“Esperanza Rising” premieres this weekend at the Wells Fargo Playhouse at ImaginOn.
WFAE’s Julian Berger spoke with director Alicia Tafoya and cast members Lucca Amortegui, Melissa Lozada and Carlos Nieto about immigration, identity, representation and what they hope children will take away from the show.
Julian Berger: Why did the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte choose “Esperanza Rising” for this season?
Alicia Tafoya: It’s a story that the artistic director, Adam Burke, has really been excited about bringing to the stage for a long time. It’s an important narrative, but it’s also required reading for all of the fifth graders in CMS. The other element is the important nature of the immigration narrative and its importance in today’s society.
Berger: Lucca, who is Esperanza?
Lucca Amortegui: Esperanza is a young, wealthy, upper-class Mexican girl. She’s 13 in the story. And her story is about how she loses everything and is forced to immigrate to the United States with her mother and work.
Berger: This is a children’s production. How do you tell a story like this for young audiences?
Tafoya: It’s important for children’s theater that we don’t center trauma in a narrative. There’s enough of that in the news cycles and in people’s personal lives. So we have removed a lot of the realism and the depictions on stage, and it’s very stylized, like a visual poem, rather than actually bringing the immigration officers on stage and centering that trauma.
Melissa Lozada: We don't wanna fall into the pitfall of whenever we tell a story centered around immigration, it always has to have a tragic ending. In reality, there are success stories in immigration.
Carlos Nieto: Esperanza is dealing with the hardships of immigration, but that's not what we focus on. We focus on how to overcome that and how to become a better person through that hardship. At the end, there is a message of hope.
Berger: How do your own immigration stories shape your performances?
Lozada: My parents are from Venezuela. My mother immigrated here to be married and be with my father one month before 9/11, and they landed in New York. So it was quite the culture shock. I know when I was growing up, I was not exposed to Latin theater as a whole, especially not any kind of retelling of any stories that centered around my identity as a Latina. So when I saw the casting call for Esperanza Rising, I was like, 'I have to be part of the show.'
Nieto: I am a first-generation immigrant. So I moved here when I was 8 from Venezuela. I experienced that culture shock. I experienced the loss of identity. As an immigrant, I can so relate to that.
Berger: This cast is predominantly Latino. What has that meant to you?
Lozada: We were able to bond as a cast through our own shared experience. We have Puerto Ricans, we have Venezuelans, we have Colombians, we have Mexicans, we have just a little bit of everybody.
Nieto: It's a different laughter. It's a different feeling when you don't have to apologize for being you. I think that we've truly not had to do that. And that's refreshing and new for me.
Berger: What do you hope children and families take away?
Amortegui: Children are so smart and they’re incredibly empathetic. They should keep in mind that everyone is human and that these are people with feelings and that this is a story that a lot of people have gone through.
Lozada: Kindness and grace to your neighbors, whether they look like you or they don't look like you. You have no idea what other people have lived through.
Nieto: Hope. And specifically, the hope in humanity. Yes, things are bad now, but there's always a light at the end.
Tafoya: Whenever I tell a story, I’m hoping not to give people answers, but to start a conversation. I hope that children and families see this and go home and talk about the challenges, the struggles, or the questions.
"Esperanza Rising” premieres at the Wells Fargo Playhouse at ImaginOn on Saturday, Feb. 28, and continues through Sunday, March 15. Tickets are available here.
