This weekend, the Rochester Latino Theatre Company will present
a production of “Elvira: The Immigration Play” at MuCCC
(142 Atlantic Avenue). The play, written by actress and School of the Arts
alumna Jessica Carmona, is based on the true story of Elvira Arellano, a Mexican
immigrant and activist whose fight to return to the United States — and to her
son — has spanned decades.
The one-act drama, produced by Annette Ramos and directed by
Marcy Gamzon, shows an imaginary encounter between an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent (played by Peter J. Doyle) and Elvira
(Adriana Cabiedes-Ochoa; a younger Elvira is played
by Adriana Sophia Ochoa) when she was arrested in Los Angeles in 2007 before
being deported to Mexico.
A Mexican citizen, Arellano entered the United States
illegally in 1997 and was promptly deported. Returning within days, she lived
in Oregon for three years, during which time she gave birth to a son, Saul, who
is a US citizen. Her life since then has been fraught with more apprehensions
and deportations, seeking asylum with churches that serve as safe havens for
illegal immigrants, and fighting the US government for a right of sanctuary not
only for herself but for millions of other border-broken families. Arellano
returned to the US in 2014, and continues to her fight to help families
reunite.
“Elvira” shifts back and forth through time. “It jumps
between her conversation with the ICE agent and different parts of her activist
life, meetings with undocumented workers, and her memories of her family,” says
Stephanie Parades, RLTC board president and co-founder.
As the interrogation unfolds, the story sheds light on the
plight of disenfranchised immigrants. A press release provided by RLTC teases
the production’s message of hope amid conflict: “The play presents the
possibility of US Citizens and undocumented workers finding common ground,
common humanity, and even friendship” by challenging “preconceived notions
about who this community is and what they want.”
The play is about “how Elvira arrived at this point, as well
as how her story impacts the ICE agent — why he believes what he believes,”
Parades says. “And there’s a piece in there about how sometimes your own life
experiences determine the outlook you have on other people.”
This is the first time “Elvira” is being fully produced in
Rochester. The performance is timely not only because the presidential
circus-campaign has spurred a national discussion of wall-building, but on
Wednesday, Arellano was reunited with her partner (a Honduran human rights
activist and father of her younger son) in Chicago after two years of
separation.
The production will be staged Friday, April 29, and Saturday,
April 30, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. The show runs about an
hour and 15 minutes, and is bilingual, but not so much that non-Spanish
speakers won’t understand it, Paredes says.
Advance tickets are offered for $15 by calling 866-811-4111
or at web.ovationtix.com,
or $18 at the door, and $10 for SOTA students. For more information, visit somosrltc.org.
Coming up in June, RLTC will present “Separate is Never
Equal,” the story of Sylvia Mendez, an American child of Mexican and
Puerto Rican descent who was prevented from attending a white school in the 1940’s.
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2016.
