Latino Theater Company presents Las Diosas Subterráneas, created by Mexico City’s interdisciplinary and experimental ensemble Organización Secreta Teatro. Directed by Rocío Carrillo.
Greek Mythology and Mexican reality converge in Las Diosas Subterráneas. The tale of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades blends with the disturbing reality of the disappeared women in Mexico. Organización Secreta Teatro (Pueblo Espíritu), under the direction of Rocío Carrillo, brings to the stage the character Luz García, a young woman representing the countless cases of women kidnapped, abused, and killed in one of the darkest episodes of recent Mexican history. According to the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy, the number of disappearances of women, girls, and teenagers has tripled in the last six years. In many of those cases, families have to live with the demoralizing anxiety of not knowing the fate of their daughters, wives, sisters, etc.
The play delves into the cases where tips, whether from authorities or anonymous, have led some families to organize groups to dig remote areas, hoping to find the remains of the women that have been abducted and killed. In one of the scenes, a father is faced with the pressing urgency to keep searching for her daughter while still having to provide for the rest of the family. Yes, the search efforts take time, and for poor families, this could mean having to stop working, adding more pressure to the already distressed economy of the household.
Machismo, sex trafficking, drug trade, and inaction from the authorities are some of the factors that contribute to the elevated number of unresolved cases. But the play goes even further than that. It presents the relationship between the traditional attitudes toward women and the final destination of these female victims. The allegory to the witch-hunt is a vivid representation of how women are still seen in the eyes of a machista society—women themselves incite their abduction, rape, and killing, just for wearing revealing clothes, a flirty demeanor, or just for being perceived as a threat to men’s authority.
Through the intricate blend of mythology, colors, dance, and drama, the actors portray the desperation and the pain inflicted on the most vulnerable sectors of society. It also reflects these families clinging on to a ray of hope, as slim as it might be, to find their women alive.
Las Diosas Subterráneas presents these facts with a sense of urgency. Indifference is becoming a part of the problem. While society keeps going on with their lives, there are thousands of families still searching. Still digging. Still crying. “Vivas se las llevaron, vivas las queremos!” They took them alive, we want them back alive!
Las Diosas Subterráneas
The Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles CA 90013
Saturday, May 13 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 14 at 4 p.m.
Director Rocío Carrillo. Created collectively by ensemble members Beatriz Cabrera, Alejandro Joan Carmarena, Brisei Guerrero, Stefanie Izquierdo, Ernesto Lecuona, Mercedes Olea and Jonathan Ramos from original ideas by Rocío Carrillo.
