Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
There are few things in life as painful as a mother being separated from her child.
It’s a scene that has become increasingly common in an era of mass immigration raids and racial profiling by law enforcement.
The original production Happy Birthday Mom tells the story of a mother who discovers her son is missing on her birthday.
It debuts Sat. Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. at San Antonio’s URBAN-15 studios.
Happy Birthday Mom mirrors current events with a compelling narrative that blends music, dance, and spoken word.
We talked with Jacque Salame, co-writer and director of Happy Birthday Mom, and with Rosie Torres, who plays the part of the mother and helped choreograph the play.
Salame said the production is partly based on a very real incident she experienced with police officers.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
SALAME: Well, I was actually in a crisis situation. I was driving through La Vernia, and I was on the phone, actually, with the police officer. We were trying to answer some questions for a report when I was pulled over for speeding. I didn't … it was at night, and so I didn't realize I was entering into La Vernia’s speed zones. A La Vernia police officer pulled me over, and I was finishing up the conversation with the police officer I was speaking to on the phone. I think that's what upset the police officer that pulled me over because he started yelling at me. And the police officer on the phone then said, “Call me back,” and hung up. He was, of course, on speaker because I was driving, and I feel like that was an opportunity for him to say, “Hey, I'm a police officer. This is a crisis situation,” to kind of speak for me at that point. But he just went ahead and disconnected.
And at that moment, I explained the situation to the officer. I said I needed a minute. And he said, okay. I rolled up my window and when I did, he started immediately banging on it, which scared me. And then another cop came to break the window.
MARTINEZ: Oh my gosh.
SALAME: My child was asleep next to me in the vehicle. So, I went ahead and immediately rolled it down at that point to give him my ID, and he unlocked the door, unbuckled my seatbelt, and threw me on the ground, tearing my rotator cuff.
MARTINEZ: How long ago was this?
SALAME: This was in 2022. And I was handcuffed and shackled and dragged to the police car. Because of the injury, unfortunately, it did affect my job. I'm a dance teacher, and I wasn't able to teach for a little while. I mean, I did my best, but it did definitely affect me as a performer and as a teacher.
So, that was the start of the idea of creating the show, mostly because I really tried to get justice because I don't believe I deserved that treatment.
So, the statute of limitations expired, and I was like, well, I need some way to deal with this, for myself to recover, to be able to move on.
And that was the beginning of the creation of the show, meeting Rosie and instantly saying, “Oh my gosh, you are perfect for the role for this play.”
Editor's note: TPR reached out to the City of La Vernia for comment on the 2022 alleged assault against Jacque Salame. The La Vernia Police Department confirmed that Salame was stopped for speeding, which ultimately led to a booking on possession of marijuana. They did not comment on any other details of that day.
MARTINEZ: And so the play is about a mother who has gone through a very similar experience to what you just described. And she has noticed that her son has disappeared. And so, Rosie, maybe you can take up the story from there.
TORRES: Well, I personally am not a mom. I was not given that blessing, but I can only imagine what it feels like as a woman for your child to be missing, to be unheard from, and just to have that unknown, this unknown, or all these possibilities that go into your brain as a human, as a mom. Could they have been in a fight and left stranded somewhere? Could they have been abducted? And so, the mom, in a way, goes into this crazy panic of "Where is my son?" and "What has happened?"
And so, they go on to this search. And the search is intense. And so, there's just a lot of anger, fear, and pain for all the unknowns. But also, like some sort of inherent history memory that surfaces from the injustices of so many others before us. So many mothers who've lost their child and who continue to lose their child. There's this connection of that layer of pain that's interwoven in the story as well.
MARTINEZ: And there's so many parallels (Yeah!) that I'm hearing right now. I mean, you are seeing exactly what you were describing, Jacque, people taken from their cars, not necessarily by law enforcement, but more by ICE agents -- assisted by law enforcement in many cases. And the separation of families. You're not knowing where your children are if they have been detained by ICE, as was the case for the son of your character, Rosie.
And I understand, Jacque, that you're telling this story ... it's not just a dramatic play, it's very multi-dimensional. Can you tell us how you're working sort of all these different genres into this production to tell your story?
SALAME: So, we have these layers. We have the dancing, and then we see also this animation as well. So, I asked a good friend of mine, Adriana Garcia, a well-known artist in town, if she was willing to do some animation. And she said yes. So, that’s one layer that we have.
In regard to the music, I really wanted original music, and so I was able to ask another dear friend of mine if he would create music. He's known on social media as Joaquin Muerte, and he's in several bands and has been making music for a really long time.
So, this is a first for both of us, coming together with the story and the music.
And at first it was this challenge, like, “Okay, how are we going to do this?” And then, through conversation, understanding that the music tells a story just as much as the dancing.
Now, it's become something really … I mean, it's beautiful.
MARTINEZ: Rosie, tell us a little bit about the expression of messages like social justice and social injustice through movement. And it's something that you are familiar with — you helped choreograph this production. What sort of specific techniques maybe are you using in this production to bring that across to audiences?
TORRES: That's a fantastic question. There's so many methods that one can use in the practice of movement and expression that is quite different from gestures when it comes to vocal and speaking like in theater, but gestures are still important in the movement.
And also, because it's not just about expressing a talent as a dancer that's physicality—battements and leaps and jolts and flexibility—but emotion. Emotion and body memory.
Body memory from stories of our culture and our stories, like our histories as a brown Latina, Chicana, Mexican American woman that has grown up from the border region of South Texas, right on along the Rio Grande, experiencing how our bodies moved when it was fearful of violence from the police or Border Patrol. All the way to the schools and how we were meant, always, to stand still and not talk. And to have all of those memories in our body, or my body, was a way that I was able to kind of dissect the story that Jacque had presented.
And by dissecting that, I went really about with, how is my movement expression connected to that? To those words, into that experience? And so, she's going through so much.
So, there's a wave of lyrical movement, in a way. Jazzy, cumbia style movement, Latino jazz, hip-hop, because hip hop was part of our culture growing up as well. But also, like traditional folk music in the background, with canto.
Going further back that was talking about that memory, about our inherent body memory — so, we'll have like, sonidos, sounds of the tambor, the drum from our ancestral movement.
So, there's like all kinds of movement that was gathered and pulled in to telling the story, to sharing the expression, to sharing the pain, the fear.
MARTINEZ: Well, it's a one-night only performance. Jacque, can you give us some of the details?
SALAME: Yes, this show is going to take place on August 30, Saturday. It's at eight o'clock. Doors open at 7:30 at URBAN-15. There are tickets available online. It's pay what you can, so that way anyone who wants to come can afford to come.
TORRES: I would like to add some final words to our audience and to our great city of San Antonio, that if you in your heart are looking for something to do and something to participate in as a form of activism for what's happening in our society right now, which is separating families, illegally taking people from their businesses, from their homes, from their work sites, just because we can't show our immigration status … and also for all the racial profiling that's happening right now.
So, if you feel compelled in your hearts, like, “What do I do? How do I give back? How do I participate in this?” because not all of us have the privilege to go out and leave our jobs and put our fists in the air and boycott everything, we just can't. [That’s] reality.
But you could participate in a show like this, a performance like this where you could give a little bit of your time, a little bit of your money -- because it takes money to produce-- to uplift the voices of the people who cannot say anything at this moment, especially the children who are incarcerated.
MARTINEZ: Well, Rosie Torres and Jacque Salame. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today.
SALAME & TORRES: Thank you (in unison).
SALAME: Thank you for having us.
