Christofer Rodelo
  • March 12, 2026

  • Christofer A. Rodelo, UC Irvine Chicano/Latino studies assistant professor, reconstructs complicated history of Cuban-born entertainer A.M. Hernandez in new TDR: The Drama Review article

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A new article by UC Irvine Chicano/Latino studies assistant professor Christofer A. Rodelo traces the history of A.M. Hernandez, a Cuban-born entertainer who was one of the first Latinx participants in U.S. blackface minstrelsy, a nineteenth century theatrical performance genre rooted in racist caricature.

“The life story of Hernandez expands our understanding of how Latinx immigrants to the United States found a place for themselves in the nineteenth century through racialized and problematic forms of popular entertainment,” says Rodelo. “I hope that this article inspires more attention to Latinx performance history as a serious area of academic inquiry.”

The article appears in the March issue of TDR: The Drama Review, the leading journal of performance studies, within a special section titled, “Blackface Geographies,” published by Cambridge University Press.

Using archival research spanning newspaper clippings, diary entries, posters, photographs, scrapbooks and other memorabilia, Rodelo reconstructs a biographical and aesthetic account of the performer who, Rodelo explains, "found his place within U.S. troupes while still maintaining his identity as someone of Hispanophone descent."

“Hernandez was an actor, comedian, guitarist, acrobat, lyricist, dancer, magician, knife thrower, and pantomimist lauded for his virtuosity across various genres,” Rodelo says. “He took part in ensemble performances, and he was also a featured act for minstrel shows, usually involving his guitar or acrobatic skills. While largely unknown to present-day scholars and artists, his activities during his lifetime received notable attention from audiences around the country.”

Across various troupes he established and managed, Hernandez’s central performance strategy relied on balancing his desire to be seen as successful among his peers while strategically maintaining his ethnic difference as a Cuban migrant to the U.S., Rodelo explains.

“Hernandez’s story is different from studies that trace how blackface minstrelsy circulated in non-U.S. spaces or consider traditions of minstrelsy that have no ties to the United States,” he says. “Individual performers like Hernandez complicated the norms of who was allowed into these spaces and ultimately transformed their characteristics.”

“In researching his life, I was most surprised to learn that he was not only a performer but a theater impresario who created his own ensembles and wrote minstrel songs, all while maintaining his Hispanic surname,” Rodelo says. “He made a deliberate choice to maintain that connection to his country of origin when other immigrant performers chose to anglicize their names for greater professional success.”

“Any serious consideration of Hernandez’s significance as one of the first, if not the first, Latinx person to participate in U.S. blackface minstrelsy cannot avoid the fact that his success as a performer came through his engagement with a racist form of performance,” Rodelo adds. “My hope is that my work will illuminate new genealogies of how Latinx people understood themselves in relation to racial hierarchies and other minoritarian subjects in the United States in all their complexity. Doing so invites a more rigorous look at performance cultures of the past to provide a more nuanced context for Latinx identity formation.”

The article is available online at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-drama-review/article/am-hernandez-and-the-global-details-of-blackface-minstrelsy/B66209FEF1D2CA8C05A08204AFC1699C. It received support from the Social Sciences Anti-Black Racism Initiative supported by the School of Social Sciences Dean’s Leadership Society.

 

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