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El Teatro Campesino veteran and San Juan School teacher Cristal Gonzalez-Avila has been an actor, director, producer, playwright, and activist for the arts for the last 17 years. This year, the Poppy Jasper Film Festival will feature a short film she wrote, directed, co-produced, and starred in, “Color Cielo” (“The Color of the Sky”).
“At a universal level,” Gonzalez-Avila said, “it’s a story about a mother and a son. It’s a story that speaks to the now, but it also speaks to the past and the lessons that we could learn for our future.”
This is the second film submitted to the festival by XeroCuadro, a production team formed by Gonzalez-Avila, her partner, producer/director Alfredo Avila, cinematographer Jay Vera and actor/writer Ray Rios.
Gonzalez-Avila discovered her love for performing at age five, after her father left and the death of singer Selena. Seeking an escape, her socks became her puppets, and her bed became her stage.
“It was a place where I could find answers I couldn’t find in real life,” she said. “It saved me. It continues to save me in many ways. As I grew older, I recognized that the stage was where I could come for answers in the most critical times in my life.”
At six, she was onstage at a talent show singing Selena’s songs. At seven, she remembers telling her mother that she would be an actor.
“I had no experience watching theater,” Gonzalez-Avila said, “because we weren’t around that environment. I watched a lot of novellas, and I found such beauty in the characters and their complexities. It felt so big for my seven-year-old self.”
Her first formal stage appearance was in a high school production of “Heroes and Saints” by Cherríe Moraga, directed by her teacher, Marcy Keller, who recognized Gonzalez-Avila’s love of literature.
“She was the first to train me formally,” she said. “She was my first introduction to Chicano playwriting, and it changed my understanding that there were writers that look like me that had stories like mine.”
Gonzalez-Avila first encountered El Teatro when her sister Diana took her to a production of Luis Valdez’s “La Carpa de los Rasquachis.”
“I had this vivid memory of showing up to the Teatro,” she said. “It was packed, and my sister said, ‘Okay, you squeeze in the front.’ And I made my way to the front to watch this play.”
Gonzalez-Avila met Valdez when he served as keynote speaker at her graduation from San Jose State’s Theater Arts Department. He encouraged her to audition for an upcoming San Juan Bautista production of “Popul Vuh.”
“That was the summer of 2010,” Gonzalez-Avila said. “I auditioned, and in a few days, I was in rehearsal. After that, they asked me to take over a part in “Corridos” because an actor had to leave the production. I had maybe two weeks tops to learn everything.”
Her part in Valdez’s “Corridos!: Tales of Passion and Revolution” was a key moment. “As an artist, I found a home outside of my own home, here at the Teatro,” she said. “And I felt so free.”
Gonzalez-Avila moved to Los Angeles with Avila, but soon returned to San Juan Bautista.
“I did some work down there,” she said, “But San Juan was a home for both of us as artists. I understood that I couldn’t just be auditioning; I needed to be actively creating roles for myself and for women like me. Voices like mine. So I started writing.”
Soon after, Gonzalez-Avila performed a one-woman show, “La Sombra,” in a three-performance run at the Teatro. It was her first time writing, directing and performing her own work, and Valdez was there to encourage her.
“He hugged me,” she said, “and told me,‘The Teatro is your home, and it’s going to be here for you.’ I remember hearing him and believing it, and I still do, to this day. Luis has been a great mentor and an awesome supporter.”
Valdez described Gonzalez-Avila as “a little powerhouse” and said she has tremendous talent.
“I’ve been impressed with her work from the beginning,” Valdez told BenitoLink. “And she has a degree in theater, which is unusual for a Latina. I’m expecting great things to come from her.”
Gonzalez-Avila has been “in and around” public education for 10 years and started working at San Juan School two years ago as a long-term substitute. She now teaches kindergarten full-time.
“I fell in love with the students,” she said. “I fell in love with the stories and the joy and the tears that come with day-to-day interactions with our little ones. These kids press the reset button almost every day and seeing life through their eyes has humbled me.”
San Juan School principal Ethan Stocks said that when Avila began working as a fill-in, he was unsure of what to expect. However, he quickly realized he had “won the teacher lottery.”
“Cristal immediately took command of the classroom,” Stocks said.“She created a nurturing environment and empowered her students to succeed.”
Gonzalez-Avila said that returning to teaching in a classroom reminded her of the power of theater arts and the power of arts in school, which she uses to enhance her curriculum.
“I needed to come back to ‘little Cristal,’” she said, “the little human in me that needed to be taken care of. And now my creative work is flowing out. I’m teaching these little humans. My film is coming out. I’m publishing my first book. Why is it all happening right now?”
“Color Cielo” is in part a product of the pandemic, when the four Teatro veterans who started XeroCuadro needed a creative outlet when live performances were limited or nonexistent. Each of the partners was to create a short film and, following the 2022 Poppy Jasper film “Kumite,” which Gonzalez-Avila directed, they filmed “Amiguin: a film about that one friend,” a 2023 Poppy Jasper entry that won “México y Tú Day’s” best drama award.
“Color Cielo” is the third of the four films, and Gonzalez-Avila said it’s “about the hope that lingers in a goodbye or in an embrace.” While not wanting to give away too much, she said that one of the features of the short film is the score by Teatro veteran Daniel Valdez, which offers a counterpoint to her plot.
“I feel like there’s the oral story happening in the dialogue,” she said, “but there’s music underneath it that also tells a story. It takes you on a journey, and that’s exactly what this piece needed. So I’m grateful that Daniel was part of my team.”
Daniel said he worked hard to capture the feeling of the film, which involves the emotions of a mother saying goodbye to her son.
“I used a single-string approach on the guitar,” he said. “I wanted to keep it simple and still try to infuse emotion as you see her passing through this whole memory process, underscoring that moment.”
Daniel describes the film as a wonderful piece of photography telling a wonderful story and said he is very impressed with Gonzalez-Avila’s work.
“I think she’s amazing,” he said. “She’s an amazing performer and a great actress. She’s got tremendous power, and there is tremendous emotion that just emotes out of her. And it is captured superbly in that film”
“Color Cielo” will be shown at the Poppy Jasper Festival on Monday, April 14, during the “México y Tú” celebration at the Granada Theater in Hollister.
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