Colgate University brought guest speaker Iani de Rosario Moreno to campus to give a presentation on the ways in which immigration from the southern U.S. border has been portrayed through Mexican theater. The presentation on April 10, which featured both text and visuals, illustrated background information regarding the border, as well as the intersections between migratory journeys and theater.
Moreno is an associate professor of Spanish and Latin American studies at Suffolk University. She is the author of “Theatre of the Borderlands: Conflict, Violence, and Healing,” in which she explores how theater becomes a powerful tool of resistance through its portrayal of migration journeys. She discussed how the book depicts real world cases, and these experiences not only serve as art, but also resilience and community restoration.
Moreno dove into the history of immigration policies in the U.S., namely the Chinese Exclusion Act and the repercussions it had on those immigrating to the U.S. from Asia. She went on to describe Operation Wetback, the largest mass deportation in American history that led to the deportation of millions of Mexican Americans, and how it was deemed a success in the eyes of government officials. This operation and newer ones modeled after it used a method known as “Prevention Through Deterrence,” raising the costs that human smugglers face.
The cost of crossing the border is high — at least 8000 people have died crossing the border since 1998. Immigrants coming through the southern border have faced tragedies such as the Yuma 14, in which 14 migrants died while attempting to cross the border, or in 1987 when 18 suspected migrants were found dead in a 120 degree locked boxcar in Sierra Blanca, Texas. Moreno learned about this tragedy after meeting playwright Hugo Salcedo and reading about it in one of his plays, inspiring her to further this research.
“All of a sudden, I realized that there was all of this research that I needed to do in order to understand this problem,” Moreno said. “My mission has been to, through theater, research the different parts of the U.S.-Mexican border including the geography, but also the policies from the United States.”
She was also inspired to further these studies due to her personal connection to immigration. She is from El Salvador and left in the 1980s due to the civil war. She visited migrant shelters in Southern Arizona time and time again, where she has learned about the dangers immigrants face in an effort to learn and help in any way she could.
“It was an amazing experience to be able to be there and learn firsthand the reasons why they were there,” Moreno said. “I think that’s another thing that I needed to learn: why are people coming? If it is so dangerous, why are they risking their lives?” Moreno said.
Migration is often motivated by socio-political factors — as seen in Cuba and Venezuela — as well as economic hardship, political turmoil and oppression, persecution by criminal groups and rising violence and family reunification. These migrants often cross by hiding in trains, cars, swimming or walking in the most inhabitable areas. The first Mexican play to present the topic of migration was “Los que Vuelven,” which focuses on characters that immigrated during the Mexican Revolution to find a better life. It wasn’t until late the 1970s that the play “Los Ilegales” openly discussed the illegal border crossing by undocumented immigrants.
Moreno also spent time discussing “El Viaje de Los Cantores,” by Salcedo. According to Moreno, the play portrays the journey that the characters make towards the U.S. as a double march: one to a physical space and one to a mythical world of shared dreams of immigrants living in between life and death, reality and myth.
“The plays evoke problems that are embedded deep within the Mexican psyche and the characters possess qualities that are both individual and universal,” Moreno said. “Each decision made could lead to death in the pursuit of their dream, with death preferable to not fulfilling the dream,” Moreno said. “The mythical journey is an instrument for individual and social discovery.”
Other plays that discuss the tragedies of the border crossing include “Arizona Cruising” by Edeberto Pilo Galindo, “Border Santo” by Virginia Hernández and “Cartas al Pie de un Árbol” by Ángel Norzagaray. In these plays, the towns in Mexico are left desolate, with women waiting to receive news from their loved ones.
“It appears that all of them suffer a communal and symbolic blindness and insanity because they want to believe the irrational stories of success rather than admit that their men have died along their path to the U.S.,” Moreno said.
Many students attended the presentation due to personal connection or interest in the topic. Sophomore Evelyn Sanchez shared her takeaways.
“The topic of immigration and theater is important to me due to my family’s roots of immigration from Mexico. This presentation was incredibly sad, but it was nice to see artwork being made to bring attention to issues on the Mexican-American border,” Sanchez said.
In addition to personal connections, other students attended due to interest in the topic.
First-year attendee Melissa Robinson was also interested in hearing Moreno’s speech.
“I have read [a book] that brings to light the story of the journey of a single mother and her young son crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. I saw that this presentation was coming to Colgate and was interested to learn about play adaptations that tell similar stories to the book I read,” Robinson said.
