Addressing significant Hispanic and Latino issues through autobiographical stories is an effective and non-threatening way to teach history and to communicate serious matters and hot topics of concern. Performances of Hispanic and Latino autobiographies encourage understanding, compassion, and empathy. Challenging stereotypical images, they discourage hasty judgments, based on simplistic understandings of others. They present historical truth and social, cultural understanding. Finally, these presentations can also have a role modeling effect, which can positively influence achievement motivation in audience members (Howard, 1996, 2001).

Presenting autobiographical stories from Hispanic and Latino history, especially the stories of historic role models can be beneficial, educational, therapeutic, and empowering for presenters and audiences. It can facilitate valuable insights, techniques, and skills for presenters and audience members. First, it encourages a close study of Hispanic and Latino culture and  history and from primary sources. Further, presentation of autobiography, which focuses on internal, subjective issues, encourages careful study of character, diligent writing skills, keen observation of non-verbal communication, attentive study of voice, appropriate selection of performance frames, and effective engagement of audiences. Finally, presentation of autobiography over videoconference or web-casting equipment provides doors of opportunity for widespread study of Hispanic or Latino history and issues, especially when presenters communicate in empathetic ways to multiple distance audiences over cameras via videoconference networks or the internet (Howard, 2001).

One-person, Hispanic and Latino, autobiographical stories can be presented to distance audiences, as well as to onsite audiences in theatres, museums, schools, churches etc. They can be presented to audiences in educational, performing arts, cultural, historical, civic organizations and so forth. Presenters begin the process of producing one-person, autobiographical presentations by choosing historic characters, especially who display fascinating, multi-faceted, paradoxical, or ironic characteristics. The presenters/performers look for characters who struggle with universal issues and who develop over time. They watch for characters whose stories reflect universal truths. They seek characters are pioneers who struggle with and overcome sociological and cultural barriers. Finally, they look for characters with whom they can bond empathetically (Howard, 1999).

Once the presenters find fascinating, multi-dimensional, historic Hispanic or Latino characters, they study the historical setting of the characters and their personal writings, such as their autobiographies, diaries, journals, and other writings, which reflect the truth about the character’s real nature and struggles. Sometimes close, second-hand sources, such as interviews and biographies, by writers who know the characters personally, provide interesting insights. These close sources enable the presenters to reveal real, human dimensions of the characters. As the presenters develop understanding of the characters, they are able to begin to develop a script.

The script is driven, created, and built out of empathy with the character. The presenter can develop scenes with emotional impact, after she or he has listened to and understood the character. The writer of a presentation of autobiography incorporates words and the communication style of the historic character, which gives the language of the script uniqueness, color, and intensity. Further, since "character is action," as stated by Eugene O’Neil, dramatic action comes through conflict and desire in characters. The writing of the script begins with a crisis in the characters’ wants, which are counteracted. The opening scene prepares the audience for what is to come. What is to come is foreshadowed. The focus is always on the character. The performer develops a script, which enables the character to show his or her struggles. The script is written for action. The presenter is careful with dialogue in her or his writing of a script. She or he must know where the problem or tension is for the character. The presenter/scritwriter may write brief narrations, which can inform the audience; but primarily the she or she writes scenes, which visually show the struggles of the character.

These scenes are ones of crisis and significant action. The script is a structured work of art, which includes a beginning, foreshadowing, discovery, incidents, crisis, and denouement. Each scene has rising action, a climax, and falling action. The entire performance also has rising action, a climax, and falling action. Being character-driven, the script enables the character to speak for himself or herself and to reveal his or her subtext through action. The motives, objectives, desires, or wants of the character are at the center of the performance. The scriptwriter knows what is at stake for the character. And the stakes must be high. The audience is more engaged when the stakes are high. The presenter knows the point of view of the character. She or he reveals this about the character by the way the character expresses her or his thoughts and by action. The script reveals the answers to the dramatistic questions: Who am I? What do I want? Where am I? Why am I here? When is this taking place? What is my physical life? What are the stakes? How badly do I want this? The presenter reveals the conflicts of the character with nature, himself or herself, and with others. These conflicts are revealed through non-verbal and verbal communication. The performer must consider the internal conflicts, desires, motivations, interpretations of the characters and narrators, personae, as well as external issues such non-verbal communication, visualization of the personae, pantomimic dramatization, and interaction between personae and the audience.

In writing a script, autobiographical presenters must consider non-verbal communication dimensions such as kinesics, proxemics, tactile communication, and object language, especially in the communication of the subtext of personae. Presenters of autobiography must consider how the personae will reveal themselves through gestures, movement, posture, facial expressions and so forth. Presenters must consider how the personae’s use of relational and environmental space will reveal their conflicts, desires, and motivations. They need to consider how the personae would reveal themselves through touch and handling of objects. Performers must consider what the physical appearance of the personae should be and how it will reveal them. They must consider how the personae would use physical business, activity and movement to reveal their subtext and relationships with other personae and the audience. The presenter of autobiography must carefully also plan costumes, props, and set and analyze how these will reveal the personae. Characters react to their worlds according to their interpretation of events. The interpretations of the characters are revealed through their bodies, as well as through their voices.

