In the polyglot Americas, leaning south:
a market of video arcades, old and new drugs,
Nescafé internet cafes, swift-changing political regimes,
Fluctuating currency, cheap sex for the tourist trade,
ex-bullrings turned into discos and hotels, white cars and bright
blue houses with peeling paint, fresh murals on ruined walls,
and a view of the limitless, dirty sea.
-Caridad Svich
The Tropic of X, by Latinx playwright Caridad Svich, is the story of Maura and Mori, two street kid lovers and arcade freaks who live in a touristed wasteland at the end of the alphabet. Together with their friend Kiki, they take refuge: in each other, in taunting tourists, in the next distraction, and in the chase of a consumerist dream – a numbing high as they rage, seduce, and barter to survive the roaring tides of a place on the edge of collapse.
