About
Latines make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population and 48% of Los Angeles County but only 2% and 3.5% of screenwriters in theatrical film and streaming television, respectively.
We aim to change that.
Established in December 2022, Courier Cumbia is dedicated to providing Latine writers with the resources they need to grow and succeed, from our monthly table reads to our Discord server to other special events and beyond.
By connecting Latine writers with each other, we foster a community of storytellers that have each others’ backs.
Courier Cumbia is a fiscally sponsored initiative of SIMA Studios, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
The Team
The Team
David Paz, Director & Founder
David is a Cuban Panamanian American writer from Miami, FL. In 2022, he moved to L.A. and founded Courier Cumbia shortly after.
When he isn’t racking his brain over the latest screenplay draft he prematurely promised someone, David is copywriting for a wide variety of brands and clients.
He is a graduate of NYU Tisch with a B.F.A. in theatre and a minor in creative writing.
Visit his website.
Thea Rodgers, Organizer
Thea Rodgers splits her time between writing, working as the TV producer for the commons-based theater resource org HowlRound, and acting in barroom Shakespeare.
Recent credits include writing for the interactive scripted show Artificial: Factions on TwitchTV and performing in the world premiere stage production of Christina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. She was honored to be chosen for the WIF x Blacklist Episodic Lab and the Mentorship Matters TV writers' initiative.
Thea is of mixed Salvi-American descent.
Pablo Currea, Organizer
Pablo Currea is a Colombian-American vision neuroscientist at UCLA who has always loved movies.
By day, Pablo places flies in virtual reality to understand how they see and reverse engineer their underlying neural circuitry.
By night, he enjoys collaborating with David Paz on neuroscience-fiction stories that explore the physiological and ethical consequences of developments in neuroscience.
Deane Gonzalez, Social Media Manager
Logo Design by Emily Mars (@emilymars_inc)
A writer & director of films, commercials, a web series, music videos, and vines.
He was chosen for the HBO & Warner Media’s Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today program and his work has been selected to screen at multiple film festivals internationally.
Born and raised in Fresno, California, but don’t hold that against him. He enjoys volunteering as a tutor for Reading Partners LA and sweatin’ to the oldies.
FAQ
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Here! Enter your email and you’ll be subscribed to our newsletter, which is how we send out the sign up forms for the Reading Series and all our other special events. Each event has its own sign up form that goes out a week before we get together.
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Pay what you can! There is a suggested donation of $10 per session. This helps us cover the cost of hosting an event that includes food and drinks. But no one is turned away for lack of funds.
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For the first 30 minutes, we hang out, eat food, and drink. Every event’s cuisine is themed after a different Latin American country.
After that, we gather around a big table and get to reading.
We usually read 1-2 scripts per session, depending on their length. We discuss each script for about 15 minutes each.
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First, everyone in the group shares what they liked about the script (and only what they liked!). Then, we give the reins to the sharing writer, who asks the group any questions they want answers to.
This is not a typical writing group. It’s not a script workshop. The point of our feedback system is to provide support in only the ways writers ask for it.
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Courier is the font (this one here) that we use in our screenplays. Cumbia is a musical rhythm and dance form popular in Latin America.
Like screenwriting, cumbia is recognized by its structure, but within that structure, the possibilities are limitless. Courier Cumbia exists to help Latine writers unlock their full potential in the form we love.