‘Santa Almas’ play about immigrant experience debuts in Santa Rosa

When Ana Santiago was 27, she trekked alone across the U.S.-Mexico border, leaving her family behind to pursue her dreams in a new country.

She kissed her dad goodbye and embraced him one last time, unsure if she would see him again.

She never did.

“I miss everything about home,” said Santiago, now 46. “I miss my mom, my brothers, sisters, my aunt and uncle. I couldn’t see my dad when he passed away. The price of being here has been so painful and hard.”

Stories like Santiago’s are the theme of “Santa Almas,” a three-part play written by Jackie Katz, a San Francisco-based political theater teacher, and six members of ALMAS.

ALMAS, or the Alianza de Mujeres Activas y Solidarias (the Women’s Action and Solidarity Alliance), is an offshoot of the Graton Day Labor Center. The alliance seeks to empower women workers and domestic workers through developmental opportunities so they can advocate for their rights as women, immigrants and wage earners.

“Santa Almas” debuts in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square on Sunday,International Worker’s Day, in Spanish with an English translation presented in the program that will be handed outside before the performance. The play explores the lives of immigrants and undocumented domestic workers in the U.S. and tells of loss, change, integrity and justice.

“We have to show how our lives are in this country,” said Santiago, who migrated to the U.S. in 2003. “We come to this country as illegal people looking for a job and they look at us like we’re criminals. It’s not fair. We want people to see us and to know who we are in this country.”

The six women in the cast, with roots in Oaxaca, Mexico, wove their experiences into every part of the play. It’s title, “Santa Almas” comes from the saints they prayed to during celebrations in their home towns in Mexico.

“They all shared similar stories of praying to saints back home, so we thought of a saint of domestic work and immigrant rights. And, ‘Almas’ means ‘souls,’ so the name just came naturally,” said Katz, 33.

The format for the play draws from a form known as the “theater of the oppressed,” developed by a Brazilian activist in the 1950s who used movement and audience participation to shed light on the victims of systemic exploitation and oppression.

For Sunday’s performance, the audience will be asked to not simply sit and listen but also to participate.

“It was important that we found a way to show the dynamism of their stories and make it quite simple and symbolic,” Katz, said, adding that movement, shape and sound all are symbols in the play. “It’s definitely not a classical theater piece where there is a clear start to finish, but it’s artful in nature.”

Change, loss and justice

Before beginning rehearsals, the group of women met for six months at Bayer Park in Santa Rosa to examine their experiences as immigrants through exploratory prompts. For instance, they each shared an imaginary voicemail they’d leave for their families back home after a day, month and year of being away.

“The deepest despair for each of them is around family and this deep yearning to be able to connect with their family again,” Katz said. “There has been great emotion in every rehearsal.”

One cast member, an undocumented single mother of three who injured her hand in May 2021 while working in a grape field, didn’t receive paid leave for two days while she went to physical therapy.

“It’s complicated to live here. It’s hard to live without papers. I have to work for my kids every day,” said Eloísa Hernandez, 40, who migrated from Oaxaca, Mexico to the U.S. in 2007. “There’s a lot of pain in our hearts. We want immigration reform. We want something that’s going to benefit a lot of people.”

Engaging in the play’s process has been healing for several cast members.

“The play has made me come back to the past,” Santiago said. “I hadn’t thought about that day of crossing the border and that part of my life in a long time. It’s really pushed our souls into listening to the histories of everyone in the play.”

The unfolding of a play

In 2020, Katz, who had admired the advocacy work of the Graton Day Labor Center for domestic and day laborers, showed up at their office and asked how she could contribute. Things unfolded from there, Katz said.

In September 2021, Katz attended one of ALMAS’ weekly Zoom meetings and offered to hold a weekly program of movement and creative writing exercises. She asked ALMAS members if anyone was interested in singing or dancing and suggested creating a play together. The group was thrilled and began meeting over Zoom and eventually in Bayer Park.

“I’ve felt a deep joy in knowing each of them,” Katz said. “Every rehearsal is incredibly inspiring, getting to laugh with them, cry with them. It’s a very profound feeling.”

The play is funded by Graton Day Labor Center and Raizes Collective, a local organization that uses art, culture and environmental education to empower others.

“People come to this country to help their families, for more opportunities, to make money and then send it back home. It’s hard,” said Gabriela Hernandez, 30, who lives in Santa Rosa.

“We try our best in this country,” she said. “We’re showing how we feel in this country and how we want our future to look like.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com. @searchingformya on Twitter.