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Spanish Accents and Dialects for Actors: Volume 1 - North America and the Caribbean is an interactive roadmap to the accents and dialects of the Spanish-speaking world that uses trauma-informed approaches to navigate the reclamation of the Latino/a/e/x home sounds.
Historically, performing Spanish-speaking characters has been done through oversimplification and has left actors with minimal resources for navigating the authentic portrayal of the Latine community on stage and on screen. Characters of the Spanish speaking diaspora are often reduced to overly simplistic caricatures of sensuality and aggressive temperaments, while Latine actors are asked to erase their cultural identity in order to fit into these media-perpetuated stereotypes. This book seeks to undo this erasure by serving as a compendium for actors wishing to navigate the authentic portrayal of Hispanic characters in the performance of English and Spanish language texts. Conscientiously researched and linguistically detailed analyses of the Spanish-speaking regions of North America and the Caribbean provide a long-overdue challenge to outdated stereotypes and generalizations.
Spanish Accents and Dialects for Actors offers an accessible approach to diving into the cultural context, oral posture, pronunciation, and other key characteristics of these complex and layered accents and dialects.
This book is written for actors, performers, directors, voice and speech educators, playwrights, and theatre students interested in an authentic representation of accents and dialects of the Spanish-speaking diaspora.
A companion website, available at www.esaccents.com, provides additional resources to support content described in the book, including audio and video materials.
List of contents
1. An Overview and a History 2. Methodology
Part 1: México 3. La Paz, Baja California Sur, México 4. Guadalajara, Jalisco, México 5. CDMX, México, México 6. Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México 7. Mérida, Yucatán, México 8. Monterrey, Nuevo León, México 9. Juárez, Chihuahua, México
Part 2: United States of America 10. San Antonio, Texas, USA 11. Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 12. Tucson, Arizona, USA 13. East Los Angeles, California, USA 14. Chicago, Illinois, USA 15. New York City, New York, USA 16. Miami, Florida, USA
Part 3: The Caribbean 17. La Habana, Cuba 18. Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional, República Dominicana 19. San Juan and Ponce, Puerto Rico
About the author
Elisa Gonzales is Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting at UMass Amherst, and a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and Knight-Thompson Speechwork. Her professional coaching credits include productions on Broadway, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, and many more. For more information, visit www.elisagonzales.com.
Josh F.S. Moser is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Kean University. Professional coaching credits include Profile Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Yale University, CNN's Harry Enten, and many more. They are the co-author of the article
Strategies for Guiding Actors' Accent and Linguistic Needs in the 21st Century (Voice & Speech Review), which features as chapter 8 in
Voice and Identity (Routledge 2025). Certified Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and Knight Thompson Speechwork, Proud member of VASTA, the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors, and Actor's Equity Association.
Adi Cabral is an Associate Professor of Voice and Movement at the University of Nevada, Reno. Their professional credits include over 50 audiobooks, theatrical productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre, and many more. They are the co-author of
Here's How to Teach Voice and Communication Skills to Transgender Women (Plural Publishing 2019) author of
Queering the Stage (Routledge 2025), a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and Knight-Thompson Speechwork, and proud member of VASTA and SAG-AFTRA.
