New Yorkers were able to watch a production about the life of Ecuadorian poet Medardo Ángel Silva on Broadway this year. Julio Ortega, an Ecuadorian actor, has been working in theatre for 19 years and is part of a latino movement responsible for more than 20 Spanish-language production companies in the city.

Ortega started the Kayros Theatre Group in 2009 in New York. In 2012, they brought the play “Medardo: Con el alma en los labios” to stage IV of Roy Arias Studios, Little Times Square, on 43rd and Broadway. He’s currently working on a movie with Dutch producer Jos Van Weert that is based on the play.

Ortega says his interest in the poet started in high school, but it was only during a theatre workshop in N.Y.C that he studied Medardo Ángel Silva in depth. “I read everything I could about him, but it wasnt enough. I had to go back to Guayaquil to investigate further.”

In 1919, after a short and frustrating life, the poet died at the age of 21 of what is supposed to have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Ortega says the play highlights the “prejudice-filled society Medardo lived in, where because of the color of his skin and his social condition he was cruelly discriminated against, but he never lost his intense personality.”

The play, named after Silva’s most famous poem, also presents some of his writing. “In New York no one had read him. Even Ecuadorians who lived here didn’t know who he was.”

In March, “Medardo, con el alma en los labios” won Best Production and Best Director at the ATI Latino Theater Awards. The female lead won the Best Acress category.

Ortega was the only Ecuadorian acting in Medardo. The play was directed by Puerto Rican José Cheo Oliveras. Actors from Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Argentina filled out the cast.

Ortega says that the latino theatre community in New York is like a family “Everybody knows everyone else.”

While the Spaniards in the scene may dedicate themselves more to classical theatre, because of their continental accents, Ortega says, the Latin Americans can be found in the contemporary productions. But very few are able to work full time in theatre.

“You have to be crazy and a dreamer in this city to become a great actor,” Ortega says.