SOMOS Mayfair

San Jose, California

Mission

Somos Mayfair supports families to be healthy and resilient; to build a vibrant community; and to contribute to the larger people’s movement for justice. Using cultural arts—specifically popular theater—as tools for community education, we engage a broad cross-section of the community in on-going dialogue on the issues that most deeply impact our lives.

We facilitate popular education workshops in order to collectively analyze struggles that have been identified by the community. Popular education uses stories, theater, and images as codes to mirror the conflicts that arise in people’s everyday lives. We don’t give the answers, but instead work with the community to come up with its own solutions to the problems presented.

Our work also includes organizing community-wide events to celebrate the cultural heritage of Mayfair’s residents. In May we organize annual Mother’s Day events to honor the role of mothers and increase the visibility and leadership of immigrant women in the community. In December we organize a Posada walk and theatrical Pastorela event reflecting the immigrant experience of Mayfair and emphasizing the health of our children as a priority of the whole community.

La Dulce Vida: Participatory Theater Takes on Diabetes &

Reclaiming Culture: ¡Que Viva La Posada!

Two community-based projects drawing on popular theater and traditional Mexican drama to address the contemporary realities of immigrants, in particular focusing on the theme of health and family unity in the face of a diabetes epidemic and the pressures of assimilation.

Community Context

Mayfair is a gateway community of 20,000 residents, mostly first-generation Mexican immigrants and their children.

La Dulce Vida: Participatory Theater Takes on Diabetes

SOMOS Mayfair is offering our newest theater workshop to the Mayfair community. La Dulce Vida y la Amarga Muerte de Pancho Mojado (The Sweet Life and Bitter Death of Pancho Mojado) uses drama, humor and the traditional Mexican icon of La Catrina skeleton to show the dangers of diabetes brought on by unhealthy eating and the social conditions that are at the root, including the corporate food system, aggressive marketing, and the lack of access to health care and healthy food in schools and the community.

In developing the play, we held weekly theater workshops and rehearsals with two Mayfair women, in order to incorporate their life experiences and the messages they felt were important to communicate in the depiction of an immigrant family as it struggles to maintain its cultural values and create a healthy home for its children.

So far, with these two women, we have performed the play in ten community events and/or workshops with a total of 271 participants at the following venues: Health and Resource Fair for Binational Health Week; La Trinidad United Methodist Church service; San Jose Multicultural Artist Guild—Dia de los Muertos Event at San Jose State University; Kidango Presley Preschool; Kidango San Antonio Preschool; Escuela Lucha, Somos Mayfair's Participatory Action Research group, and the First Five Alum Rock Region Collaborative. We have future collaborations in place with the Franklin McKinley school district, Vision Literacy, Grail Family Services, and the Mexican American Community Service Agency.

Each theater presentation is followed by a group discussion to explore the causes of the growing diabetes epidemic in Latino families. After we present each play, we ask the audience: “What problems did you see in the play? How do you relate with the story in your own lives? What are the root causes of this epidemic? What can we do about it?” Audience members erupt into conversation, seeing themselves reflected in the stories and sharing solutions on the individual, family, and community levels.

At the beginning of our theater presentations we ask audience members what they understand about the causes of diabetes. We found that the majority of people either don’t know, think that diabetes is curable, or that it is only caused by hereditary factors. Upon our evaluation of the performance and at the end of the workshop series, participants have shown a more in-depth understanding of social and environmental causes:

• “we have to focus on prevention, television and advertising influence our families’ unhealthy eating habits”

• “there is no access to organic and healthy food in local grocery stores”

• “there are no safe places to exercise in the community”

• “we have to organize ourselves as a community to take action and change these conditions.”

Theater is a powerful tool that has given our community a voice and an opportunity to understand the conditions of their lives. It inspires both participants and audience to engage in dialogue and creative solutions .

Reclaiming Culture: ¡Que Viva La Posada!

Twelve immigrant women stand in a circle, holding hands, reflecting on why it is important to organize an annual Posada and Pastorela event in the Mayfair community of east San Jose, California. The women are members of Familias Unidas (United Families) which is dedicated to raising awareness and analysis of issues facing this small barrio of 20,000 residents—mostly Mexican immigrants—that was once called “ Sal Si Puedes ” (Get out if you can). Familias Unidas grew out of the vision of Somos Mayfair (We are Mayfair), a community development organization that is using popular theater and culture to transform the community to “¡Sí Se Puede !” (We can do it!).

These twelve immigrant women organized a community-wide cultural event—a Posada and Pastorela . Posadas are well-loved annual Christmas pageants celebrated throughout Mexico in which community members reenact the story of Mary and Joseph seeking refuge. The Pastorela , or Shepherd’s Play, tells the story of Archangel Michael who appears to the shepherds and tells them to follow the North Star to Bethlehem to bear witness to the baby Jesus, a symbol of new humanity. We adapted these cultural traditions to reflect the contemporary realities of immigrants, in particular focusing on the theme of health and family unity in the face of a diabetes epidemic and the pressures of assimilation.

During Posadas, a candlelit procession walks through the streets and stops in front of various houses, singing back and forth, night after night until the pilgrims are received at the final resting point. A fiesta begins with piñatas , tamales, and music. In the Pastorela , the Archangel Michael warns the shepherds that along the way they will face dangers and temptations by devils that will appear on their journey to try and impede their arrival.

