Carmelita

The story begins inside of a quiet museum while the AI audio guide known as the Voice of History shares a short history about the display’s subject, Carmelita Colon, a Mexican who migrated to Washington in 1860. Despite it being a display focused on her, little to no information is given on her history. Carmelita comes to life and demands the opportunity to fully share her story. 

Carmelita begins her story in her childhood in Huasabas, Sonora. The youngest of four from a family of vaqueros, her knowledge and skills with horses and burros and love of reading, along with the Mexican-American War shape her destiny. In hope for her safety and possibility of a more peaceful life, she goes to live in the California gold rush town, Coloma with her brother and father. At twenty she meets her spouse, Sebastián Colon, from Barcelona Spain. They get married and seek their fortune in the Pacific Northwest, settling in Walla Walla, WA. For several years they run a mule train from Walla Walla to Idaho, carrying gold and goods back and forth. Once Carmelita is pregnant she can no longer participate in the mule train. She learns how to be on her own for the first. When times are difficult, Carmelita makes the traditional food her Abuela and Mother taught her (machaca, cocido, y tamales) to feed herself and earn a living. 

Despite the first years of marriage being joyful and full of hope and adventures that include outlaws, shoot outs, and becoming parents, Carmelita and Sebastian’s marriage begins to fray. His lack of compassion to the news Carmelita receives regarding the Bacum massacre and his constant gambling, have Carmelita doubting herself. Throughout it all, she continues to make food to sell and feed hungry members of the Walla Walla community. She and Sebastian set up a food tent by the water, selling out of their food almost daily to the residents of Walla Walla, meeting the hunger of leisure and labor. One day, she meets two prominent Seattle women, Eliza Hurd and Sarah Yesler, and they inspire her to listen to Abigail Scott Duniway, a devoted and persistent suffragist from Oregon. 

Despite Carmelita’s newly strengthened self-respect and celebration of ingenuity, her marriage continues to crumble. With the help of a Seattle lawyer, Carmelita is able to secure a divorce. She opens her own restaurant, along with community support. At last in charge of her own domain, in the evenings she turns her restaurant into a learning center for women. Ultimately, she shares that she wasn’t able to return to her pueblo, Huasabas, in Mexico until her seventies, prior to the start of the Mexican Revolutionary War. She challenges those who witness her story to take the lessons from her life and apply them to theirs, while finally coming to rest. The lights slowly fade as the Voice of History’s recording begins anew, this time with Carmelita’s story and now self-centralized in her own history.

From Greg Heilman, Sound on Stage:

• "Part fact, part fiction, part English, part Spanish, and entirely unique..."

• "... the work that this actor [Antonieta Carpio] does with this piece is so impressive, the sheer amount of dialogue that she recites, not just as Carmelita, but as the many characters she portrays in the retelling of her memories, is stunning and it’s non stop for the two hours of the show, save for the 15-minute intermission."

• "[Costumes] Designed by Corinne Adams, they work very well for each part of the story that she recounts, and for each stage of Carmelita’s life that Antonieta is portraying."

• "Antonieta is excellent..."

• "Carmelita proves that just because independent and strong immigrant women aren’t depicted to any extent in our history books, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist."

READ THE FULL REVIEW