San Antonio-based actress Patricia Zamora explores culture, faith, and healing in her one-woman show “Curanderas and Chocolate: Cuentos of a Latina Life”.
Then, Japanese-American survivors of the WWII-era Crystal City camp explore the parallels between today’s asylum seekers and what their families experienced in the 1940s.
Curanderas & Chocolate: Cuentos of a Latina Life
People from all walks of life seek spiritual, personal, and physical ailments through curanderas and curanderos. The traditional healers remain respected figures in Latin American culture, just as chocolate does. The cacao beans, from which chocolate is derived, is native to Mexico. What happens when you put the two together and present them on stage as part of a one woman show? You get Zamora’s semi-autobiographical play, which celebrates her Hispanic culture and honors her life experiences.
Zamora is an actress living in San Antonio. She swore off writing a decade ago to raise her young children, but after the loss of her father, Zamora was prompted to return to writing and share her stories on stage with a more diverse audience.
Zamora’s show runs Apr. 12-14 at San Antonio’s Overtime Theater, with Friday & Saturday showings at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm.
Crystal City Camp Survivors Protest Family Separation
Families separated. Detainees living in uncertainty, wondering where their loved ones are, and when they will be released. This isn’t a scene from 2018 or 2019, but rather from seven decades ago when Japanese citizens living in the U.S. and Japanese Americans were all told to report themselves for ‘relocation’ during World War Two.
One of those relocation camps was the Crystal City Internment Camp, 116 miles southwest of San Antonio. Former child survivors of the Crystal City camp see dangerous parallels between the peril facing today’s asylum seekers and what their families experienced in the 1940s.
Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter @NormDog1 and Lauren Terrazas can be reached at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter @terrazas_lauren.
