PORT ANGELES — Coyotes — four- and two-legged — will transport witnesses to the U.S.-Mexico border this week.
Teatro Milagro, the nonprofit theater group based in Portland, Ore., is the originator of a new play, “Cuentame Coyote,” (“Tell Me, Coyote”) to be performed in the Peninsula College Little Theater, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd. The event is the first in the fall Studium Generale series, a weekly program free to the public at 12:35 p.m. Thursdays.
Set in the Sonoran Desert, the hour-long “Cuentame Coyote” commingles the legends of the Tohono O’odham people of southern Arizona with the all-too-realistic story of two cousins crossing the border.
And as is traditional with Teatro Milagro performances, their tale is told in English and Spanish.
Dañel Malan, the playwright who co-founded Teatro Milagro 29 years ago, traveled to Tucson and the Tohono O’odham reservation in summer 2013. She went into the desert on “water runs,” repairing and refilling water barrels placed by Humane Borders and other humanitarian groups.
She also sat with a Tohono O’odham elder. He told her stories of the coyote — the “guardian of the crossroads” — and then, into Malan’s grateful hands, gave her permission to use the stories in her writing.
“Cuentame Coyote” will introduce theater-goers to Ban, the four-legged coyote, and Ben, the two-legged one who smuggles immigrants into the Arizona desert. Erubiel Valladares plays both.
“Erubiel is from Mexico,” Malan noted. “He also crossed through the desert.”
Arriving in the Northwest at age 18, Valladares went on to graduate from Western Oregon University; he is on his first tour with Teatro Milagro.
Ajai Terrazas Tripathi, whose parents come from Mexico and India, and Alida Holquin Wilson-Gunn, an actress and teacher from Arizona, portray the play’s two cousins.
Malan said the actors “tell an authentic story, from the heart.”
Too often, “we overpoliticize” and forget the people immersed in the immigration struggle, she said.
As the play has toured college campuses, she added, “People have said it puts a real face on the issue.”
“Coyote” reflects what Malan saw when she traveled south in 2013, rather than the waves of immigrant children who have since crossed borders to get here. Their story is for a future Teatro Milagro play.
For details about Thursday’s performance and forthcoming Studium Generale presentations, visit www.PenCol.edu or phone the campus at 360-452-9277.
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.