PREMIERE: LITTLE CENTRAL AMERICA, 1984
Little Central America, 1984 is a live performance that explores the origin story of the “Little Central Americas” established across the United States as a result of the civil wars of the 1980s. The performance utilizes poetry, live music and testimonials, drawing upon first-hand witnesses of the conflict in Guatemala and El Salvador, which displaced up to one million people and spawned transnational solidarity through the Sanctuary Movement.
Saturday, December 17, 7 pm
at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston
5200 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77004
co-presented by DiverseWorks and Circuit Network
This new production will premiere at one of Houston’s own sanctuaries, the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Alongside writer-performers Elia Arce and Rubén Martínez, the cast includes a local Central American poet, a father and his four daughters from Houston’s Salvadoran community, and local Latinx musicians. The show culminates with a ceremony honoring Central American activists and their allies who played a role in the original Sanctuary movement or who have responded to the ongoing contemporary refugee crisis. Local community vendors will sell regional food and drink before the show.
The work presents this American and Central American story to make visible a forgotten chapter in our history and to shed light on the deep context of violence and trauma that today’s refugee crisis stems from – violence that Little Central America, 1984 approaches with the healing salve of art. More info…