Bilingual

The challenging thing about doing bilingual work is not having to learn two
languages but rather having to learn patience with the process. Our
Story Circle with the parish on Sunday was an authentically bilingual
event. In attendance were folks in English only, Spanish only, and a
few with both languages. It worked. The reason it worked was because of
the generosity brought forward by those in the room. Working this way
forces us to choose between speed/comfort or communication/community.
And to keep choosing to stop and make sure everyone knows what we are
doing, what question is being asked, what history is being shared. I
suppose this is our choice when working in our native tongues but it
sort of gets hidden under all the chatter.

Much of this process here with the parish of St. Joseph in particular and I assume
with the other two partners as well, is about creating a space for
folks to have a real interaction with each other. And these people are
not strangers, they are mostly part of the same parish, but are unknown to each other even though they share a space, a faith, and, I am finding out, a desire to become
friends. These Story Circles and, indeed, the entire project is an
organic way for this desire to be met.

I remain so very aware during these workshop/story circles that I am the one hearing thestories that are all but invisible to their owners. I think it works
like this- when people are asked a raft of questions about their lives
they answer those which they think will be helpful to the project as
they understand it. Fair enough. I do exactly the same thing. But often
I am asking a fish to describe the water in which is swims. This is
harder to get the fish to talk about the water. Compared to what? I am
getting more creative with the questions and so am getting answers that
are at the same time more interesting to me and to the
interviewee/participant.

Yes, we are in the church basement! How classic, a theater workshop in the church basement.

What is your Yakima like?

We are now entering the coolness of fall in the Yakima Valley. Spoke with a guy the other day who is in sales. Sales of a very particular kind. His is the business that provides the fans and equipment that are turned on to prevent the grape vines from being nipped by the early frost. Very specific.



The work on La Pastorela is going forward. Meeting with a group of young Hispanic adults was a joy this last week. I now know that I know very little about the experience of growing up in two cultures. Such richness. And so generous with their time and their stories.

As we did the cultural mapping part of the workshop I found out that almost all of them had been born in Mexico and most of them in Michoacan. The level of comfort and welcome in whatever language you happened to speak was remarkable. English, Spanish, Spanglish all spoke with ease and a desire for communication. The photo below is sampling of some of the fruits of our time together. The words are what they want for Yakima and the drawings are abstract images about Yakima from an earlier group.


Some of my days of late have been devoted to getting a technical team together. This morning I met with a local costumer who is just terrific. I don't mind saying that in public! I hope Mary Kloster has time to work with us!

That is all for now from perfect weathered Yakima. The evening lies ahead filled with thirty pounds of ripe peaches that need to be canned. First time. Prayers please.

Apples and Stories

We are now pursuing two goals at the same time. While still gathering information on the Valley, see photos from the very cool orchard and processing plant tour given by my friend Ryan Brewer, we are also doing STORY CIRCLES.

For those of you who were wondering how we get from meeting people to the writing a play with them, Story Circles is your answer. This is an informal gathering of somewhat like minded folks from some part of the community. We get together and get to know each other a bit more while exploring local stories that might find their way onto the stage.

We met as the first story circle in the Catholic parish of St. Joe/San Jose. We spoke in English and Spanish and a certain amount of Spanglish as we started the good work of finding our ways to each other through the story being told.

We did some cultural mapping asking folks to arrange themselves all over the room according to different determinations. Such as "All those who are eldest in their families stand over here. Those who are the babies stand over there." "And now the babies come up with two things they have in common with each other." And so on.

Then good conversations about Yakima. Favorite places, things they would change if they could, dreams we have for the city. I am finding out lots from the individuals and plenty about the area. Some of the findings include the following-

"Yes, gangs actually do exist! Not just as phantasms of the anglo imagination." and "What I like best about Yakima is how beautiful it is when seen from the surrounding hills. It all lays out there green against the brown hills." Lots of people are of this opinion.

Tonight a meeting with a Hispanic youth group which should be really good.

Go ahead, pick up a fact sheet

This Sunday was spent at the Parish of St. Joseph/San Jose. There I was at a small table sitting under a large canvas DXM sign in the atrium. In front of me was loads of information in Spanish and English about the pastorela project -- Spanish in orange English in green and bilingual in white. Very prepared. This was at 7 am and there I was until 8:30 pm. Wow, was that a long but really great day. And this is why-

At the end of every mass I was introduced and I gave a short exhortation about the work of DXM and the opportunities for involvement. This was in English and Spanish depending on the mass. Then I encouraged folks to talk to me in the lobby and they did. A lot of them. This was where the real gold of the day panned out. I met so many people in Spanish and English wanting to be part of this work. Wanting to do it for the theater, wanting to do it because it was going to be bilingual, wanting to do whatever was needed to make theater together. I am so consoled and confirmed by the response of this wide range of people and their enthusiasm. Kids, adults, teenagers, very old folks, the sane, the not so sane, all were at my table wanting more information.

One man, Trinidad from Jalisco, told me that when he heard we were doing a pastorela he became so excited that a shiver went through him. He has scripts of two pastorelas he has been involved in before that he wants to bring in. Bring 'em on!

Another woman who is missing an arm told me that she has always wanted to be on stage but let self pity get in the way. But now she was ready to take the plunge and leave the pity behind on the diving board.

And finally a young man here in Yakima from Vera Cruz for the fruit season, wants to help out but will be trying to get back to Mexico for his mother's birthday and the Christmas season and then will try to get back into the States in February. DXM will have plenty for him to do when he gets back.

I was surprised by the response. I was expecting to spend most of the day wondering if I was the only person in Yakima wanting to do this project. I had forgotten that doing community based theater is so unlike regular theater due to the fact of the wide invitation to all people. And if you invite all people lots of people show up. This is why I am doing this work. Oh yeah, now I remember.

The next step is meeting with these folks this week for a couple of different story circles in which we will get to know each other better and start asking questions about how a Christmas play might be structured and what it might contain. And this week we will meet with the Spanish speaking youth group at the parish and the staff at La Casa Hogar as we begin to know that part of the community as well.