Queen of Tamales tells her story at Field Hall

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 25, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Carmelita Colón will step onto a big stage Friday night to tell her own story — one of traveling into the unknown, of being dismissed, and of victory despite the odds.

“Carmelita: A Vindication for the Unwritten, or How to Write Yourself Back into History” is a one-night-only performance at Field Arts & Events Hall starring Antonieta Carpio, the actor who originated the role.

She portrays not only Carmelita, but also many other people she encounters on her path from Sonora, Mexico, to Walla Walla in the 1860s.

Thanks to her creativity and culinary prowess, she becomes the Queen of Tamales, and she builds a life and a community.

Show time is 7 p.m. at Field Hall, 201 W. Front St. Tickets are available at fieldhallevents.org.

Prices start at $25; financial assistance is available.

It was nearly a year ago that Steve Raider-Ginsburg, Field Hall’s artistic director, found out about “Carmelita.”

The play, by Ana Maria Campoy, had its world premiere at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, with support from the 77 Women Producers collective that helps bring women’s stories to the stage. Key City commissioned Campoy to create this new work, and the show went on to full houses in April and May.

Raider-Ginsburg found “Carmelita’s” tale, with Carpio and with live onstage music by composer Olivia Pendroza, deeply moving. The way Carmelita lives her life, with grit and humor, is a story of self-determination that he wanted to bring to Port Angeles.

Carpio, who is based in Seattle, is herself the descendant of immigrants. Her family is from El Salvador, while playwright Campoy is Mexican American. She spent her youth in Southern California and Sonora, Mexico.

But “Carmelita” is not about being Latina or telling a Mexican immigrant story, Carpio said. The play, she emphasized, is about how each of us can look around the town where we live and make a difference.

Campoy based the character of Carmelita on a real woman she discovered while researching Washington state history. This is a woman who was a hummingbird in a rainstorm — and who learns a new language, raises her son and becomes a successful businesswoman, fueled by her nourishing tamale recipe.

With March being Women’s History Month, Raider-Ginsburg sought to collaborate with another organization to bring “Carmelita” to Field Hall: the Clallam County League of Women Voters. League members will be on hand at the venue Friday night to provide information about voting rights for all.

“The League of Women Voters has been out there for over a century, to ensure and enshrine the continued rights of women,” Raider-Ginsburg said.

The League was established in 1920 with the goal of providing citizen education to help women and men become informed participants in government, according to the Clallam County League of Women Voters’ website. During the 1930s, League members achieved one of their early successes in their work for enactment of the Social Security and Food and Drug acts.

“Carmelita” is set at a time long before women in the United States could vote. Its protagonist is an increasingly self-assured entrepreneur, but she’s no politician, Raider-Ginsburg said.

“But if she was born today,” he said, “she could be a Congresswoman or any other type of leader.”

Campoy, for her part, said she wanted to show how women have been working together, figuring things out, for centuries.

Yet one has to be brave enough to accept others’ help, she said. Campoy hopes the play can impart some of Carmelita’s bravery.

After the show, audience members are invited to stay for a talkback, a discussion with cast and crew about truth in storytelling, history and art.

“Carmelita” is a powerful piece in the hands of one charismatic performer, Raider-Ginsburg said — “a story embedded with surprises and nuggets of human truth.”

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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.