Walking down Los Angeles’ Historic Spring Street flanked by re-purposed architectural landmarks, with theatres and movie palaces ornate with Deco design, market places and what once was the financial hubs of 1907-1931. It is now cradled in a plethora of soiled bodies, blankets and tents, reminding us of the needs of the once golden city.
It is October 13, 2024 and I am walking from 4th to 5th Street, seeing the entrance to Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC), operated by the non-profit, Latino Theater Company. This excursion is to see their production of A Girl Grows Wings written by Marisella Treviño, Directed by Rocio Carrillo; Developed and Devised by Organización Secreta Teatro. From the entropy of the street, I enter a beautiful spacey marble entranceway with stairways to several theatre spaces. Young Latinx men and women in snappy sports jackets and slacks greet me. Because of my lateness rushing to the theatre, a lovely young woman guides me to the upper floor.
Alejandro Joan Camarena in “A Girl Grows Wings” – Photo by Juan Toldo.
Once there, she opens a door to reveal a blackened theatre, save for a 45 foot slope that looks down the precipice to an ample painterly lit stage. There are three roughly constructed scrims hanging as backdrops. They show strokes of oranges, yellows, blues, and purples that, through the story, show the changes of places and weather.
A beaked Quetzalcoatl (Jonathan Ramos), the deity of life, light, and wisdom, lord of day and winds, was capped in multi-colored feathers and headdress moving stealthfully through the groups and guiding the travelers onstage through the agony and fear of each change of environment. It watched and danced as it spread its wings, whirling as the migrants trudged the rough terrain from Mexico to U.S. The deity of ancient Azteca, Toci Tlazolteotl (Mercedes Olea) along with photographer (Alejandro Joan Camarena) watched the groups of men and women as their simple clothing was shed along the way, fighting the elements, with a final focus on a young family; a father, Ernesto Lecuona, mother, Beatriz Cabrera Tavares and swaddled baby .
Beatriz Cabrera Tavares, Stefanie Izquierdo, and Ernesto Lecuona in “A Girl Grows wings” – Photo by Erika Gómez,Latino Theater Company.
Their journey artfully guides us through struggles with Coyote’s, migrants, abuse, death, floating through and above water and torrential winds, their possessions, dropping like markers, as if mapping a way back home. It depicted the couple’s struggle, with Mictecacihuatl (Brisei Pérez Guerrero, lady of the dead) an apparition in their nightmares, heaving, crouching along the way, that marked their survival and finally, miraculously, revealed their destination; the spired buildings reaching to the sky in the background.
Ernesto Lecuona and Beatriz Cabrera Tavares in “A Girl Grows Wings” – Photo by Pili Pala.
This moving and highly physical story does not end here, but simply begins again with the baby becoming a young woman, beautifully played by Stefanie Izquierdo. She grows, graduates and goes out into the world where her struggles only start to test her fiber as a Dreamer, with her parents cutting her wings, as she struggles to make sense of the family’s secrets revealed, to again gain the wisdom of her forebearers and regaining her soul.
The Ensemble in “A Girl Grows Wings” – Photo by Pili Pala.
This simple narrative, so well worked by the committed performers, designers, and lone musician onstage, a percussionist and Live Sound Designer, Paula Bucio, along with choral color of sound, was an exquisitely personal collaboration. It was led by the story tellers that constructed, both in Mexico and U.S., this all too familiar tale. This gift added an atmosphere of recognition and commitment to the culture and a respect for the character’s plights and sufferings. This work echoed the passions and courage, as Luis Valdez’ did in his El Teatro Campesino, performing ”actos” (skits) on flatbed trucks, union halls, and grape fields, dramatizing the farm workers plight in 1965 on the Delano Grape Strike picket lines of Cesar Chavez’s United Farm workers Union.
Ernesto Lecuona, Beatriz Cabrera Tavares, Alejandro Joan Camarena, Brisei Pérez Guerrero, Jonathan Ramos and Mercedes Olea in “A Girl Grows Wings” – Photo by Pili Pala.
This piece is no less important in a world where immigrants become pawns and fall-guys of hatreds and political manipulation. A telling, that moves the audience, making it not only the story of this century, but a story of humanity that needs to be told. To the players, artistic staff, and creators, please continue to show the humanness of those wanting and needing to breathe a new future.
Cast:
Grandmother, Migrant, Dresser, Dean, Toci Tlazoltéoti and Protester: Mercedes Olea
Alma’s Mother and Tlazoltéotl: Beatriz Cabrera Tavares
Alma’s Father and Xochipilli: Ernesto Lecuon
Hit man, Coyote Arebrije, Migrant, Photographer, Graduate, Phoenix and Dreamer: Alejandro Joan Camarena
Hit man, Migrant, Vulture, Dresser, , Graduate, Quetzalcóatl and Dreamer: Jonathan Ramos
Migrant, Alma: Stefanie Izquierdo
Migrant, Mictecachuatl, Dresser, Graduate and Dreamer: Brisei Perez Guerrero
Percussion and Live Sound Design: Pala Bucio
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For more information about Latino Theater Company, please visit their website.
To learn more about Los Angeles Theatre Center, please visit their website.
Written by Joanne DiVito for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Ernesto Lecuona in A Girl Grows Wings – Photo by Pili Pala.
