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On Friday night, Argentine American comedian Daniela Inés Calvo will emcee and headline the latest iteration of the “No Hablo Inglés” showcase at Honduras Kitchen in Huntington Park.
As the name implies, it is an ongoing comedy show featuring exclusively Spanish-language performers — a first of its kind in the Los Angeles region.
The guiding principle of the showcase is simple.
“People want stand-up in their language,” Calvo told The Times. And what better place to find a Spanish-speaking audience than in a county that is nearly 50% Latino?
The 26-year-old comedian got the idea for the exhibition shortly after she launched her stand-up career in 2023.
“I was going to open mics Monday through Friday and then even sometimes on the weekends, but all of it was in English because that’s all there was here at the time,” said Calvo. “I was looking for somewhere to perform en español in L.A. I looked everywhere, I asked around, but I couldn’t find any showcase in español.”
Around that same time, Calvo first came across the work of Venezuelan comedian Angelo Colina and saw how he was putting all-Spanish lineups together in New York.
“When you don’t see what you want to exist, you have to create it,” she said. “At first I was like, ‘I guess I’m gonna have to go to New York to do this.’ But then I [decided] I can figure it out here. So that was end of 2023; at the beginning of 2024 I booked a theater.”
She called up fellow Latino acts she had made friends with in the English-speaking comedy circuit to perform in the showcase, even though she had never seen them do a set in Spanish.
“I believed in them. I knew they’re Latino. I knew they knew comedy,” Calvo said. “And I knew they knew Spanish because we’d talk in Spanish backstage and stuff. It was just people from the local comedy scene.”
The first “No Hablo Inglés” shows took place in early 2024, with Calvo relying on bigger acts to promote the program as headliners since she was relatively unknown and had only about 10 minutes of workable material at the time.
It was through that rotating cycle of headliners that she got to connect with acts like Jose ‘Hoozay’ Velasquez and Francisco Ramos — with whom Calvo would later go on to program the first-ever showcases en español at the Belly Room in the famed Comedy Store. As the showcase has progressed, Calvo has become one of the acts headlining the shows.
“I love that I’ve been able to create a space for Latinos in a predominantly straight, white, male institution,” Calvo said.
In the time since starting “No Hablo Inglés,” the Miami-raised comic has come to form a friendship with her comedy idol Colina and has consistently opened for him when he’s in Southern California. Calvo is now prepping to perform twice as part of the upcoming Netflix is a Joke Fest in L.A. — once in English on May 4 at the Hollywood Improv and once in Spanish at the Comedy Store on May 7. She is also gearing up to tape her first hourlong special at the Lyric Hyperion on June 5.
Ahead of her whirlwind run of shows, Calvo spoke with The Times about “No Hablo Inglés,” uplifting the Latino community, the radical nature of performing in Spanish in the time of ICE raids and how she’s finding her own way to be the perfect immigrant daughter.
This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.
I’ve noticed all the “No Hablo Inglés” take place in Latino-owned businesses. Is that intentional, and if so, why is that important to you?
Absolutely. Core to my mission with “No Hablo Inglés” is to bring crowds to Latino-run businesses, specifically Latino restaurants. This year, my project for the showcase has really been to go across the county, find Latinos and invest back into my community. If I can bring business to a Latino restaurant and the audiences get to eat Latino food, it’s a win-win for everybody.
In what ways is doing shows in these unconventional locations different from performing in traditional comedy clubs?
It’s such a different experience. It’s a little more indie, it’s a little more guerrilla, and that’s fine. Sometimes the mic cuts and we roll with it and it’s part of the show and it’s funny. Maybe the walk-on song for the comedian doesn’t come up. I’m doing the things that usually the comedy clubs take care of, like logistics of the production of the show, me queuing the comedian, raising the volume up and lighting the comedians.
I do have a couple of production assistants that I’m working with that also help connect me to restaurants, because they’re from here. I’m just so grateful to them because I didn’t know where the Latinos were. I’ve just been living in Hollywood for the past few years and I’m not from here.
“No Hablo Inglés” was on a bit of a break for a minute. What brought it back?
I was really inspired when I visited Miami this past December. I go back to Miami every year, and I’ve been performing en español in Miami every time I’m there for the past two or three years. The capital of stand-up en español is Miami and it wasn’t there when I was growing up, but it’s there now that I live here. This last time I was there, I performed a show every night for like two weeks. It was crazy. I thought, “I want this to happen in L.A.” So that’s when I knew I was gonna have to do the showcase again.
