User:Gaytino

Dan Guerrero began his eclectic career in New York where he moved from East Los Angeles at age twenty to study voice and dance for the musical theater. He performed off-Broadway, in regional theatre and summer stock and in countless cabaret revues including one that took him to the Nixon White House for a special performance. He later became a successful theatrical agent with clients in the original casts of countless Broadway musicals in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats, representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood stars. He returned home to Los Angeles for an equally successful time as a casting director for stage and television before turning his talents to producing and directing.

Guerrero is an award-winning producer of diverse programming for network and cable television in both English and Spanish including music and award show specials for NBC, PBS, HBO, Univision and Telemundo. He also produces and directs live arts and culture concert events at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France. www.danguerrero.com

At the same time, he has crossed the country with his critically acclaimed solo show ¡Gaytino! following the 2006 world premiere run in Los Angeles produced by the Center Theatre Group. He has performed the autobiographical play with music to audiences from the Kennedy Center to New York’s Zipper Theatre and at the historic Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe where his performance was introduced by Governor Bill Richardson. www.gaytino.com

The eclectic artist added Distinguished Community Scholar to his resume in recent years, first accepting an invitation from the Cesar E. Chavez Chicana/o Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles to create a course based on his solo show. That experience led to his appointment to serve as a Regents’ Lecturer jointly in the UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies and the LGBT Departments.

Guerrero is widely recognized as an influential activist who speaks out in television and radio interviews in English and Spanish on both Latino/Chicano and LGBT issues. He is a popular figure on the speaking circuit and has addressed groups and organizations including the Southern Arizona LULAC Youth Leadership Conference in Tucson, the National Council of La Raza in Washington, DC, the California Teachers Association Conference in Palm Springs and the National Education Association conference in Washington, DC, among many others.

The Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts has been established in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California at Santa Barbara and his oral history is part of the collection at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.

EARLY LIFE:
Born Edward Daniel Guerrero in Tucson, Arizona on October 14, 1940, the son of the legendary Father of Chicano Music Lalo Guerrero and the former Margaret Marmion, also both of Tucson. He has a brother, musician Mark Anthony Guerrero and a niece, Maya Guerrero. www.laloguerrero.com

He grew up in East Los Angeles, California attending James A. Garfield High School and East Los Angeles College. Guerrero moved to New York City in 1962 with his boyhood friend Carlos Almaraz (renown visual artist 1941-1989) where he spent twenty years in the theatre scene, first as a musical performer and later as a theatrical agent. He currently resides in West Hollywood, California.

HONORS & AWARDS: selected
California State Senate, Certificate of Appreciation Outstanding Achievement; U.S. House of Representatives, Certificate of Congressional Recognition, Contribution to the Latino Community; California Legislature Assembly, Certificate of Recognition, Service to the Community; National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Clarity Award, Advocate for Latina/o and LGBT Civil Rights; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Leadership Award; County of Los Angeles, Board of Supervisors, Outstanding Career Achievement And Community Service; Visionary Award, City of Los Angeles, Artes de Mexico Festival; Honorary local Emmy Award Los Angeles area; Alma Award nomination Outstanding Made for TV Documentary; The Imagen Foundation, Best Documentary Lalo Guerrero The Original Chicano;

CRITICAL STUDIES/ESSAYS on ¡Gaytino!
Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture Chapter 5 “Beyond the Comfort Zone: Dan Guerrero’s ¡Gaytino!” By Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz, Trinity University, San Antonio Published by University of Texas Press, First Edition 2012

Theatre Journal, Volume 59 Number 2 May 2007 “¡Gaytino!” by Richard T. Rodriguez, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in cooperation with The Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Ollantay Theater Magazine, Volume XV, Numbers 29-30 2007 “Comfortably Queer: The Chicano Gay Subject in Dan Guerrero’s ¡Gaytino!” Critical Essay by Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz, Published by Ollantay Press