The aim of this anthology is to present a selection of plays that are representative of a fresh spirit and of societal pressures and changes in Spanish American culture. The plays shun the earlier realistic, sentimental, and melodramatic conventions of Spanish American theater. Instead, they reflect the tenor of the dramatic imagination of the mid-to-late twentieth century--an imagination that sought new forms and ways of expressing a new awareness of the Spanish American dilemma.

In selecting these plays, William I. Oliver looked for more than mere illustrations of these changes. As...