I think I am a hopeless romantic. Like, let’s just set it up straight. I fall in love like this.

I am originally from Metepec, Mexico, but I have been in Newfoundland and Labrador for six years. I originally moved to Corner Brook on the west side of the island to pursue an acting degree, and after graduating in 2019, I decided to stay and make this place home. As immigrants, when you’re moving sometimes you don’t have that opportunity to always say goodbye, or you’re just on the other side of the world.

“As immigrants when you’re moving, sometimes you don’t have that opportunity to always say goodbye.”

So, ALTAR was born from that perspective: What would happen if I ever get to reconnect all of these people that have left my life? And I think that at the end, I wanted to make this play about love and all of those facets of love, but also familial love. How do we love our families? And how family will always be there for you, in one way or another.

I was thinking about and reflecting on my life and being like: Okay, well, I have moved away from Mexico for four years at that point, and… Who am I? How different or how similar I am. Am I, myself, practicing my traditions? Am I forgetting how to speak Spanish? How are my relationships changing? And I think that the play as I had originally envisioned it, was going to be all about lovers. But then being really aware and having that beautiful, gentle reminder that it was way more than that, was an opportunity for me to think about: Who am I? And how do I love?

I thought that Día de Muertos was something that both thematically and metaphorically was bound and wrapped beautifully in a present for my audience because I was talking about ghosting—something that is very contemporary.

I was trying to find something that was very personal to me, that I really knew, and so that I could bring those two worlds together. But, also, I think that I was very aware that I was letting people into my culture without teaching them a class on Day of the Dead. It was more: I’m going to tell you a story. This is not Día de Muertos, but this is how I am doing it.

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