Colorism in the Latiné Community

Cristina is an Afrolatina director, writer, and theater maker who develops new plays, musicals, and socially conscious adaptations of classics that place women of color at the forefront. She has been awarded the 20-21 Drama League Directing Fellowship, the 19-20 Roundabout Directing Fellowship, and has been an associate director on and off Broadway.  Today, Cristina is an Associate Artist at Roundabout Theatre Company and the Founding Artistic Director of Checkmark Productions, an NYC based company dedicated to artists of color and their stories. Recent credits include INTO THE WOODS (Pace University) and Suzan-Lori Parks’s IN THE BLOOD (NYU’s Tisch). Up next, Cristina will be directing Sophocles’s ANTIGONE, translated by Anne Carson, at Pace University and overseeing the national tour of Charles Fuller’s A SOLDIER’S PLAY directed by Keny Leon. cristinaangeles.com

Kica is the Vice President of Initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice. She joined Vera in 2019 as Director of the Center on Immigration and Justice. Prior to joining Vera, Kica was the Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change, an organization whose mission is to empower the people most affected by injustice to lead movements to improve the policies that affect their lives. Kica has been a national advocate for immigration reform and coordinated the work of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, the nation’s largest network of immigrant rights organizations. She has extensive experience as an advocate, community organizer, and lawyer.

Kica has also headed up the U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Program at Atlantic Philanthropies. Before joining Atlantic Philanthropies, she served as deputy mayor in the city of New Haven, where she oversaw the city’s community programs and launched new initiatives including prisoner re-entry, youth and immigrant integration. Kica was previously the executive director of JUNTA, New Haven’s oldest Latino advocacy organization. She also worked as an assistant federal defender for death sentenced inmates and with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Amnesty International on death penalty and criminal justice issues.

She has a B.A. from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, an M.A. from the New School and a J.D. from Cornell Law School. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Albertus Magnus College in 2017 and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of New Haven in 2019. In 2021, she was inducted in to the CT Women’s Hall of Fame. @KicaMatos

Cin Martinez is a playwright/performer from Hartford, Connecticut. Raised by her parents, who moved from Puerto Rico in the early 70s’, Cin’s appreciation for living a multicultural life was cemented early on. From 1999 to 2002, she studied Theatre at the Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University and the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. It was in her early stages of performance when she won first-place in dramatic monologue from the International Model & Talent Association in Los Angeles, which reinforced her love of the arts and her commitment to the stage.

​Cin landed her first acting job as a co-host in a documentary film Women in Charge alongside Adrianne Baughns-Wallace, a veteran in the television broadcasting circuit. In 2006, after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Communications with a specialization in Video Production from Southern CT State University, Cin began participating in Ensemble theatre with an emphasis on play creation and social justice theatre.

​Cin, an ensemble member of the HartBeat Ensemble (HBE) for 15+ years, acted in six of its nine original main stage plays. In 2012, Cin trained with Shakespeare & Company, a month-long actor intensive in Berkshire, Massachusetts, and received an honorary mention from Founder Tina Packer for bringing an authentic voice to the Shakespearean canon.  

Cin’s love for playwriting began when she co-wrote Flipside, winning Best Ensemble Award at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2012. Cin’s passion for writing grew, resulting in several (documentary theatre) short plays, including the world premiere of Riding the Turnpike; produced by HBE in 2013.

Two years later she secured a contract with Emerging Talent Agency and AAG Management out of New York landing her a co-starring role in an episode of Orange is the New Black, a popular series on Netflix.

​Cin's favorite commissioned work is Frog Hollow State of Mind, a play about her neighborhood, celebrating its cultural richness and exploring some of its challenges. The play debuted in the Fall of 2016 and was well-received, earning Cin a citation of official recognition by the City of Hartford’s Court of Common Council.

Cin's proudest work is Pegao developed during the Women in Theatre Festival (WTF) in spring 2017 has been chosen and commissioned by HartBeat Ensemble to premiere as a Main Stage production in May 2019. Cin is a recipient of the Connecticut Latino De Oro awards in the Arts and Destino Futuro award by Prospanica Connecticut.