Carmen Aguirre is one of Canada’s most acclaimed authors. Her plays, several of which draw on her experience as a political refugee from — and resistance fighter against — the Chilean dictatorship of the ’70s and ’80s, have been produced all over North America. In a post-pandemic world, she will resume touring her latest, “Broken Tailbone,” a piece with live DJ in which Carmen herself reveals the cultural, political and very personal importance of Latinx dance halls and music by literally leading the audience through salsa lessons.

Her first memoir, “Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter,” became a #1 bestseller in Canada, won Canada Reads in 2012 and has been translated into several languages. Four years later her book “Mexican Hooker #1 and My Other Roles Since the Revolution” was named a best book of 2016 by the National Post and CBC and was likewise a bestseller.

Carmen is also an accomplished, award-winning actor, having appeared on stages throughout Canada and with several film and television credits to her name. The founder of the Latino Theatre Group in 1994 and more recently a co-founder of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition, she is now a Core Artist at Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre.

In this interview with Pier Carlo Talenti, Carmen muses about how her experiences with danger — as a resistance fighter, a refugee, a Latina and an artist — have informed the way she leads.