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I've been doing theater since I was 10 years old. "The Women of Juarez" is a kind of play.
It pulls from various mediums, including movement, music and dance, and it addresses the feminicides
that are happening in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which borders El Paso. Feminicide is a mass
killing of women. So, since 1993, women in Juarez, particularly of lower class, lots
of them working in the maquiladores, or U.S.-owned factories, are being abducted. They've gone
missing, and they are often left buried in the nearby deserts.
We knew the kind of piece we wanted it to be, and in order to do that, we needed to
talk to women in Juarez. There was a woman there, and her name was Yoli, and as soon
as you walk in her house, there's a poster of her daughter. Her name was Brenda, and
she went missing four years ago; she would have been 21 this past March. And she told
us the story of resilience and of hope she feels that someday her daughter will come
back, and that she will take her daughter and that she will leave Juarez. But until
then, she keeps her house exactly the way it is, so that her daughter can come home.
The pieces that I largely focus on — although I appreciate theater for being just theater
— they're rooted in a deeper meaning. So like, theater for social change. Theater for
a purpose. Because I believe that through theater you can change the world. I have no
doubt in my mind, no doubt in my heart.