The writing of the language of the script depends on the voice of the characters and narrators. If the script is to include a narrative voice, the presenter may write a scene from the third person point-of-view. This narration would include language, which is written to tell or to describe rather than to show. The language of the narration would be written in complete sentences, which may be longer than high context, fragmentary phrases of dramatic scenes. The narrative scene could be written to go backward in time, rather than to be performed in the present. As well as the point-of-view of the personae in their scripts, presenters of autobiography must consider many other aspects of voice in the personae in scenes they write. They must consider the historic period, the culture, the status, the education, the dialects, the geography, the physical surroundings, the health, and the credibility of the personae, for example. Of the voice of the personae, the autobiographical presenter must consider if the form of the voice is literary, ceremonial, conversational and so forth. The presenter must also consider the relationship of the voice of each scene with the audience, that is whether or not the voice in the scene is closed or open in nature to the audience.

Frames of scenes determine the relationship of the personae with the audience. Thus, the form of the script depends on the frames of the scenes. Autobiographical presenters use three categories of scenic frames: lyric, dramatic, and epic. The lyric scene is a private scene in which the character is alone revealing his or her thoughts aloud as he or she thinks aloud, prays, speaks to himself or herself in a mirror, speaks aloud while writing in a journal or diary and so forth. The character in the lyric mode uses high-context language. That is, he or she speaks in a kind of shorthand or fragmented way. Dramatic scenes in which the character speaks to another very familiar person can also be high-context. The character in dramatic mode can speak subtly through negotiation, manipulation, or implication with someone he or she imagines on the stage, speaks to offstage, or speaks to as a character in the audience. The script uses low-context language with clear, complete sentences in narration in the epic mode, that of the storyteller. The frames of each scene establish the performer’s relationship to the audience.

One-person performances of Hispanic or Latino autobiography can incorporate some interesting interactions with the audience. The reflective lyric frame provides the most private, vulnerable mode for the performer as character; however, it closes off the performer as character from a relationship with the audience. The audience views the scene through the imaginary fourth wall. However, the performer as a lyric character can move through the audience without acknowledging them. The conversational dramatic mode, in which the performer as character interacts with a specific other, also is closed in relationship to the audience as a whole. However, the specific other can be placed in the audience and the performer as character can move through the audience as he or she interacts with the specific other. The presentational epic mode is most open in the relationship of the performer as character and the audience. The epic narrator can move close to the audience. The audience can become a group of characters. The audience can become people in a scene in which the performer as character finds himself or herself in a social situation. Making the audience characters in a social setting in which the performer as character finds himself or herself can serve to define the character in a social context. Making the audience characters also enables interesting interactions for the audience with the performer. Frames which establish relationships between performer as character and serve to keep the performer as character and the audience in the same place and time strengthens believability in the audience.

Audiences from the various sites of distance, educational, videoconference performances often follow the performances with questions and discussions of significant topics, which are directed to the performer, as his or herself, and other audience members. Often the audience members respond in a vulnerable, transparent way. Many of the comments and questions from audience members are very personally significant. It is almost as if the videoconference configuration encourages an atmosphere of anonymity, which paradoxically encourages questions and discussions which are personal in nature, not unlike the personal questions and discussions among strangers on radio or television talk shows or in internet chat or discussion groups. If performers of autobiography can communicate human interest and empathy in highly technological communication arenas, they find that performance and communication over videoconference equipment does not depersonalize the performers, the characters performed, or the audience in the communication interaction. Ironically, often the performers, characters, and audience interact more personally over videoconference equipment than in onsite performances. Further, both onsite and distance performances often incorporate audio-visual elements such as props used as visual metaphors, archival photographs, film footage, period music, sound effects, and voice-overs, which serve to engage audiences.

Presenters of Hispanic or Latino autobiographical stories can interface their presentations with modern mass communication technology. Corresponding to the revolution in computer technology, there has been an explosion in video technology, such as in the areas of videoconferences, distance learning via video equipment, videostreaming, web-casting, educational videos and so forth. Effective presenters of autobiographical stories are skillful empathetic storytellers. Their work is especially well suited and cost effective for distance learning, video programming, television, and broadcast journalism. The empathetic high touch of autobiographical storytelling is especially attractive and engaging in high tech contexts. It is especially suitable in distance learning and communication, where audio-visual aids are critical and where interactive question/answer programming should be incorporated into the teaching in some form.

Researching, writing, and presenting Hispanic autobiographical stories are uniquely beneficial, educational, therapeutic, and empowering processes for presenters and audience members. These activities encourage understanding, compassion, and empathy. Challenging stereotypical images, they discourage hasty judgments, based on simplistic understandings of others. They present historical truth and social, cultural understanding. Communicating important historical and contemporary Hispanic/Latino issues through autobiographical stories is less threatening than many other modes of communication, especially when dealing with hot topics. Finally, these presentations can also have a role modeling effect, which can positively influence achievement motivation in audience members.