Día de la Madre e Igualdad de Género

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At the prodding of the youth, we put together an improvised play with a very short 2 weeks of rehearsal for Mother´s day. Uniting the two communities Ciudad Romero and Nueva Esperanza, we had a cast of 14 youth who cross-dressed to make the theme of gender more apparent and to internalize and understand the different "roles" that men and women play in daily life (plus, it´s just funny and campy--which is always enjoyable!).

The play centered around a family, specifically a day in the life of Mamá Julia, who confronts the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, maintaining order in the household, and buying food that is progressively more unaffordable. She also puts up with her drunk husband, domestic violence, child abuse, and immigration (in the form of her two sons). It´s a huge amount of issues to present, but besides the "political" aspects of the play, it´s just about daily life.

The play ends with Julia´s neighbor, Marta, coming over for a visit and informing her about a protest about gender iquality happening the next day. The whole family attends, to listen to speeches given by politicians and feminists about how to confront these issues.

To emphasize again, this play was completely improvised. Meaning, I presented a basic structure and guidance on cleaning things up, but the youth provided the majority of the content and material (including the messages in the speeches). It´s amazing and sometimes maddening the things that they come up with!

The whole group performed the play in Ciudad Romero, Nueva Esperanza, and several weeks later for the anniversary of the organization´s radio station, Radio Mangle. Made up of the two communities Ciudad Romero and Nueva Esperanza, the name of the group (that insists on not being separated again) is now "La Esperanza de Romero."

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Photos

Diez dólares?!?!
(talking about how expensive food is)