"De Nuestros Ojos," a senior capstone project being produced in association with Bare Bodkin, will open tonight in Balch Arena Theater. The result of months of work and transformation, the show is a combination of spoken word pieces and monologues that explore the experiences of Latina women on and off campus.
Earlier this year, the show's creator, co-writer and director senior Yessenia Rivas used Facebook and the Latino Center, contacted members of the theater community at Tufts and asked her friends to find written contributions describing what it is like to be Latina at Tufts. The show began to take shape after Rivas received 10 submissions (and contributed a monologue herself). Originally, Rivas imagined "De Nuestros Ojos" as a dance and theater piece, but later decided that she did not want any visual elements to distract from the words being spoken on stage. Today, she is proud of the collection of voices and stories that "De Nuestros Ojos" weaves together.
Junior Andrea Simons, one of four actresses who are performing their own and other submissions, discussed her contribution to the piece.
"My monologue is about being a white Latina ... and [my experience] not quite feeling Latina enough at Tufts and in general," she said.
Rivas noted that this self-doubt was a common theme among submissions and an idea that "De Nuestros Ojos" attempts to challenge.
"Everyone [questions] whether they're [Latina] enough or not," she said. "It's something that I've dealt with ... I found a lot of people have these same questions. They don't know if they're Latina enough. And what does that even mean?"
The cast of "De Nuestros Ojos" will give two performances in Balch Arena Theater tonight, starting at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.; each run is expected to last under 45 minutes. "De Nuestros Ojos" is a free, non-ticketed event, and is open to all members of the Tufts community.
