el camino...

My great-grandparents and grandfather are from Canton, China. They all migrated to Mexico at different times in the early 20th century and are now buried in Tampico and Monterrey. rasgos asiaticos is a series of conversations across time - between four generations of women - great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, daughter - who are searching for an understanding of hope, Love, and home despite a history of violence and abuse.

I started writing rasgos asiaticos now over five years ago and I have performed it as a performance/installation at many different stages in its development. The first time I performed it was from a series of poems that were an attempt for me to piece together some of my fragmented memories. Excerpts of rasgos asiaticos were performed in Austin, Texas at Resistencia Bookstore, Austin Latino/a Lesbian Gay Organization and the Mexican-American Cultural Center; in San Antonio, Texas at the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center; in Los Angeles, California at the Casa de Nuclear Pinatas, in New York for the P.O.V. Media Institute; and in Havana, Cuba. Excerpts of it have been published in La Voz de Esperanza and Frontiers: A Journal on Women’s Studies.

I workshopped earlier versions of rasgos asiaticos with Adelina Anthony and sharon bridgforth. The current version being produced at CalArts was developed in Playwright’s Lab under the direction of Carl Hancock Rux.