Chills ran up and down my spine as the ray of bright light shun into the terrified faces of three Hispanic immigrants who were just caught by the U.S. border patrol. Two men and one woman were the victims of what would be their worst nightmare coming true, their way out was far from their grasp, they were hopeless souls in hands of the U.S. government.
“De Donde,” by Mary Gallagher opened last Friday night in the Burnight Studio Theatre. Seats filled up quickly as we were all eager to watch the play that was highly talked among the Cerritos student body.
The play focused on the treatment immigrants receive from the U.S. government. The torture, the pain, and the injustice done to them and how they are completely powerless against them.
Men who were ripped away their sense of pride and groveled at the feet of the I.N.S. agents begging to stop being hit. Women who were torn away their sense of decency as the I.N.S. officials ripped open their clothes and raped them, and later on killed them.
“De Donde”(Where are you from?) is often the first question asked by I.N.S. agents of immigrants from Central and South America.
This question is quickly answered by the terrified refugees, but one woman in the play kept quiet. Countless attempts and threats kept the woman to remain silent., and thus was named “La Extrana” (Jennifer Garcia) in the play.
One of my favorite characters had to be Felicia(Bianca Meiloaica) who played the fiancée of a I.N.S. official named Teto (Israel Lopez).
She gave it her all in her performance, she was the only one I saw that gave real tears and from experience that’s difficult to do in a short amount of time. She gave emotion to every one of her lines and made it believable.
Of course there was another actor who made it on my list that night and that was Pete (Paul Tully). He played a lawyer trying to help those immigrants get out of prison. His performance was flawless, there was no single mistake made in his part. He slowly won the heart of “La Extrana” and won my heart over too.
As much as I wanted to hate the I.N.S. officials Teto and Willy( Derrick Michael Lemos) because they played the part of such hurtful pigs, their performances were outstanding. They delivered their lines with such power and hate towards the immigrants.
One line that made me want to go and slap Willy was when he told Narcisco( Enzo Canepa) ” You’re not a man, you’re a wetback.” That hurt me because it was said with such repulsion that it almost seemed true. But that’s good acting, when they get the audience to feel like they are the ones in the actors shoes.
Every actor in the play gave a little piece of themselves, and that to me is what counts and makes a play entertaining and worth watching, and the De Donde cast did that perfectly.
I know I wasn’t the only one who left the theatre feeling a little shocked and emotional, after seeing that this is play is taken from real-life immigrants who shared their stories, and how this immigration problem still exists in our world today.
