
Women actors name their mothers, one by one, to initiate their performance of “¡Somos Mujeres, Somos Madres!” (We are Women, We are Mothers!), an original, collectively-developed theater production based on their personal and ancestral stories. At Somos Mayfair–a community-based organization located in the low-income, immigrant neighborhood of Mayfair in east San José, CA–cultural work and theater in particular are critical tools that encourage immigrant women to tell their stories. The recitation of the matriline became a practice that our intergenerational theater troupe, Teatro Familias Unidas, used to define themselves. This practice honors the women who stand behind them and openly acknowledges the centuries of women whose names have been forgotten.