i am xavi.

I'm a father, husband, brother, son, homie, friend, actor, writer, poet, producer.
An Angeleno, born, raised, and staged east of the LA River, in the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Xavi was born, raised, and staged east of the LA River, in the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights. His theatrical debut on stage was only two months after his birth portraying “Baby Jesus” in a production of “El Nacimiento” co-starring with his father as Jose at the famed El Million Dollar stage in Downtown, Los Angeles. This first performance in the nude of Jesus Christ would become the foundation for the courageous artistic path he would continue to walk on through the vibrant streets of his Los Angeles hometown.

From the front porch of his home, Xavi rew up admiring the Hollywood sign in the distance. His urge to perform was supported by his parents who were family entertainers, the center of attention, and like him the "class clowns". Xavi grew up observing his father’s improvised performances at home and was encouraged to perform after Thanksgiving dinners and family gatherings. He explored the mixed rich cultura of his Mexican immigrant family, Chicanidad, and upbringing in the U.S. in his impersonations of Cantinflas and Chaplin; dancing to the tunes of Luis Miguel and Michael Jackson. When his parents were out working, he continued his performance studies with some of his favorite babysitters: El Chavo del Ocho, La India Maria, Rosa Salvaje, Carusel de Ninos, Sesame Street, Video Tapes on Repeat from Jerry Lewis to John Leguizamo, Buster Keaton to Charlie Chaplin. When he was told to shut the T.V off it would become my turn to shine in my living room or in front of my huge closet mirrors.

If I wasn’t inside studying TV personalities, I was outside absorbing the characters and stories of my wondrous neighborhood. The stories I experienced in the streets motivated and continue to be an inspiration to write and portray them on stage, to commit them to spoken word.

My upbringing in Boyle Heights is greatly influential in every bit of my artistry as a writer, actor, and as a human being. The vibrant colors, people, and culture of this special neighborhood in Los Angeles are the source of inspiration for my artistic work. Amongst the vibrant colors, I grew up hearing and witnessing gun-shots, sirens, helicopter propellers, screams, cries, and deaths. Losing one of my best friends to gang-violence impacted and transformed his my in a major way. After the death of my loved friend, at nineteen years young, I came across a treasure in Boyle Heights, a small community theater named CASA 0101. That summer, I joined their ten-week creative writing and theater summer workshop for youth. At the end of the course we produced a show entitled “Voces Voices”, portraying our own life stories. The outcome was so life-changing for me and all the youth who participated that we decided to start our own theater company titled Teatro East of the River (TEOTR) and continue writing and producing stories that represented our lives, our families, and communities to impact social change. Today, I claim that theater saved my life and dedicate every show to the friends and neighbors I lost to the gang violence.

After co-founding TEOTR, my career on stage picked up rapidly. Taking everything I had learned from my parents, the streets, my drama teacher at Roosevelt High School (Mr. Oliver), and even my first poetry instructor in elementary (Ms. Rose), I went on to act in a variety of shows with multiple theater companies in Los Angeles including, The Latino Theater Company, Cornerstone Theater, Moveable Piece, Frida Kahlo Theater, tounge in chic*ana, Company of Angels, Independent Shakespeare Company, Watts Village Theater Company, Casa 0101 Theater, About Productions, Celebration Theater, South Coast Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theater LA and San Diego Repetory.

In 2006 I co-founded Los Poets del Norte with my best friend, Nico Avina, "an essential spoken word duo born out of the seabed of rebellion of Boyle Heights - rhythmically vocalizing the untold urban corridos for the understanding of the Chicano reality."

Grounded in my roots and community, I teach spoken word, theater, and creative writing through TEOTR, Los Poets del Norte, the Unusual Suspects Theater Company, Company of Angels, Independent Shakespeare Co., About Productions and I.am College Track to youth in his community and the greater LA. I am passionate about working with inner city youth who like myself fell hostage to the juvenile system, education system, and are finding a means to express themselves and survive through the arts.

Beyond the stage, I am a distinguished graphic designer & marketing consultant. I built my marketing talent at a young age beginning with my first job at 10 years old helping sell photos at Weddings & Quinceaneras for my Photographer Father, making and selling piñatas, to helping run the family owned juice bar at age 13, and marketing design for one of the largest T-Shirt manufactures in the world. Today I am responsible for Company of Angels and The Los Angeles Theatre Center’s innovative marketing. A sampling of my onsulting and freelance clients include: American Apparel, Stussy, Urban Outfitters, Ford, Dr. Pepper, Vans & Jarritos. I was the 2011 Ford spokesperson for the Fiesta, “Ready Pa tu Mundo” campaign and quickly became an asset to the Ford Fiesta campaign, writing and performing the commercials for TV, radio, and internet. In 2013 I co-produced and was also 1 of 100 selected participants for the spectacularly successful “Fiesta Movement”. A campaign that did an exceptional job of exposing the Fiesta name to a new generation of users gaining 6.2mm YouTube views, 750,000 Flickr views and 40mm Twitter impressions.

Recognized as a Young Leader of Color by Theatre Communications Group, Xavi is Marketing Director for The Latino Theater Company at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, Producing Director for Company of Angels and Marketing Assistant at Independent Shakespeare Co. 

Xavi es una flor chillante that rose through cracked concrete into the spot light. He hope’s to be an inspiration to the youth in his community and at large. He is testimony to the positive power that the word and stage can unearth in youth who have been pushed out from schools, into gangs, inside jails and out to tell their story under the spot light and beyond its boundaries.