Two of the women who have been active with our popular theater work over the last three years speak first. Sandra, a mother of three who holds her newborn in her arms, shares that because she lacks papers, “I will never be able to return to Mexico. I participated in Posadas throughout my entire childhood and I don’t want my children to lose a part of their cultural heritage. I’m here to preserve what I can and to provide experiences for my children so that they can be proud of their roots.” Teresa, also without papers, speaks next. She is a single mother struggling to provide for her three daughters. “I want to be a role model for my children. I want them to see me on the stage and know that if I can have the courage to get up there, they too can do whatever they set their minds to.” Teresa has the role of the lead shepherd in the play, embodying a character named Justa, who convinces the other shepherds not to succumb to the devil’s temptations.

The sharing continues around the circle as other women reveal their motivations to find their voice, to preserve their culture, to break out of their loneliness and isolation, and contribute something valuable to their community. These women live in the shadows of the United States immigration system that marginalizes them through discriminatory policies. This reinforces the marginalization they already experience as women in traditional family settings. While acknowledging the challenges and hardships, they affirm the power of their culture and commit themselves to the work that needs to be done with a resounding “¡Si Se Puede! ”

Somos Mayfair began to meet with the women months before the December event to craft a script which would reflect the contemporary realities of the community, while resting on the foundation of a cultural tradition. “Culture is alive,” we reflected, as the group improvised theater exercises in the cold church hall. “It is not frozen in time but something we breathe life into with our struggles and dreams.” The women tried on different characters. They explored the humility and resilience of the shepherds, the great power of the Archangel, the trickiness of the devils, and discussed how these archetypes applied to their own lives. We decided to focus on the theme of health to illuminate the epidemic of diabetes and obesity, which affects low-income Latino communities who lack access to healthy food, safe places to exercise, and health care. We used the play as a means to communicate the message that the temptations of junk food and corporate-led consumerism, as well as our own apathy, are all detrimental to our health, and that an organized community can overcome these problems and ultimately thrive.

We rehearsed for months as the women also organized committees to prepare healthy traditional food, costumes, piñatas, and solicit Jarocho musicians from Veracruz to perform for the community. On the night of the event, hundreds of families arrived and walked together through Mayfair holding candles, singing, and embodying the journey of immigrants seeking refuge. Our first stop was the home of César Chávez, Mayfair’s most legendary resident. In the form of a giant puppet, César greeted the pilgrims and encouraged us to challenge the corporate food system that is poisoning our earth and our bodies. Our second stop was at the Mexican American Community Service Agency, a gang prevention center providing alternatives for youth. They greeted us with a poem calling for an end to the violence between Chicanos and Mexicanos, reminding us that we all come from the same land. We were finally welcomed at the Eastside Neighborhood Center by community elders who received us with open arms and traditional songs.

The women then performed the Pastorela , many of them on stage for the first time. The audience howled with laughter at the antics of the devils trying to persuade the tired and hungry shepherds by seducing them with the trance of the American dream. The devils offered them the convenience of fast foods like hot dogs, chips, and cold sodas and encouraged them to give up their pilgrimage and satisfy their personal desires with free iPods, CDs, and other consumer goods. They were almost tricked until the character Justa passionately called on the shepherds and the community to claim their dignity by holding strong to their cultural values of health, family unity and respect for the earth.

Food, games, and piñatas followed. These are the traditions of the Posada which all have been carried by memory from the distant home country of Mexico. In the small neighborhood of Mayfair, a group of immigrant women came together to continue their heritage, and pass it on to their children with the hope that they will ultimately make it their own.

The story, “Reclaiming Culture: ¡Que Viva La Posada!” was originally published in January 2008 on the Community Arts Network:

http://www.communityarts.net ."

Contact

Aryeh Shell, Community Engagement Program Director

SOMOS Mayfair

ashell(at)somosmayfair.org

408.240.4999

www.somosmayfair.org

Learn more

If you are interested in our popular education curriculum or theater scripts about the following topics, please contact Aryeh Shell (see above).

• the many challenges faced by new immigrants in Hasta la Vista, Baby! (See you La ter, Baby!)

• the hopes of parents for their children’s success and the obstacles they face in school;

• know your rights in case of an immigration raid;

• the root causes of obesity and diabetes and cultural solutions to health, using the cultural icon of Catrina, in La Dulce Vida y la Amarga Muerte de Pancho Mojado (The Sweet Life and Bitter Death of Pancho Mojado).

• Pastorela with a community health focus

Read the essay, “There is No Poverty in the Heart of a Mother,” by Aryeh Shell with Rebecca Bauen to learn about SOMOS Mayfair’s 2008 Mother’s Day event.

Watch a 16-minute documentary about the creation of Somos Mujeres, Somos Vida, SOMOS Mayfair 's 2008 Mother's Day event.

Photos, top to bottom

Justa, the head shepherd, persuades the community to prioritize family health and unity over junk food and consumerism. Photo, Emmanuel Mendoza, courtesy of SOMOS Mayfair.

La Catrina, a Mexican icon of death, visits an immigrant family to seduce them with the “American Dream” of fast food and consumerism. Photo, Rebecca Bauen, courtesy of SOMOS Mayfair.

Lucifiera, a devil, tries to seduce the shepherds off their path with promises of iPods, cell phones and video games. Photo, Emmanuel Mendoza, courtesy of SOMOS Mayfair.

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