Lina was born in Santiago, Chile on June 17, 1933. She is a theatre actress, director, playwright, and teacher. She trained in the Instituto del Teatro de la Universidad de Chile (Theatre Institute, University of Chile) and studied in Canada with master teachers such as Augusto Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed), Richard Fowler (Odin Theatre, Denmark, Physical Theater), Annie Skinner, (Theatre Resource Centre, Mask Techniques), and Judith Koltai, (Authentic Movement).

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She worked from 1970 to 1973 in the Theatre School of the Universidad Austral (Austral University) in Valdivia, Chile. Her position was actress and full time professor of theatre. The three years theatre program was a professional program with a staff of three. The other two professors apart from Lina were: Jaime Silva,

School Director, theatre director and playwright, and Matilde Romo, dance professor. The program was interrupted by the 1973 Military Coup.

 

She migrated to Canada in 1976 and settled with her husband and two children in Victoria, British Columbia. Founded Puente Theatre in 1989 and until 2011 produced several plays focused on the immigrant experience, like I wasn’t Born Here, by and about Latin American women; Crossing Borders, a musical by and about Latin American men; and FamilyA, about family relations. She also produced plays by nationally renowned Chilean authors like Jaime Silva and Malucha Pinto, and internationally renowned authors like Federico García Lorca. She also created a program known as WorldPlay, consisting in dramatized readings

of plays by internationally renowned playwrights like Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons by Wajdi Mouawad, Lebanese; Bus Stop, by Gao Xingjiang, Chinese-French; Happy New century Mr. Freud, by Sabina Berman, Mexican; and Two Men at Play with Life, by Kishida Kumio, Japanese.

 

She brought to Victoria the Chilean-Mapuche poet Elicura Chihuailaf who dictated a conference at a Victoria Theatre and offered interviews. This was on the occasion of the publication of an essay by Elicura titled Mensaje Confidencial a los Chilenos (confidential message to Chileans) translated into English by Lina’s husband Celso Cambiazo. Elicura is the recipient of the 2020 National Prize in Literature. She has been the recipient of the Trail Blazer and Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition, CALTEC in 2020, In 2022 she received the Victoria Community Leadership Award in the Arts and Culture

Category and the Platinum Jubilee Medal, marking decades of service to Canada. In 2023 she was appointed to the Honorary Board of Governors of the Canadian Heritage and Arts Society. In 2024 she was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria for her work as Actor, Theatre

Director, Drama Teacher, and the distinguished Founder and Artistic Director of Puente Theater, the first immigrant and refugee theatre company in British Columbia, Canada.