Within a wide theoretical frame that includes a number of interrelated oral tradition—including the Ananzi stories of Africa and the West Indies, the Child ballads of the British Isles and Appalachia, and the cowboy poetry of the Western United States— this project explores the medieval and early modern rise of the Iberian cantares de gesta and the Romancero, and then traces the theatrical impact of this performance tradition throughout the Hispanic world, along with its evolution into such contemporary forms as the narcocorrido of the borderlands between the US and Mexico.

This project traces the rise and diffusion of greenshows —whose theatrical function within the margins of a larger performance  event is similar to that of the entremeses of the early Spanish stage— as a distinct performance genre that evolved during the twentieth century in association with the numerous Shakespeare festivals that take place across North America each summer.