On March 8 the State Department denied tourist visas to a group of thirty women from San Francisco Tetlanohcan, Mexico. The group, a community theater project, had engagements in New York and New Haven to perform a play based on the real-life stories of migrant families.
On Thursday, April 8, the day of one of their scheduled performances in New York, people will gather at the Brecht Forum in New York's West Village neighborhood to watch a brief documentary on the history of the project, observe a minute of silence on the stage where the play would have been presented, engage in a dialogue about immigration and trade practices, and sign a petition to pressure the government to reverse its decision.
**Day of Action for the Families Without Borders Tour**
Thursday, April 8, 2010, 7 pm
At the Brecht Forum, 451 West Street
between Bank & Bethune Streets in Manhattan
(take the A/C/E/L to 14th Street & 8th Avenue or the 1/2/3 to 14th Street & 7th Avenue, walk down 8th Avenue to Bethune Street and walk west to the Hudson River)
The performers are from Soame Citlalime (Nahuatl for "Women of the Stars"), a community theater group in a small town in Tlaxcala state. Using improvisation and other exploratory activities with the help of U.S.-based actor and playwright Daniel Carlton, these women created an original play, "La Casa Rosa," based on their own experiences. The play tells the story of two sisters fighting for control of their ancestral land following the death of their mother. In the background is the struggle to create consciousness and solidarity around a campaign to investigate and prevent disappearances of young migrants crossing the desert.
The IIPSOCULTA U.S. foundation (The Institute for Social and Cultural Practice and Research in Mexico), under the direction of Marco Antonio Castillo, supported the project and helped arrange the New York and New Haven tour--the "Families Without Borders Tour," which would give the performers a chance to visit family members living in New York and Connecticut. The mayor of New Haven, professors from Yale and the University of Connecticut, and many other concerned U.S. citizens wrote letters supporting the group's visa applications. But the U.S. embassy in Mexico turned down the applications, humiliating the group during an interview and making them feel unworthy of a visa to the United States.
We cannot let the United States silence more voices from Mexico. The women of Soame Citlalime deserve another chance to tell their stories. Come to the Brecht Forum on April 8 and help get the U.S. embassy to reconsider the visa application.
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The speakers will include director Daniel Carlton and David Wilson (co-author, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers)
For background on Soame Citlalime and community theater projects, go to:
http://www.lacasarosausa.blogspot.com/
http://www.newhavenarts.org/news/artspaper/articles.html
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/2009/07/immigrant-drama-maybe-you-have-to-yell.html
For more information, contact:
Stephanie Bifolco, 516-592-1219, stephanie.iipsoculta@gmail.com
Directions: 212-242-4201, brechtforum@brechtforum.org & http://www.brechtforum.org/directions
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