Talento Bilingüe de Houston

[1] It is located at the intersection of Jensen Road and Navigation Drive, adjacent to Guadalupe Park, and two city blocks from Downtown Houston.

[2] Arnold Mercado, a Puerto Rican who previously lived in New York City, founded the Teatro Español de Houston ("Spanish-language theater of Houston") and used a Community Engagement and Touring Artists (CETA) grant to hire young Texan Hispanic and Latino actors.

Mercado said that he changed the name because, at the time, there was a controversy over whether the federal government should fund non-English only programs; the theater's mission was to produce Spanish-language plays.

[3] In 1984 Richard Reyes, an executive with the theater, changed the name to the current name; he said he did this because many third-generation Hispanic Houstonians did not like the previous name, and in some cases were unable to pronounce it.

[2] In 2000, Reyes cancelled summer classes and changed activities to be only half day events rather than full day events after the nonprofit screening and placement agency HoustonWorks suddenly announced that there would be a lack of student workers; HoustonWorks said that changes in federal funding caused the shortage of student workers to occur.