My dream would be that the stand-up en español scene in L.A. eventually becomes similar to Miami’s, where every night of the week there’s a show at some different bar or restaurant that you could hop on. I’m starting to do my part by reaching into the San Fernando Valley, reaching into East L.A., reaching into Orange County, and trying to work with these restaurants by teaching the restaurants how to put on shows like this.
Angelo Colina told The Times last year that doing Spanish-language stand-up shows in the U.S. felt like a transgressive act given the ongoing demonization of Latinos in this country. Do you resonate with that sentiment and do you wear that as a badge of honor?
Yeah, that really resonates with me. When I started “No Hablo Inglés” back up this year and decided to go to perform in Latino restaurants, I was really scared. I thought, “Am I doing something that is going to put people in danger?” I worried about that. I was like, “Am I doing something that’s a bad thing?” But I think I do want to piss people off with this show. There are people that don’t like that I speak in Spanish. Some people don’t like that I’m so loudly Latina here in L.A.
And I don’t think I’m putting people in danger. I’ve come to the realization that I’m helping bring people to Latino restaurants that are struggling right now because of that very reason, because of the [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids. And I’m also giving people a reason to get out of the house and be in community — they need that. At the shows, we get a lot of families showing up together. It’s a very multi-generational show because for a lot of these family members, it’s the first time that they’ve been able to watch a stand-up show in their own language. I want to believe I’m creating a space for community for Latinos when we need it the most. This year has been really hard for Latinos in L.A. and across the country.
The showcase tends to focus more on local comedians. Was that something that felt very important to you as someone who didn’t see that opportunity when you were coming up and now that you’re able to provide that opportunity for other people?
Absolutely, when I was starting out, I would have loved to have a 10-minute spot on a show en español and it just didn’t exist. I really want to protect “No Hablo Inglés” as something for the up-and-coming comedian en español in L.A. Most of them are comedians who have performed in English already, but it’s their first time doing it in Spanish.
Do you think that being a comedian, in some ways, is a dream job for a child of immigrants because it’s not always something you can do freely in other countries?
I can’t believe this is my life, but that was not my parents’ dream. They hated that. I was supposed to be an engineer. I was gonna be the perfect immigrant daughter. I tried, but I felt this calling to become an artist. I’m meant to tell stories, to share my point of view and to bring light to topics that I care about. For me, this is the way that I can help my community. Laughter is such a clever way to get people to think about something because if you’re laughing, you relate. It’s a great way to increase tolerance, too.
Going back to the idea of not being able to do this job in our parents’ home countries, I think it’s not just about freedom of expression, freedom of the press, but also economic freedom. It’s so difficult in Latin American countries to start any type of art business. Yeah, there are many successful comedians in Argentina that tour the world, but it’s a lot harder to get to that level. There are a lot less opportunities.
It’s a crazy thing to say that I am a full-time comedian. I feel like I’m living out my ancestors’ dreams. My abuela didn’t go to university and my mom was the first in her family to go to college. The fact that I’ve been able to get an education in this country, pursue stand-up comedy and now become a full-time comedian is just insane. I’m so grateful. I feel like my life is a movie, for real.
(Jackie Rivera / For The Times; Martina Ibáñez-Baldor / Los Angeles Times)
Majority of Latino voters in Virginia called for redistricting
On Tuesday, voters in Virginia narrowly approved a redistricting measure that could help Democrats pick up 10 of the state’s 11 congressional seats in the upcoming midterm election. Critical to the yes vote were Latinos— data from the Center for Politics showed that the most heavily Latino parts of the state largely backed the effort. However, the status of the vote is currently up in the air as a Virginia judge blocked the certification of the congressional map referendum, deeming the legislation “unconstitutional” in Wednesday’s decision.
Regardless of how this specific redistricting battle plays out, it’s become clear that Latinos will play a crucial role not just in the state—the Latino population in Virginia is expected to nearly double in the next decade—but at the national level as well. In California, over 70% of Latino voters helped pass Proposition 50 last November, allowing state legislators to redraw a new congressional map that will also happen to increase Latino political representation in the state. And in Texas, which kickstarted this redistricting fight, Republicans might not actually be able to pick up all the seats they are hoping for. Why? Latinos.
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Unless otherwise noted, stories below were published by the Los Angeles Times.
