbors." The New York Times. March 17, 1999. Retrieved on January 22, 2013.
  9. Web site: independent . Associated Press The Associated Press is an . City . not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York . 2013-01-29 . Dolores Prida dies at 69; chronicled Latino experience in the U.S. . 2024-12-03 . Los Angeles Times . en-US.
  10. Web site: Cuban Theater Digital Archive . 2024-12-02 . ctda.library.miami.edu.
  11. Book: Garcia, Richard A. . Notable Latino Americans: A Biological Dictionary . Meier . Matt S. . Serri . Conchita F. . Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. . 1997 . 0313291055 . 300 - 301.

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